Bring back ill-gotton money from Swiss and German banks

In this country there is a paradoxical

situation where farmers are committing suicide, rural
Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary
people in distress, people losing their livelihood and few becoming
rich through largescale corruption and stashing away ill-gotton money
in German and Swiss banks in Liechtenstein Island.

Recently there has been a saga of corruption just to mention a few instances
relating to the Commonwealth Games, allocation 2-G Spectrum,
appointment of CVC chairman and disclosures of Nira Radia tapes. The
government's premier investigating agency, CBI is engaged in a cover up game
and the government has no guts to allow free and fair investigation by a Joint
Parliamentary Committee.

The ill-gotton money is now being stashed away in 15 banks in Liechtenstein

Island, out of which seven are Swiss. Noted lawyer, Ram Jethmalani who has filed a
PIL in the Supreme Court has estimated $1500 billion illegally stashed away in LGT
and other foreign banks. The Global Financial Integrity has estimated the amount at
$462 billion.

According to Jethmalani if the total ill-gotton money is brought back it would wipe out
all the debts of the country, each family would get Rs 2.5 lakh each and there would be a
tax-free Budget for next 30 years.

The government, however, has the details of depositors of the ill-gotton money and is
unwilling to make it public claiming that the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement
with Germany would come in the way of making the information public. If this is so then
why the government in a democracy should strike an agreement with any other country
which compells it to withold informations of genuine public importance and concern.

The government has submitted the documents to the apex court under a sealed cover
and has requested not to disclose the contents to the petitioner. But the government's
contention is being challeged as Liechtenstein island is an independent principality
monarchy in Europe and the DTAA with Germany would not come in the way of
public discloure if the government opts to source information directly from
Liechtenstein Monarchy.

Other view is that the DTAA should not come in the way when transactions concerned
only Indians. DTAA comes into play when transactions are between German and
Indian entities.

The US Administration has recently been successfuly in getting back the ill-gotton
money from these banks. Why can't India garner this courage and competance.

Krishan Bir Chaudhary

 Vol. 2 No. 2 February, 2011

Editor :

Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary,

President,
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj,
F-1/A, Pandav Nagar, WikiLeaks on bio-terrorism India is 2
Delhi-110091 * Dr. Suman Sahai

Advisory Board : Commodity prices to increase - WTO chief 4

* Laura MacInnis and Amena Bakr
S. P. Gulati, Sect. G.O.I., Retd.
Lingraj B. Patil Report reveals distress of early Tamil settlers 5
Prof. Sanjay Jadhav * Ashok B Sharma
Dr. R.B. Thakare
D. Guruswamy, Adv. Int'l Horti Expo & Int'l Flora Expo 2011 7
Rajesh Sharma “Bittoo”
Pratap Singh, DIG Retd. Monsanto's Roundup Triggers Over 40 Plant Diseases 9
Hatam Singh Nagar, Adv. * Jeffrey M. Smith
K. Sareen
Ajay Singh Indian researchers working on pesticides 14

Desiged by : Rahul Sharma “Resolutions Passed In National Convention of BKS” 16

Aastha Chaudhary
GMOs are a cause of hunger, debt and suicides 19
Printed & Published by : * Dr. Vandana Shiva

Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary on behalf of Viruses and Virus Nucleic Acid Contaminate 21
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj. * Prof. Joe Cummins
Printed at Everest Press, E-49/8, Okhla USDA Decision on GE Alfalfa Leaves Door 24
Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-20.
Farmers feed the world 25
Published at : * Prodita Sabarini
F-1/A, Pandav Nagar, Delhi-110091 egaxkbZ fu;a=.k ij ljdkj csvlj 27
Mob.:9810331366, Telefax:011-22751281, * Mk0 d`".k ohj pkS/kjh
E-mail: bkspresident@gmail.com
bharatiyakrishaksamaj@gmail.com
Website:- www.kisankiawaaz.org Green Chemistry from Wastes 29
* Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

