Sunday, January 11, 2009

Do No Evil

2009 January, USA: MSN money released a list of most recommended stocks for 2009. Monsanto, an american based multinational company concentrating in agricultural and biotechnology fields, topped some of the lists to beat the market.

2009 January, Vidarbha, India: 12 more farmers committed suicide unable to cope with debt and crop failures bringing the count to over 2000 in the last couple of years.

The number of farmers having a failed crop isn't new to an agriculture bases country like India. However the cases in the central india have grown exponentially after the entry of this huge multinational company to India.

Monsanto promised the launch of genetically modified cotton to ease a lot of agricultural problems. After the introduction of BT cotton, monsanto has monopolized trade practices forcing farmers to buy this genetically modified cotton which is unfit to be regrown from the seeds of the current crop as well as being twice or more as expensive as the previous versions of cotton being grown.

With the american anti trade practicses supporting the dumping of heavily government subsidized american cotton on the world trade market, the price of cotton has plummetted. This has trapped poor farmers in the cyclical debt ridden cycle of buying expensive BT cotton seeds annually from monsanto's various affiliations in India as well as forcing farmers to stop using the older organic fertilizers.

It's nice living by the motto of 'Do No Evil', but it is also nice not to profit from Evil.

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