India: Greed has to end
17/3/16 19:58![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsIndia cuts Monsanto cotton seed royalties despite threat to quit
India 'not scared' if Monsanto leaves, as GM cotton row escalates
Of course, everyone is well aware of the farce that Monsanto has been playing for years. The general scheme goes as follows. Some limited seed funds are given by the company to a university or lab for a one-year period. Once the product or process is developed, it is patented with the researcher and the company. The company then buys out the share of the patent from the researcher. Such companies or patents or products are bought and re-bought many times over by financial capitalists, and the resultant drug, crop or other product is priced many times over the usual prices. That is, by the way, how US health care has become the most expensive while remaining nowhere being efficient or accessible enough for the American people.
Meanwhile, back to India... The introduction of GMO crops, while being crucial for feeding millions of people, has changed the landscape of the Indian cotton industry, rendering its production patterns and profitability rates unrecognisable, ultimately turning India from a major exporter to a major importer of agricultural technology and know-how. And this goes way beyond the cotton industry, as this crop production is very closely intertwined with other important crops an industries. After cotton, the corn industry has been growing exponentially, with big profits for the companies that are running the show, and of course major producers like India desperately needing the relevant technology in order to stay afloat on the market, meet the demand of the local market, and use their potential in a way as efficient as possible. The problem is, India is still lagging far behind other countries in terms of productivity, even after years of Monsanto involvement.
As for Monsanto's corporate practices and instincts, it is no surprise that their talk of "technology" has served as a convenient smokescreen that "tries to hide its real objectives of control over seed where genetic engineering is a means to control seed", as Dr. Vandana Shiva, an activist, author and founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, has argued. So, while a possible Monsanto withdrawal from India may hurt both that country's agriculture and the company's bottom-line in the short term, it would rather have a positive effect in the long run, as it would demonstrate that neo-colonial economic practices of exploitation and blackmail will not hold water in the 21st century.
India 'not scared' if Monsanto leaves, as GM cotton row escalates
Of course, everyone is well aware of the farce that Monsanto has been playing for years. The general scheme goes as follows. Some limited seed funds are given by the company to a university or lab for a one-year period. Once the product or process is developed, it is patented with the researcher and the company. The company then buys out the share of the patent from the researcher. Such companies or patents or products are bought and re-bought many times over by financial capitalists, and the resultant drug, crop or other product is priced many times over the usual prices. That is, by the way, how US health care has become the most expensive while remaining nowhere being efficient or accessible enough for the American people.
Meanwhile, back to India... The introduction of GMO crops, while being crucial for feeding millions of people, has changed the landscape of the Indian cotton industry, rendering its production patterns and profitability rates unrecognisable, ultimately turning India from a major exporter to a major importer of agricultural technology and know-how. And this goes way beyond the cotton industry, as this crop production is very closely intertwined with other important crops an industries. After cotton, the corn industry has been growing exponentially, with big profits for the companies that are running the show, and of course major producers like India desperately needing the relevant technology in order to stay afloat on the market, meet the demand of the local market, and use their potential in a way as efficient as possible. The problem is, India is still lagging far behind other countries in terms of productivity, even after years of Monsanto involvement.
As for Monsanto's corporate practices and instincts, it is no surprise that their talk of "technology" has served as a convenient smokescreen that "tries to hide its real objectives of control over seed where genetic engineering is a means to control seed", as Dr. Vandana Shiva, an activist, author and founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, has argued. So, while a possible Monsanto withdrawal from India may hurt both that country's agriculture and the company's bottom-line in the short term, it would rather have a positive effect in the long run, as it would demonstrate that neo-colonial economic practices of exploitation and blackmail will not hold water in the 21st century.
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Date: 6/4/16 02:49 (UTC)Most of Monsanto's methodologies are ill-suited to the problem of crop yields in India. The main issue is, India is tropical and subtropical land: a hugely diverse place in terms of growing environments - soil types, geology, hydrology, pests, infrastructure, weather, etc. Monsanto's bread and butter is a genetic monoculture assisted by mechanized procedures developed in the flat, temperate United States. To put it bluntly, fuck that shit. India needs to maintain its seed stock biodiversity as a given in any solution that stands a chance of really (pun intended) taking root. It should remain a net importer of technology and "know-how", but change the charter to match what it needs, and demand a lot more fine-grained collaboration with farmers when writing that charter.
That's going to be very hard, in the Indian bureaucracy though.