More than 250 Economists Call for Trade Reforms 32

February - 2011
 WikiLeaks on bio-terrorism
India is vulnerable to attacks by novel organisms
* Dr. Suman Sahai
T he media has been spilling the contents of the
Radia tapes with salacious gossip about a
minister running Air India into the ground to
benefit private airlines, or the promiscuous ways of an
industry tycoon. WikiLeaks is also getting space with
stories of the less than reverential US attitude towards
us despite all the soft-soaping going on in public about
the power of rising India.
What went unnoticed in this milieu of gossip and
innuendos was a set of postings having unnerving
contents. Dealing with bioterrorism, these minutes of
the meetings of US diplomats with the Ministry of
External Affairs (MEA) reveal the US evaluation of
India's lack of preparedness to handle any kind of
bioterrorism.
Indian officials have been aware of the threat of
bioterrorism at the hands of jihadi elements for some
time. Two years ago a terrorist apprehended in
Kashmir was found to be carrying a sophisticated
device looking like a fountain pen, which contained
strange and toxic chemicals.
According to a WikiLeaks document, MEA officials
admit that Indian intelligence agencies have picked up
the conversation of suspected terrorists discussing the
use of bio-terrorism.
According to this leaked report, jihadi groups have
opened up channels to identify people with PhD
degrees in biology and biotechnology to recruit those
sympathetic to their cause. No guesses for figuring
out what these PhDs should be doing for their jihadi
masters.
Though old-style bio-terror agents like anthrax
bacteria and cholera germs are still effective,
antidotes are known for these and can be deployed fast
if the state agencies are alert and can respond in real
time.
The real fear of bio-terrorism, however, now comes
from the next generation of biological organisms that
2 Kisan Ki Awaaz
are being created in the lab using new tools like
genetic engineering and synthetic biology.
Advances in biotechnology have put in the hands of
scientists and laboratory technicians several methods
and techniques, all of them quite uncomplicated, that
can be used to create new organisms with hitherto
unknown traits.
Given that there are hundreds of labs engaged in the
exercise of cutting and splicing genes from one
organism to another and that all the equipment and
chemicals needed to do this are easily available, the
potential of creating God-knows-what in the lab is
magnified several-fold.
India's rich biological diversity offers a range of
bacteria and viruses and thousands of lethal toxins that
can be obtained from sources like micro-organisms
and plants.
All these have the potential of being cut and spliced at
will, creating dangerous new organisms that have no
pedigree and for which no antidotes are known. These
are the monsters on the horizon, waiting to be picked
up by terrorists with mayhem and destruction on their
agenda.
So far as bugs like anthrax are concerned, we know
their structure and understand their way of
functioning. We know how to control and destroy
them. If there were to be an anthrax attack as it
occurred in the US a few years ago, people would
know how to contain the bacteria in a short time after
the smallest number of casualties.
In the case of new organisms created by genetic
engineering or synthetic biology, nobody knows their
structure or their properties.
Since they are not natural, they are not related to other
organisms, which could offer clues about their
functioning.
February - 2011
The spread of such new organisms in a population
could cause devastation because we would have no
way of containing them or knowing how to destroy
them fast enough.
Since threats from such novel organisms are rated as
serious, the technologies of genetic engineering and
synthetic biology are highly regulated.
In May 2010, when Craig Venter announced his
breakthrough “artificial life” a newly constructed
micro-organism made up of genes synthesised in the
lab, one of his first actions was to notify the
Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical
Issues so that official circles were in the know about
what he was developing and could keep track of it.
Since then the Presidential Commission has issued a
number of recommendations for the emerging field of
synthetic biology, most notably for coordinated
federal oversight of scientists working in both large
and small institutions.
In India, it is a matter of concern that there is little such
oversight. It is ridiculously easy to procure biological
materials such as harmful bacteria, viruses or toxins
from academic laboratories since the supervision in
these institutions is notoriously lax.
According to the WikiLeaks report, there is a real fear
that getting into a supposedly high containment
facility to obtain lethal bio-agents is not very difficult
in India and that “India's notably weak public health
and agricultural infrastructure coupled with high
population density means that a deliberate release of a
disease-causing agent could go undetected for quite a
while before authorities become aware”.
Of a piece with all this is our shabby regulatory
system for genetic engineering which is known to be
full of holes. Premier academic institutions do not
follow the rules and prescribed regulatory procedures.
A few years ago the field trials of Bt brinjal being
conducted in the Indian Agricultural Research
Institute (IARI) in Delhi had to be burnt down because
they were being done in violation of the process laid
down for such trials.
The Mahyco company has been conducting field
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
trials of Bt rice in Jharkhand in flagrant violation of all
prescribed norms.
When evidence of their violations, which were
contaminating the native rice, was pointed out to the
regulators, they refused to take action against the
company and began to harass Gene Campaign instead
for bringing this to light. There are rumours of even
worse.
That regulation can be influenced and clearances
obtained for a price In addition to leaky and
compromised science and technology systems, India
is particularly vulnerable to bioterrorism attacks
because there is almost no coordination between the
ministries and departments that would need to pull
together in immediate response to such an eventuality.
Turf guarding, lack of communication and the near-
total absence of cooperation among key stakeholders
from different departments is a glaring and dangerous
impediment to the country's capacity to respond to a
bio-terrorist attack.
For officials milling around inflated with self-
importance, sober introspection about our terrifying
vulnerability to modern bio-terrorism would appear to
be an urgent requirement. It is high time this
“emerging global power” got its house in order to
protect the life of its citizens.
* Convener, Gene Campaign.
Http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110111/edit.
htm#4
3
Commodity prices to increase in 2011 - WTO chief
* Crude oil, copper, corn, soybean prices seen rising most
* Natural gas, zinc, cattle prices to increase less
* Laura MacInnis and Amena Bakr
Geneva, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Economic recovery will
make food, metals and other raw materials more
expensive in 2011, the head of the World Trade
Organization said on Monday.
Addressing a United Nations conference, WTO
Director-General Pascal Lamy said the prices of
crude oil, copper, gold, corn and soybeans would
rise most this year, with less pronounced increases
in natural gas, zinc and cattle.
"2011 will see the prices of most commodities rise,
as the rise in global GDP bolsters demand, led by
emerging economies," the Frenchman said,
estimating worldwide economic output would
increase 4 percent in 2011.
"Over 70 percent of the growth will come from
commodity-intensive emerging markets. China,
India and Latin America, in particular, will be acting
as a 'pull' for global commodities," Lamy said.
Rising commodity prices could be a boon for
countries where raw materials are grown, mined,
produced and refined.
But higher food prices can also pinch the world's
poorest people, who spend almost all of their
income on basic staples, said David Nabarro, the
U.N.'s special representative on food security and
nutrition.
Rises in agricultural goods prices will have an
inflationary effect felt hardest in poorer countries,
Nabarro said. But he urged countries to avoid
blocking food exports in response to price spikes or
worries about supplies.
"The imposition of export bans, though it may make
political sense, can have a very detrimental impact
on markets for coarse grains and other basic
4 Kisan Ki Awaaz
foodstuffs," Nabarro said.
Supachai Panitchpakdi, head of the U.N. trade and
development agency UNCTAD, warned that
commodity traders and a growing number of
investors in agricultural goods were causing
"speculative distortions" in many markets.
Emergencies such as floods in Pakistan and fires in
Russia led to spikes in prices for wheat, cotton and
other goods, he said, also estimating copper prices
have risen 35 percent since last summer, with gold,
sugar and cotton at three-decade highs.
Such volatility makes it hard for governments to
budget and plan their spending, and makes countries
vulnerable to a shock if commodity prices that once
filled coffers fall again, the former deputy Thai
prime minister said.
"UNCTAD remains concerned about the possible
lopsided development consequences of undue
reliance on the commodity economy in many
countries," he said.
Lamy said the WTO's Doha round, a global free
trade accord under negotiation for nearly a decade,
could dismantle barriers to agricultural trade and
slash "extremely high tariffs" on goods such as rice
as well as agricultural subsidies in rich states that
distort global prices of goods including cotton.
"The Doha round, when completed, will oil the
wheels of international trade in commodities, giving
the developing world its fair share of the market," he
