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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Dying in abundance - part 5

The village learns that this man made no income. Not even the usurer lends money to him, the banks neither. So he falls into depression. And some day he does something! The seeds got us in this tragic situation. But even if the farmers manage to keep seeds for the next year, they run the risk of being sued by the company. The seeds are patented, Monsanto holds their copyright.  It sounds strange, but Monsanto owns a patent for a living thing. That grants the company exclusive rights of exploiting over the product for 20 years. If a farmer save seeds to plant them in the next year, he is persecuted as a criminal. The fine is 25000 rupees (380 euro). Can these farmers pay it?  We used to keep and plant our own seeds every year for free. And now the farmers must run to them for seeds? Tell me, is this humanly right?
(excuse maker a.k.a. Monsanto spokesperson)
“Farmers have a contract with us stating that they will use the seed for producing 1 season, and then for some reason choosing to use the seed for the following season. That violates the contract that we had with these farmers , it is a very small number ,and in most cases we look to sort out these differences out of court.”
(Pat Mooney, ETC group (against patents)“So if you apply a (inaudible) rule and say that you cant save your seed for another growing season, then first of all your massively increasing the cost for production for farmers, massively !”

“we borrow money from everybody to purchase these seeds. All our saving were gone.
Is this why your husband committed suicide?
Yes , for these debts… We couldn’t save money anymore. He was in depression. The debt was huge. Now I don’t know what to do. It was my husband who was bringing the money. Nobody lends money to a woman.”
(Monsanto spokesperson)
“ Cotton seed earlier did not have the protection against worms, farmers had to spray pesticides. Agriculture scientists all over the world were able to find more sustainable way to protect the plant against that worm. That was a technology called BT cotton, which is (inaudible).  It is a product of the science industry .
(Pat Mooney, ETC group (against patents)“(inaudible 3:31) that controls that food  supply , the seed supply. And those companies now are going beyond the patenting of a single plant variety to saying “we can patent all plants, all crops, with a single patent. We are claiming trades within those varieties and in those crops , that are common to all of them, so we control everything now, we control the food system” ”.
“Was it them who created the seeds? No. So far nature has made them. Did they make anything alive? No, they couldn’t. “
(Pat Mooney, ETC group (against patents)“Where as 1970’s there is no  prietory(inaudible) seeds planted what so ever, none. Today 82 % of the seeds sold are praetory (inaudible 4:23) , they are part of a patent. That’s the enormous change. “

(Vandana Shiva – Pro-farmers activist
“genetically engineered crops do not produce more food , but they tell the lie to bribe the markets. More trade does not feed people , it leaves more people hungrier because the globalized trade then becomes a trade controlled by 5 agribusiness cooperations , who can fit the prices as they want – and they want to speculate upwards, they speculate upwards. When they want to fix the prices downwards to capture markets, they take the prices downwards. And as their profits increase , people starve.”
(Pat Mooney, ETC group (against patents)
“So they got what they need out of this, they got the control. And frankly now, because they have that control they don’t need biotech anymore. They have got the market place , they control the first link in the food chain. So they have won.”
“control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people!”
-Henry Kissinger, 1974
(showing images of mentally ill people 5:48)
(Speculator – saying very retarded things )
“Water, possibly… it’s not traded now but it could be in the future perhaps, sure. I don’t know much about it , because there is no market to buy and sell  water .Maybe there will be in the future.”
“If I have a market where people who need water and a market of people who have water can get together and through their own best interest discover – that’s an important word- discover the price of that commodity.
(again some images of the mentally ill)
(same guy saying even more retarded things)
“How dare a government, how can a government, how can a group of supposed intellectuals say: “this is the price of water, everywhere around the world” Will there be circumstances where some people will not have water (showing images of a starving child sipping on a water), yes, that will happen , that is the harsh reality of how markets function . Do you sometimes run out of soap? Yes, who’s fault is that? Probably yours, because you didn’t go to the store to buy any. Should you blame the government? No, it’s you fault”.

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