THE GMO SCRAPBOOK: INDIA’S “GREEN REVOLUTION” IS ...
There is more evidence coming in that in the long term the growth and production of GMO crops, versus their natural counterparts, is not only less cost effective, but actually counter-productive to sustainable (to use that horrid term of the globaloneyists) agriculture. This time, the evidence is coming from India's Punjab state, in this article shared by Mr. V.T.:
'Green Revolution' Trapping India's Farmers In Debt
There are a number of lessons here that would seem to be applicable to other areas - such as the USA - where the promotion of GMOs has been the heaviest. Consider these lessons:
"When India's government launched the Green Revolution more than 40 years ago, it pressured farmers to grow only high-yield wheat, rice and cotton instead of their traditional mix of crops.
"The new miracle seeds could produce far bigger yields than farmers had ever seen, but they came with a catch: The thirsty crops needed much more water than natural rainfall could provide, so farmers had to dig wells and irrigate with groundwater.
"The system worked well for years, but government studies show that farmers have pumped so much groundwater to irrigate their crops that the water table is dropping dramatically, as much as 3 feet every year."
Lesson one: GMOs require more water, and can potentially lead to dropping water tables.
Such conditions may or may not be present in every place where GMOs are grown, but there is one point that will be true no matter where they are grown. Consider this lesson:
"In the village of Chotia Khurd, farmers agree that the Green Revolution used to work miracles for many of them. But now, it's like financial quicksand.
"Studies show that their intensive farming methods, which government policies subsidize, are destroying the soil. The high-yield crops gobble up nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, iron and manganese, making the soil anemic.
"The farmers say they must use three times as much fertilizer as they used to, to produce the same amount of crops — yet another drain on their finances."
Lesson two: GMOs over time deplete the soil, requiring more fertilizer (which increases the GMO-agribusiness sector's profits).
Readers here will recall similar conclusions reached by the University of Iowa and other studies. The bottom line here is one that many people will miss, but that will inevitably decide the GMO issue: the cost-to-benefit ratio of GMOs appears to decline over time, and rather dramatically at that. It's financial and productivity benefits appear to be limited to the short term.
And this raises the high octane question of the day. Regular readers here will be aware of the fact that I and others have pointed out the lack of long-term intergenerational scientific studies of the total effectiveness and environmental and human health impacts of GMOs. But given the corrupt, aggressive, and abominable behavior and practices of GMO companies towards farmers, and the revolving door between government regulatory agencies and the very same corporations, one wonders if in fact these companies were aware - secretly - of these short vs. long term cost-to-benefit ratios and effects.
As for India, the Indian government, at least publicly, is not moving away from GMOs... but privately and popularly, the revolt against them in India is growing. It's only a matter of time, I suspect, before the governments of some of the BRICSA nations start mentioning the western agribusiness giants in their media organs and official policy statements.
See you on the flip side...
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The ongoing destruction of India’s traditional agriculture has been a slow-motion tragedy, and in certain aspects borderline criminal. Its cruelty is redoubled knowing that the vast majority of these farmers are barely eking out an existence that is barely above subsistance level.
Last year, during the wave of reporting of the shocking rise in farmer suicides, which corresponded to the rising costs and faltering productivity of their GMO Frankenseeds, I read a powerful report explaining that an updated use of traditional cultivation methods dating back some two millenia, employed in a study in a certain state that I cannot now recall, offered staggeringly abundant harvests, well in excess of any “green”/GMO seeds + petrochemical fertilizer + petrochemical pesticide regime could offer.
It was a beacon of hope, but apparently the corporate vampires have better marketing and it is impossible to spread such knowledge as easily as the corporate model of pay-plant-spray-pray.
Just say for instance that there is some remnant/kernel of ancient “being” that is manifested in someway to engender “knowledge” of log term technological consequences to a “select few” and the plan involves a geo-engineering of Earth for the benefit of some “other” and the “human” in it’s present form is to be colored “gone” over said period of “long-term consequences?
This is then purposed, as are other technologies?
…beings that exist in a energy realm.
..and accessed through another dimension/conscious plane of thought.
This only the latest in the Green Revolution disaster festival that stretch back to the late forties-fifties of the last century. This is just the on going murder for kicks and profits our depraved elites reason for existence stick to the proles.
It seems like India’s swelling farmers’ discontent can easily be remedied with western pharmaceuticals. GMOs and pharmaceuticals really go hand-in-hand.
I wonder what is taking Dr. Farrell so long to put up his latest News and Views? The Pope’s latest Encyclical must be very long.
PDF version nearly 200 pages!
http://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf
http://rt.com/news/206787-monsanto-india-farmers-suicides/
I believe this was previously covered here on GizaDeathStar but I feel it totally supports this article regarding increasing farmer debt. While the article I cite is from Russia Today, and clearly the paid shills came out of the dark to say that there was no relationship between GMO’s and the high rate of suicide in India farmers, the fact that more resources, especially water, are required for success, I have to believe the relationship is solid. What is so frustrating to me is that I have friends who are very successful Midwest farmers here in the states who have so bought into the GMO propaganda that they say everything they can about how ridiculous the “organic revolution” is to the US. I am not at all saying that conventional farming does not rate highly for its production efficacy, I have been a commercial organic farmer and it makes (even farming) more work than most know, but the complete unknown long term effects of introducing glycophosphate, let alone other strands of DNA that Monstersanto may have included into the environment, is beyond reproach after examples like aspartame, PCB’s, thimerosal, etc.
The fact that anyone would trust any of our governmental alphabet agencies is beyond my comprehension.
These ground water problems predate the introduction of GMO agriculture.
High yield (Green Revolution) agriculture from the 1970s wasn’t/isn’t GMO based.
Now, GMOs could contribute to the mess. But they’re a separate issue.