said.
Http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/id
AFLDE70U0NO20110131
February - 2011
 Report reveals distress of early Tamil settlers
in Malaysia
* Ashok B Sharma
I ndians settled abroad may continue to prosper and
contribute to the economy of the country of their
residence or domicile, the situation in Malaysia
appears to be different. There may few exceptions
like Tan Sri Dato Ajit Singh of Malaysia who received
the Pravasi Bharatiya Sanman Award, this year, but
the conditions Tamilian Indians who settled in this
part of the world hundreds of years since the sway of
Hindu kingdoms in South-East Asia is very pitiable.
There are a good number Tamilian Indians who
settled in Malaysia during the Colonial British rule.
These people came to Malaysia as workers in
plantation estates.
The 9th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas concluded in New
Delhi on January 9, 2011 with a happy note
highlighting the several achievements of Overseas
Indians and non-resident Indians (NRIs) across the
globe. The President of India, Pratibha Devisingh
Patil conferred Pravasi Bharatiya Sanman Awards to
as many as 14 Overseas Indians and one Qatar-based
social organization for their outstanding
contributions.
The delegates from Malaysia at the 9th Pravasi
Bharatiya Divas distributed copies of 'Malaysian
Indian Minority and Human Rights Violations :
Annual Report-2010'.
The report compiled by Hindraf Makkal Sakthi in
collaboration with Human Rights Party, Malaysia and
edited by Barrister-at-Law, Waytha Moorthy
Ponnusamy reveal the marginalization of 450,000
stateless Indian diaspora. Copies of the report was
presented to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan
Singh, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar
Ravi and Minister of External Affairs, SM Krishna
but the Indian government is yet to take up this issue
with the Malaysian government
The suffering of Indians began with the introduction
of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1971 which
gave an upperhand to the ethnic Malays (Bumiputra)
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
in employment, business and other walks of life. The
NEP was the result of the 1969 inter-racial riots which
shook the peninsula.
Since the independence of Malaysia in 1957 the
Barisan Nasional Coalition led by United Malays
National Organisation UMNO) ruled the country and
pursued policies detrimental to the Indians. Though
Malaysian Indian Congress is the partner in the ruling
coalition they have done little to elevate the suffering
of the Indians in Malaysia. After March 2008 election,
the coalition of opposition parties Pakatan Rakyat
came to power in four states of the country and the
situation there is no better for Malaysian Indians,
according to the report.
The report described UMNO as a racist and extremist
organization. Indians in Malaysia are denied equality
and equal opportunities in direct contravention and
violation of Articles 8 and 12 of the Malasian Federal
Constitution. About 70% of the Malaysian Indians
live in poverty and are marginalized and denied of
very basic and elementary needs and minority and
basic human rights. Forced marginalization has led to
the involvement of Indian youths in crime.
The reports contains clippings from different
Malaysian newspapers like News Straits Times, Tamil
Nesan, Berita Harian, The Star, Malaysiakini, Sinar
Harian, Nation, Harian Tamil Makkal. It also contains
some relevant portions of the United States
Department of State Country Report on Human
Rights Practices in Malaysia. The USSD Report
2009, published on March 11, 2010 said : “The
government continued to detain without trial five
leaders of an ethnic Indian civil rights group.
The civil courts continued to allow the Shari'a
(Islamic law) courts to exercise jurisdiction in cases
involving families that included non-
Muslims………….Longstanding government
policies gave preferences to ethnic Malays in many
areas. Some employers exploited through forced
labour migrant workers and ethnic Indian Malaysians.
5
Some child labour occurred in plantations.”
The report has also complied relevant extracts from
Amnesty International and Centre for Policy Studies.
The Human Rights Watch World Report observed :
“Hopes that Malaysia's human rights climate would
improve following elections in March 2008 proved
unfounded……National Front leaders continue to
insist that Malaysia's multiethnic society is too fragile
to sustain genuine freedom of assembly and
expression or full due process rights for all suspects.
The government continues to use outdated repressive
laws and regulations to silence its critics and extend
its rule.”
Jane's Sentinel, Country Risk Assessments of
Malaysia observed ; “Although a largely pro-
Western, fully-fledged parliamentary democracy,
Malaysia is often regarded as a `soft authoritarian'
DAP fertiliser price up, farmers upset
* Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Jalandhar, February 2- Farmers are agitated as the DAP
fertiliser price has been hiked by Rs 40 per bag
(weighing 50 kg). The old rate was Rs 497.50 per bag. It
has been increased up to Rs 537.50. Confirming the
increase in the price, Ghuman Singh, a fertiliser dealer,
said that the new stock would be sold at the new price.
Confirming the increase in price, an official said that
since the Union Government had decontrolled the
fertiliser price, the private companies had started jacking
up the fertiliser price on their own. It is second time that
the DAP price had been enhanced in four months.
Earlier, about three months ago, the DAP price was
increased from Rs 467.50 to Rs 497.50 per bag. The
other reason for increasing the price was that the Union
Government had reduced the subsidy by Rs 3,000 per
tonne on the DAP. That subsidy was given directly to
companies engaged in the manufacturing of fertilisers.
To cover the reduction in subsidy, manufacturers had
increased the price of DAP and that phenomenon had hit
the farmers hard, said the official.
The BKU president Balbir Singh Rajewal said that the
farm community was suffering because of the “anti-
farmer” policies of the Union Government. He said that
in the past some months, the Union Government had
6 Kisan Ki Awaaz
state, which has attempted to differentiate itself from
liberal democracies in the West. There is little
independence in national media, the arts are heavily
censored in line with the country's Islamic policies,
and a draconian law from the colonial era the Internal
Security Act (ISA) has been used widely to suppress
opposition parties and politicians. Many questions
have been raised about the independence of the
judiciary.”
Further Jane's Sentinel report said ; “There have also
been ethnic tensions between the Malays and the
Indian minority, particularly in 2006 when local
authorities demolished many Hindu temples they
claimed were built without permission.” Apart from
demolition of Hindu temples, the Malaysian Indian
Minority and Human Rights Violations : Annual
Report-2010 talks about forceful eviction of the 200-
year old Tamil Hindu Village Kg Buah Pala.
given big jolts to farmers by raising the price of various
farm inputs, including various fertilisers. He said that
there were also reports that the price of urea, a fertiliser,
would also be increased soon. There were also reports
that the diesel price would also be hiked.
He said when the onion price had gone up, a lot of hue
and cry was raised. However, no one, except farmers,
was raising his voice when the fertiliser price had been
increased.
On the other hand, he said that the Powercom had started
denying power to the farm sector. Farmers were given
power only for three hours in a day and that also on
alternate days and not daily. “To further harass farmers,
the Powercom provides electricity to farmers after
midnight,” said Rajewal. Warning against the prolonged
power cuts in the rural areas in general and the farm
sector in particular, Rajewal said if the situation on
power front did not improve in a week, the BKU would
gherao Powercom officials in their offices. He said the
Powercom and the Punjab Government was testing the
patience of farmers, who were made to suffer on all
fronts.
Tribune News Service
February - 2011
 Int'l Horti Expo & Int'l Flora Expo 2011
* T V Satyanarayanan & Sumanta Basu
A s widely acknowledged, the best credentials
to India's potential to become a major
horticulture power was a three-day show at
New Delhi' sprawling Pragati Maidan. Top quality
fruits and vegetables both tropical and temperate and
Mr. Bob Hiensch, Holland Ambassador
Choice flowers of various Hues and shapes, almost
all of which are now being grown in India, were on
display at Int'l Flora Expo and Int'l Horti Expo 2011.
Organised by Media Today Group, the event was
hailed as “an expo of world standard” by a National
Horticulture Mission (NHM) official who went round
long rows of stalls. Comments by many dignitaries
who visited the show echoed the same sentiment. The
Union Agriculture Ministry was the principal
sponsor, along with NHM and Horticulture Mission
for North East and Himalayan states. Supporting
organisations and bodies were National Horticulture
Board, Ministry of Food Processing Industries,
APEDA, Bharatiya Krishak Samaj and Flowers and
Ornamental Plants Welfare Association (iFLORA).
This year's event marked a departure from the past in
that for the first time, the Netherlands extended its
hand of cooperation as a partner country. In the earlier
events in the series, participation by the Netherlands
was confined to Dutch companies only.
A steady stream of visitors, including farmer
delegations from 17 states could feast their eyes and
enhance their knowledge on horticulture wealth of 24
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
states and technology and services of over 150
companies, including those of 25 Dutch companies. In
all 15 countries sent their delegations to the event.
This time, horticulture and floriculture were clubbed
together on one platform to facilitate knowledge
exchange and to spread the latest technologies of one
segment to another for mutual benefit. The objective
was to encourage all stakeholders in floriculture and
horticulture to derive the benefit of relevant
techniques and technology available in India and
abroad.
Going round the expo was a rewarding experience for
many farmer delegations, said one of the farmers. The
growers could gather a fund of information on latest
fruit and flower varieties, growing techniques,
consumer demand, input supply services and details
of machinery suppliers. Since labour shortage is being
increasingly felt in the agriculture sector in many
states, farm machine making companies displaying
their products received a number of enquiries about
the utility and prices of various equipment and
machinery.
For the states, the expo was a good opportunity to
highlight their agricultural development programmes,
especially the progress made in horticulture and
floriculture,
The strong presence of North Eastern states was an
indication of the rising popularity of growing flowers,
fruits and vegetables as a profitable business among
the farmers of those states. Interestingly, this activity
in the region has promoted women's empowerment as
well.
Mizoram, where women's cooperatives are a big
success in the production of anthurium and other
flowers, put up an attractive stall to display its best
export quality flowers.
Eye-catching cymbidium orchids were the star
attraction in the Sikkim pavilion. The background
walls were decorated with colourful roses and
7
anthuriums. While Assam and Manipur had lots to
offer to wide-eyed visitors, Nagaland exhibited some
of the choice fruits under cultivation,
That the demand for exotic fruits and vegetables is on
the increase in the country was obvious from the
exhibits in various pavilions, indicating the new trend
of crop diversification among the farming community
to augment income. Vegetables like zucchini and
long-leaved Chinese cabbage, along with orchids of
different colours at the Uttar Pradesh pavilion were
proof of the enterprising nature of some of the farmers
to capitalize on the changing demand of upper-end
consumers.
Zucchini and yellow and red variety capsicums, as
also many other fruits
and vegetables were
on display at the
Andhra Pradesh
pavilion as well.
Stall officials
explained that
growing of these
vegetables fetched
good prices to the
hard working Andhra
farmers.
Big sized Amla was a
special attraction at
the MP pavilion. It
reflected the
importance being attached to growing traditional
fruits, having immense medicinal value. Amla, as is
well known, has a special place in Ayurveda.
For lay visitors, Tamil Nadu pavilion proved very
popular, since it had effectively used the art of
vegetable and fruit carving to create a number of
images of birds and animals peacock, cockerel,
domestic hen, crocodile, and what have you and
designs of scenic beauty.
Jammu and Kashmir, one of the largest producers of
temperate fruits, concentrated mainly on display of
dry fruits.
Kerala pavilion showed some of the exotic type
flowers under cultivation in the state like “rattle
8 Kisan Ki Awaaz
snake” flower, besides orchids. Officials in the
pavilion said the state is active in development of
medicinal plants, under the programme of state
Medicinal Plant Mission.
Karnataka's focus at the expo was on display of its
prized flowers like roses, anthuriums and gerbera.
Most of them were export varieties.
The activities presented at the Haryana pavilion
showed the importance the state has accorded to
organic farming and expansion of area under
medicinal and aromatic plants.
A success story in Punjab is the cultivation of seed
potato. The Punjab pavilion therefore sought to
highlight the
activities of
P O S C O N , a
confederation of elite
potato-seed growers
of the state. It meets
50-60 per cent of the
seed requirement of
India, According to a
POSCON official, the
turnover of this body,
which encourages
cultivation of quality
seed, is about 50
million U S dollars.
Besides potato
cultivation, the
confederation's initiatives include marketing,
machinery use and exchange programmes.
Apart from the states, large pavilions which attracted a
number of visitors were those of APEDA and NHB,
both of which acted as information centres on various
government schemes to promote floriculture and
horticulture.
Companies like Sheel Biotech and Rise 'n Shine
having tie-up with Dutch counterparts put up a good
display of their top quality flowers and other products.
The organisers received much praise from
participants and visitors for putting up 'a grand show
under one roof'.
February - 2011
 Monsanto's Roundup Triggers Over 40 Plant
Diseases and Endangers Human and Animal Health
* Jeffrey M. Smith
W hile visiting a seed corn dealer's
demonstration plots in Iowa last fall, Dr.
Don Huber walked passed a soybean field
and noticed a distinct line separating severely
diseased yellowing soybeans on the right from
healthy green plants on the left .
The yellow section was suffering from Sudden Death
Syndrome (SDS), a serious plant disease that ravaged
the Midwest in 2009 and '10, driving down yields and
profits. Something had caused that area of soybeans to
be highly susceptible and Don had a good idea what it
was.
Don Huber spent 35 years as a plant pathologist at
Purdue University and knows a lot about what causes
green plants to turn yellow and die prematurely. He
asked the seed dealer why the SDS was so severe in
the one area of the field and not the other. “Did you
plant something there last year that wasn't planted in
the rest of the field?” he asked.
Sure enough, precisely where the severe SDS was, the
dealer had grown alfalfa, which he later killed off at
the end of the season by spraying a glyphosate-based
herbicide (such as Roundup). The healthy part of the
field, on the other hand, had been planted to sweet
corn and hadn't received glyphosate.
This was yet another confirmation that Roundup was
triggering SDS. In many fields, the evidence is even
more obvious. The disease was most severe at the
ends of rows where the herbicide applicator looped
back to make another pass (see photo). That's where
extra Roundup was applied.
Don's a scientist; it takes more than a few photos for
him to draw conclusions. But Don's got morelots
more. For over 20 years, Don studied Roundup's
active ingredient glyphosate. He's one of the world's
experts. And he can rattle off study after study that
eliminate any doubt that glyphosate is contributing
not only to the huge increase in SDS, but to the
outbreak of numerous other diseases.
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Roundup: The perfect storm for plant disease
More than 30% of all herbicides sprayed anywhere
contain glyphosatethe world's bestselling weed killer.
It was patented by Monsanto for use in their Roundup
brand, which became more popular when they
introduced “Roundup Ready” crops starting in 1996.
These genetically modified (GM) plants, which now
include soy, corn, cotton, canola, and sugar beets,
have inserted genetic material from viruses and
bacteria that allows the crops to withstand
applications of normally deadly Roundup.
(Monsanto requires farmers who buy Roundup Ready
seeds to only use the company's Roundup brand of
glyphosate. This has extended the company's grip on
the glyphosate market, even after its patent expired in
2000.)
The herbicide doesn't destroy plants directly. It rather
cooks up a unique perfect storm of conditions that revs
up disease-causing organisms in the soil, and at the
same time wipes out plant defenses against those
diseases. The mechanisms are well-documented but
rarely cited.
 The glyphosate molecule grabs vital nutrients
and doesn't let them go. This process is called
chelation and was actually the original property for
which glyphosate was patented in 1964. It was only 10
years later that it was patented as an herbicide. When
applied to crops, it deprives them of vital minerals
necessary for healthy plant functionespecially for
resisting serious soilborne diseases. The importance
of minerals for protecting against disease is well
established. In fact, mineral availability was the single
most important measurement used by several famous
plant breeders to identify disease-resistant varieties.
 Glyphosate annihilates beneficial soil
organisms, such as Pseudomonas and Bacillus
bacteria that live around the roots. Since they facilitate
the uptake of plant nutrients and suppress disease-
causing organisms, their untimely deaths means the
9
plant gets even weaker and the pathogens even Roundup Ready soybeans when glyphosate is
stronger. applied. Corn, wheat, and many other plants can also
 T h e h e r b i c i d e c a n i n t e r f e r e w i t h suffer from serious Fusarium-based diseases.
photosynthesis, reduce water use efficiency, lower
lignin , damage and shorten root systems, cause plants But Fusarium's wrath is not limited to plants.
to release important sugars, and change soil pHall of According to a report by the UN Food and Agriculture
which can negatively affect crop health. Organization, toxins from Fusarium on various types
of food crops have been associated with disease
 Glyphosate itself is slightly toxic to plants. It outbreaks throughout history.
also breaks down slowly in soil to form another
chemical called AMPA (aminomethylphosphonic They've “been linked to the plague epidemics” of
acid) which is also toxic. But even the combined toxic medieval Europe, “large-scale human toxicosis in
effects of glyphosate and AMPA are not sufficient on Eastern Europe,” oesophageal cancer in southern
their own to kill plants. It has been demonstrated Africa and parts of China, joint diseases in Asia and
numerous times since 1984 southern Africa, and a blood disorder in Russia.
Fusarium toxins have also been shown to cause
 that when glyphosate is applied in sterile soil, animal diseases and induce infertility.
the plant may be slightly stunted, but it isn't killed (see
photo). As Roundup use rises, plant disease skyrockets

 The actual plant assassins, according to When Roundup Ready crops were introduced in 1996,
Purdue weed scientists and others, are severe disease- Monsanto boldly claimed that herbicide use would
causing organisms present in almost all soils. drop as a result. It didslightlyfor three years. But over
Glyphosate dramatically promotes these, which in the next 10 years, it grew considerably. Total herbicide
turn overrun the weakened crops with deadly use in the US jumped by a whopping 383 million
infections. pounds in the 13 years after GMOs came on the scene.
The greatest contributor is Roundup.
“This is the herbicidal mode of action of glyphosate,”
says Don. “It increases susceptibility to disease, Over time, many types of weeds that would once keel
suppresses natural disease controls such as beneficial over with just a tiny dose of Roundup now require
organisms, and promotes virulence of soilborne heavier and heavier applications. Some are nearly
pathogens at the same time.” In fact, he points out that invincible. In reality, these super-weeds are resistant
“If you apply certain fungicides to weeds, it destroys not to the glyphosate itself, but to the soilborne
the herbicidal activity of glyphosate!” pathogens that normally do the killing in Roundup
sprayed fields.
By weakening plants and promoting disease,
glyphosate opens the door for lots of problems in the Having hundreds of thousands of acres infested with
field. According to Don, “There are more than 40 weeds that resist plant disease and weed killer has
diseases of crop plants that are reported to increase been devastating to many US farmers, whose first
with the use of glyphosate, and that number keeps response is to pour on more and more Roundup. Its use
growing as people recognize the association between is now accelerating. Nearly half of the huge 13-year
glyphosate and disease.” increase in herbicide use took place in just the last 2
years. This has serious implications.
Roundup promotes human and animal toxins
As US farmers drench more than 135 million acres of
Some of the fungi promoted by glyphosate produce Roundup Ready crops with Roundup, plant diseases
dangerous toxins that can end up in food and feed. are enjoying an unprecedented explosion across
Sudden Death Syndrome, for example, is caused by America's most productive crop lands. Don rattles off
the Fusarium fungus. USDA scientist Robert Kremer a lengthy list of diseases that were once under
found a 500% increase in Fusarium root infection of effective management and control, but are now

10 Kisan Ki Awaaz February - 2011

creating severe hardship. (The list includes SDS and
Corynespora root rot of soybeans, citrus variegated
chlorosis (CVC), Fusarium wilt of cotton,
Verticillium wilt of potato, take-all root, crown, and
stem blight of cereals, Fusarium root and crown rot,
Fusarium head blight, Pythium root rot and damping
off, Goss' wilt of corn, and many more.)
In Brazil, the new “Mad Soy Disease” is ravaging
huge tracts of soybean acreage. Although scientists
have not yet determined its cause, Don points out that
various symptoms resemble a rice disease (bakanae)
which is caused by Fusarium.
Corn dies young
In recent years, corn plants and entire fields in the
Midwest have been dying earlier and earlier due to
various diseases. Seasoned and observant farmers say
they're never seen anything like it.
“A decade ago, corn plants remained green and
healthy well into September,” says Bob Streit, an
agronomist in Iowa. “But over the last three years,
diseases have turned the plants yellow, then brown,
about 8 to 10 days earlier each season. In 2010,
yellowing started around July 7th and yield losses
were devastating for many growers.”
Bob and other crop experts believe that the increased
use of glyphosate is the primary contributor to this
disease trend. It has already reduced corn yields
significantly. “If the corn dies much earlier,” says
Bob, “it might collapse the corn harvest in the US, and
threaten the food chain that it supports.”
A question of bugs
In addition to promoting plant diseases, which is well-
established, spraying Roundup might also promote
insects. That's because many bugs seek sick plants.
Scientists point out that healthy plants produce
nutrients in a form that many insects cannot
assimilate.
Thus, farmers around the world report less insect
problems among high quality, nutrient-dense crops.
Weaker plants, on the other hand, create insect
smorgasbords. This suggests that plants ravaged with
diseases promoted by glyphosate may also attract
more insects, which in turn will increase the use of
toxic pesticides. More study is needed to confirm this.
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Roundup persists in the environment
Monsanto used to boast that Roundup is
biodegradable, claiming that it breaks down quickly in
the soil. But courts in the US and Europe disagreed
and found them guilty of false advertising. In fact,
Monsanto's own test data revealed that only 2% of the
product broke down after 28 days.
Whether glyphosate degrades in weeks, months, or
years varies widely due to factors in the soil, including
pH, clay , types of minerals, residues from Roundup
Ready crops, and the presence of the specialized
enzymes needed to break down the herbicide
molecule.
In some conditions, glyphosate can grab hold of soil
nutrients and remain stable for long periods. One
study showed that it took up to 22 years for glyphosate
to degrade only half its volume! So much for trusting
Monsanto's product claims.
Glyphosate can attack from above and below. It can
drift over from a neighbors farm and wreak havoc.
And it can even be released from dying weeds, travel
through the soil, and then be taken up by healthy
crops.
The amount of glyphosate that can cause damage is
tiny. European scientists demonstrated that less than
half an ounce per acre inhibits the ability of plants to
take up and transport essential micronutrients.
As a result, more and more farmers are finding that
crops planted in years after Roundup is applied suffer
from weakened defenses and increased soilborne
diseases. The situation is getting worse for many
reasons.
 The glyphosate concentration in the soil builds
up season after season with each subsequent
application.
 Glyphosate can also accumulate for 6-8 years
inside perennial plants like alfalfa, which get sprayed
over and over.
 Glyphosate residues in the soil that become
bound and immobilized can be reactivated by the
application of phosphate fertilizers or through other
methods. Potato growers in the West and Midwest, for
example, have experienced severe losses from
glyphosate that has been reactivated.
11
 Glyphosate can find its way onto farmland chemical compounds in humans and animals.
accidentally, through drifting spray, in contaminated
water, and even through chicken manure! Glyphosate-induced mineral deficiencies can easily
go unidentified and untreated. Even when laboratory
Imagine the shock of farmers who spread chicken tests are done, they can sometimes detect adequate
manure in their fields to add nutrients, but instead mineral levels, but miss the fact that glyphosate has
found that the glyphosate in the manure tied up already rendered them unusable.
nutrients in the soil, promoted plant disease, and
killed off weeds or crops. Test results of the manure Glyphosate can tie up minerals for years and years,
showed glyphosate/AMPA concentrations at a essentially removing them from the pool of nutrients
whopping 0.36-0.75 parts per million (ppm). The available for plants, animals, and humans. If we
normal herbicidal rate of glyphosate is about 0.5 combine the more than 135 million pounds of
ppm/acre. glyphosate-based herbicides applied in the US in 2010
with total applications over the past 30 years, we may
Manure from other animals may also be spreading the have already eliminated millions of pounds of
herbicide, since US livestock consume copious nutrients from our food supply.
amounts of glyphosatewhich accumulates in corn
kernels and soybeans. If it isn't found in livestock This loss is something we simply can't afford. We're
manure (or urine), that may be even worse. If already suffering from progressive nutrient
glyphosate is not exiting the animal, it must be deprivation even without Roundup. In a UK study, for
accumulating with every meal, ending up in our meat example, they found between 16-76% less nutrients in
and possibly milk. 1991, compared to levels in the same foods in 1940.

Add this threat to the already high glyphosate residues
inside our own diets due to corn and soybeans, and we
have yet another serious problem threatening our
health. Glyphosate has been linked to sterility,
hormone disruption, abnormal and lower sperm
counts, miscarriages, placental cell death, birth
defects, and cancer, to name a few.
Nutrient loss in humans and animals
The same nutrients that glyphosate chelates and
deprives plants are also vital for human and animal
health. These include iron, zinc, copper, manganese,
magnesium, calcium, boron, and others. Deficiencies
of these elements in our diets, alone or in
combination, are known to interfere with vital
enzyme systems and cause a long list of disorders and
diseases.
Alzheimer's, for example, is linked with reduced
copper and magnesium. Don Huber points out that
this disease has jumped 9000% since 1990.
Manganese, zinc, and copper are also vital for proper
functioning of the SOD (superoxide dismustase)
cycle. This is key for stemming inflammation and is
an important component in detoxifying unwanted
Livestock disease and mineral deficiency
Roundup Ready crops dominate US livestock feed.
Soy and corn are most prevalent93% of US soy and
nearly 70% of corn are Roundup Ready. Animals are
also fed derivatives of the other three Roundup Ready
crops: canola, sugar beets, and cottonseed. Nutrient
loss from glyphosate can therefore be severe.
This is especially true for manganese (Mn), which is
not only chelated by glyphosate, but also reduced in
Roundup Ready plants (see photo). One veterinarian
finds low manganese in every livestock liver he
measures.
Another vet sent the liver of a stillborn calf out for
testing. The lab report stated: No Detectible Levels of
Manganesein spite of the fact that the mineral was in
adequate concentrations in his region. When that vet
started adding manganese to the feed of a herd, disease
rates dropped from a staggering 20% to less than ½%.
Veterinarians who started their practice after GMOs
were introduced in 1996 might assume that many
chronic or acute animal disorders are common and to
be expected. But several older vets have stated flat out
that animals have gotten much sicker since GMOs

12 Kisan Ki Awaaz February - 2011

came on the scene. And when they switch livestock
from GMO to non-GMO feed, the improvement in
health is dramatic. Unfortunately, no one is tracking
this, nor is anyone looking at the impacts of
consuming milk and meat from GM-fed animals.
Alfalfa madness, brought to you by Monsanto and
the USDA
As we continue to drench our fields with Roundup, the
perfect storm gets bigger and bigger. Don asks the
sobering question: “How much of the hundreds of
millions of pounds of glyphosate that have been
applied to our most productive farm soils over the past
30 years is still available to damage subsequent crops
through its effects on nutrient availability, increased
disease, or reduced nutrient of our food and feed?”
Instead of taking urgent steps to protect our land and
food, the USDA just made plans to make things
worse. In December they released their
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Roundup
Ready alfalfa, which Monsanto hopes to reintroduce
to the market.
Alfalfa is the fourth largest crop in the US, grown on
22 million acres. It is used primarily as a high protein
source to feed dairy cattle and other ruminant animals.
At present, weeds are not a big deal for alfalfa.
Only 7% of alfalfa acreage is ever sprayed with an
herbicide of any kind. If Roundup Ready alfalfa is
approved, however, herbicide use would jump to
unprecedented levels, and the weed killer of choice
would of course be Roundup.
Even without the application of glyphosate, the
nutritional quality of Roundup Ready alfalfa will be
less, since Roundup Ready crops, by their nature,
have reduced mineral . When glyphosate is applied,
nutrient quality suffers even more.
The chance that Roundup would increase soilborne
diseases in alfalfa fields is a near certainty. In fact,
Alfalfa may suffer more than other Roundup Ready
crops. As a perennial, it can accumulate Roundup year
after year. It is a deep-rooted plant, and glyphosate
leaches into sub soils. And “Fusarium is a very serious
pathogen of alfalfa,” says Don.
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
“So too are Phytophthora and Pythium,” both of
which are promoted by glyphosate. “Why would you
even consider jeopardizing the productivity and
nutrient quality of the third most valuable crop in the
US?” he asks in frustration, “especially since we have
no way of removing the gene once it is spread
throughout the alfalfa gene pool.”
It's already spreading. Monsanto had marketed
Roundup Ready alfalfa for a year, until a federal court
declared its approval to be illegal in 2007. They
demanded that the USDA produce an EIS in order to
account for possible environmental damage.
But even with the seeds taken off the market, the RR
alfalfa that had already been planted has been
contaminating non-GMO varieties. Cal/West Seeds,
for example, discovered that more than 12% of their
seed lots tested positive for contamination in 2009, up
from 3% in 2008.
In their EIS, the USDA does acknowledge that
genetically modified alfalfa can contaminate organic
and non-GMO alfalfa, and that this could create
economic hardship. They are even considering the
unprecedented step of placing restrictions on RR
alfalfa seed fields, requiring isolation distances.
Experience suggests that this will slow down, but not
eliminate GMO contamination. Furthermore, studies
confirm that genes do transfer from GM crops into soil
and soil organisms, and can jump into fungus through
cuts on the surface of GM plants. But the EIS does not
adequately address these threats and their
implications.
Instead, the USDA largely marches lock-step with the
biotech industry and turns a blind eye to the
widespread harm that Roundup is already inflicting. If
they decide to approve Monsanto's alfalfa, the USDA
may ultimately be blamed for a catastrophe of epic
proportions.
Executive director, Institute for Responsible
Technology.
Http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/664
13
 Indian researchers working on pesticides
that use nanoparticles
I ndian scientists are working on developing the next
generation of pesticides that employ nanoparticles,
have potentially reduced toxicity, and can
dramatically slash costs and in the next few years
challenge the 2,000 crore pesticide market in India.
Researchers at the Kolkata-based Indian Statistical
Institute (ISI) have developed techniques to modify the
molecular structure of silica, a commonly available
compound, to use it as a pesticide. Silica is used in a
variety of non-agricultural applications and is
considered harmless to humans. To commercialize this
technology, the researchers have filed for patents, tied
up with a company, and secured funding from the
department of biotechnology to improve their process.
Nanoparticles are ordinary elements crushed to a
thousandth of the width of a human hair. At those levels,
elements show dramatically altered propertiesfor
example, some that conduct electricity become non-
conductorsthat scientists are now trying to apply to a
variety of commercial applications.
Silica, in its nanoscopic avatar and used as a pesticide,
can fatally drain key lipids out of a pest.
"When used this way, the volume of pesticide required
to kill a pest dramatically reduces, and this can be easily
washed away. When there are no residues, toxicological
effects cease to be a problem,” said R.R. Sinha, an
official at the department of biotechnology
coordinating the project. Scientists associated with the
project say three-year-long tests have shown that
pesticides in this form were effective in containing
pests such as rice weevils and mustard aphids. Rice is
among the biggest consumers of pesticides, followed
by cotton, on which studies are yet to be done.
The focus of the scientists' research is to be absolutely
sure that nanoparticles are not in any way harmful to
humans. "We have tested particles ranging from 15-60
nanometre in size on several kinds of tissue, including
the spleen and liver,” said Arunava Goswami, an
associate professor at ISI and the key scientist
associated with the project. “However, there are some
tests to be done on lung tissue and we also have to study
the effects of particles below 15 nanometre to be
14 Kisan Ki Awaaz
entirely safe.”
A commercial product, though, is unlikely to hit the
market before 2013, primarily because few companies
have the facilities to manufacture nanoparticles in
quantities above 100kg, said Goswami. "For
commercial purposes, you need to manufacture in
tonnes, and such facilities don't exist yet. Also, just like
genetically modified crops, there's likely to be concerns
on the health effects of nanoparticles.. That's why we're
trying to address these issues early on,” said Goswami.
He added that using nanoparticles would sharply reduce
the cost of manufacturing pesticides.
"As an example, we need, say, 2,000 units of a pesticide
to kill a certain quantity of pests, but with these
nanoparticles you need only 125 units to achieve a
similar results. That could dramatically cut
manufacturing costs,” said Goswami. Nathan Daniel, a
chemical engineer at the University of Delhi, said
several international companies were working on
nanoparticle-based fertilizers that would significantly
change the pesticides market. "Several patents have
been filed internationally... It's something that will be a
major game changer,” he said.
Studies have suggested that nanoparticles could easily
lodge themselves within the body and cause respiratory
problems, Mint had reported in January 2008. In 2006,
several German firms were forced to withdraw their
cleaning products, all of which claimed to use
nanoparticles. Many of these products caused
respiratory problems.
But a study by the German Federal Institute for Risk
Assessment found that while these effects were caused
by the products, none of them actually contained
nanoparticles. K. Sridhar, a microbiologist at
Mangalore University who has authored a research
paper on nanotechnology pollution, said that while
some studies have showed that nanoparticles have
adverse health effects, most showed they had none.
Source: livemint.
February - 2011
“Resolutions Passed In National Convention of
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj”
* Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary
The National Convention of Bharatiya in different agro climatic zones. The country
Krishak Samaj was held at needs the 'Farmers Centric Agriculture
Kokamthan, Kopargaon, distt. Model', the Corporate Agriculture Model is
Ahmadnagar (Maharashtra) on 24th not fit for the country. The agriculture
Dec., 2010. The following resolutions research and extension services literature
have been passed : must be promoted in local languages.

Minimum Support Price : The The Govt. should put moratorium on GM

minimum support price (MSPs) of
different crops estimated by the
Commission for Agricultural Costs &
Prices (CACP) are low and not
remunerative. There is need for up-
gradation of the methods for estimation of
real cost of production and arriving at the
real remunerative prices. The process
should be transparent and open to
farmers.
Seed Bill - 2010 : If the Govt. wants to re-
introduce the “Seed Bill - 2010”, it should
incorporate the all recommendations of
the Parliamentary Standing Committee
on Agriculture, because seed is the basic
need for food security which should not
be surrendered to corporate & MNC's at
any cost. Further there is no need for any
new act for regulating the seed sector. The
PVP & FR Act is already TRIPS
consistent and there is no need for a patent
regime on microorganisms, genes and
other life forms.
Agriculture research : The agriculture
research model has gone on wrong track,
it needs the immediate changes. It should
be based on natural resource management
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Crops : The Govt. should put moratorium on
GM Crops in the Country because GM Crops
will not increase the productivity and these
crops will polluted the seeds of farmers
owned traditional varieties by cross-
pollination. Under IPR regime there is a
game of MNCs to capture the seed security
for royalty. Because seed is the basic need of
food security, if seed will be controlled by
MNCs then automatically food security will
be govern & controlled by them.
Subsidy : The total amount of subsidy on
agriculture should be given directly to
Farmers in there accounts as per the holdings.
Because the farmers is not getting the benefit
of the subsidy. The all developed countries is
giving Subsidies directly to the Farmers.
National Horticulture Mission : The aim of
this mission was to develop and strengthen
the horticulture sector. But this mission has
become a private limited company. The small
and marginal farmers is not getting any
benefit of the schemes of this mission.
SEZs : The Govt. should scrap all Special
Economic Zones setup on farm lands
acquired for real state business from farmers
15
against a mere compensation, SEZs should
not be promoted as such policy tends to usurp
fertile farmlands leading to food security
problem. It can develop on waste land only.
Agro based Small Scale Industrial Units in
Rural Area : Sustenance is just not possible
from ever increasing fragmentation of family
farms. To give employment for unemployed
youths in Rural Area. The Govt. should
come-up on agro based small industrial units
Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary, addressing the national convention
in the villages and should provide adequate
incentive, technical and financial assistance.
Dairy, Poultry, Fishery etc. The govt.
should promote and protect these sectors.
The research should be done for the
improvement of Indian Cow breeds. They
have very good immune system against
diseases and suitable for our climate.
16 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Impact of WTO : Unfortunately Indian
agriculture has been dragged into the ambit
of the WTO and the Govt. have given market
access for agro produces at a time when the
developed countries have distorted global
prices by their huge support to their farm
sector. In this situation Indian farmers cannot
compete with the farmers in the developed
world. Both EU and US have protected their
markets through high tariffs barriers and non-
tariff barriers. The US through its Farm Bill
has increased direct payments to farmers by
10% over the previous years. It has increased
direct payments by $ 5.5 billion.
Irrigation Facilities : The Govt. should plan
the policies to recharge the level of ground
water. The irrigation projects and schemes to
be made on priorities and the funds allotted to
state Govt.'s should not be diverted to other
rip irrigation system for irrigation to save the
February - 2011
heads. Because the water is the lifeline of
agriculture, therefore, it should be saved. The
farmers should use the sprinkler and drip
irrigation system for irrigation to save the
water. The Govt. should give subsidy on it
directly to farmers.
Productivity of crops not increasing : The
soil health and water-management , both
components play the most important role to
increase the productivity. The soil health
have degraded due to synthetic fertilization
and the huge deficiency of micro organisms
in the soil have occur. The only way is green
manures and compost fertilization to
recharge the soil health. The policies to be
adopted on priority for water management to
increase the irrigation area. The ground
water level should be recharged by flood
water through big bores in Rivers.
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Climate Change on Agriculture : India has
to takes the climate change issues it needs the
following drastically reform in its internal
agricultural policy on a war footing on
mitigation and adaption :
A) Zero Tolerance to conversion of
agricultural land for non-agricultural use.
B) To make few regions in India chemical and
synthetic fertilizer free by 2020.
C) Urgent initiative to conserve biomass in
the farm and Waste Recycling for
Agriculture.
D) Incorporate in situ tree planting in all
farming, adopt a Mixed farming as means to
combat climate change.
17
E) Special Mission initiated at the Country
level to shift crop acreage to Course Cereal
and Millets to enhance nutrition value of
food basket and help agriculture to adapt to
climate change.
F) Free all the water bodies like ponds, lakes
and tanks from illegal possession as per
revenue record of every village and reforms
initiated at the state level to rectify the same
and scale up the level of water harvesting at a
decentralized level.
G) Special Intervention from Indian
Government to regulate the flood water for
effective recharge using deep bore
technologies at suitable depths.
H) Scaling up the organic agriculture and
developing model centre of excellence and
shift agriculture subsidies for intensive
organic practices.
I) Revitalise the rural credit and crop
insurance in the context of Climate change.
J) Launching of Sustainable Traditional
Agricultural Revolution (STAR) using local
resources for beating climate change.
Export of Organic Foods : There is an
increasing demand and unlimited scope for
the export of organic food across the world
and Indian farmers are missing this
opportunity. The Government agencies
NHB and APEDA should take the
responsibility and bear the cost of
certification of organic produces which is
presently high and beyond the reach of
farmers. The Government should also give
adequate level of subsidies for cultivation of
organic produce and for encouraging their
18 Kisan Ki Awaaz
exports. North East states have great
potential for the organic produce of
Horticulture and Floriculture crops for
export .The Agriculture Export Zone should
be promoted in the country.
Imports of Agro-produce : With a view to
contain rising prices, the government is
encouraging import of agro produces. This
measure will be detrimental to farmers'
interest in the long run and destroy country's
food security. Imports of agro commodities
should not be encouraged.
E x e m p t A g r o M a c h i n e s , To o l s ,
Equipments etc., from Excise & Vat :
Utility items like tractor, agricultural
equipments & machineries , drip and
sprinkler irrigation installations, fertilizers,
seeds and agro-chemicals should be kept out
from the ambit of excise and vat. Also, the
subsidy on them should be enhanced and
given directly to the farmers.
Testing Laboratories : Well equipped soil,
fertilizer, agro-chemicals and seeds testing
laboratories should be established in every
district headquarter for the benefit of the
farmers. Because there is a big problem of
spurious and sub standard Pesticides ,Agro-
chemicals & Micro- nutrients even the
adulterated fertilizers like DAP in the
country.
Farmers' representation : The Govt. should
co-opt farmer leaders in all decision making
bodies related to agriculture so as to make the
policies more realistic, effective and action
oriented.
February - 2011
 GMOs are a cause of hunger, debt and suicides
* Dr. Vandana Shiva
GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) continue to be promoted as the only
solution to hunger and food security.
H owever, the tools of genetic engineering are
merely tools of transferring genes across
species boundaries. They are not tools of
breeding.
The breeding is still done through conventional
methods. The yield of a crop is determined by
conventional technologies, not by genetic
engineering.
Yield is a multigenetic trait, and genetic engineering
cannot deal with complex traits. The report “Failure to
Yield” of the Union of Concerned Scientists shows
that in no crop has genetic engineering contributed to
yield increase. The yield trait comes from the variety
into which a GM trait is introduced.
As Andrew Pollock observes
“The yield of a crop is mainly determined by the seeds
intrinsic properties, not the inserted gene. An insect
resistant protection gene will not make a poor variety
a high yielder.”
The claim that GMOs will increase food security is
therefore an unscientific myth.
Over the twenty years of commercialization of
GMOs, two traits account for most genetic
modification.These are crops into which a gene has
been added to resist herbicides (herbicide resistant
crops) or a gene has been added to resist pests (Bt.
Crops).
The former are supposed to control weeds, the latter
are supposed to control pests. However, herbicide
resistant crops have led to evolution of super weeds,
and pest resistant crops have led to creation of super
pests.
Monsanto, which controls 95% of all GM seeds sold
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
introduced Round-up Ready Crops for herbicide
resistance. When superweeds started to overtake
crops, Monsanto introduced Round-Up Ready II. In
2010, it introduced smart stax with eight toxic genes 6
for insecticides and 2 for herbicide resistance.
Monsanto's strategy was to “create a captive customer
base” through stacking 8 toxic genes.
The strategy was a failure. Monsanto lost 47% of its
shares, and is paying U.S farmers $12/acre to deal
with the problems created by its GMO seeds. If one
toxic gene goes not control pests and instead creates
super pests, stacking 6 insecticidal genes will only
accelerate the emergence of resistance.
Monsanto, and others who promote GMOs forget
Einsteins observations that insanity is doing the same
thing over and over again and expecting a different
result.
Another serious issue related to GMOs is the
destruction of biodiversity, and the creation of
monocultures and monopolies. India had 1500
varieties of cotton. Today 95% of the cotton grown is
Bt. Cotton. And most of the Bt. Cotton is owned and
controlled by Monsanto through licensing
arrangements.
Monsanto charges Rs. 50 Lakh as an initial license fee
and then royalty. When GM Bt. Cotton was
introduced, prices of cotton seed jumped from Rs.
5/kg to Rs. 1600/450gm of which the royalty was Rs.
725. If this extraction of super profits had continued, it
translated into an annual transfer of Rs. 1000 crore or
Rs. 10 billion from poor Indian farmers to Monsanto.
For the farmer this means debt. And debt has pushed
250,000 farmers to suicide over the past 15 years.
Most of these suicides are concentrated in the cotton
belt, and most of the cotton is now GMO cotton.
19
An anti-trust case against Monsanto filed by the Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Act which
Government of Andhra Pradesh has forced the would give fast track approvals to GMOs and throw
company to reduce the price of Bt. Cotton, but the critics into jail.
introduction of Bollgard II has pushed the prices up
again. The recently appointed Minister of Science and
Technology, Ashwini Kumar has announced that the
Another serious issue related to GMOs is conflict of Government is planning to introduce four Bills in the
interest. In India, the same scientists who promote upcoming Budget session of the Parliament, namely
GMOs sit on regulatory bodies. Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill,
DNA Profiling Bill, Regional Center for
When the Environment Minister asked the 6 Biotechnology Bill and Public Funded R&D
Academies of Science to provide their scientific (Protection and Utilization of Public Funded
inputs for the Bt. Brinjal Moratorium, what they Intellectual Property) Bill.
submitted was propaganda material lifted verbatim
from industry literature. The Prime Minister's office has written to the States to
establish partnerships with corporations in the seed
Even in Europe, the revolving door exists between sector. Monsanto has signed MOU's with six States.
industry and regulatory body. Suzy Renkins who
worked for the European Food Safety Authority was This rush to push genetically modified and patented
also associated with Syngenta. seeds, ignores the evidence that GMOs will not
provide food security.
Dr. Harry Kruper, the Chair of an EFSA panel was
also involved in a research programme involving A failed and hazardous technology such as genetic
Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta. The situation is engineering can only be pushed through such
worse in the U.S where the biotechnology industry dictatorial means. GMOs and democracy cannot co-
literally runs all Government agencies. exist. GMO free food and agriculture is necessary for
creating food security and defending food democracy.
That is why the U.S Government tried to sue Europe
in WTO for the GMO bans in some countries. We had
to organize a massive global campaign and submitted
60 million signatures to WTO at the HongKong
Ministerial to prevent the removal of the bans.
To protect the environment:
And the recent news has been released through
WikiLeaks that the U.S Ambassador Craig Stapleton
urged George Bush to start a military style trade war
against GM skeptics in Europe “country team Paris
recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list
forestry should be promoted,
that causes some pain across the EU since this is a
collective responsibility but that also focuses in part
on the worst culprits” he wrote.
Deforestation should be prevented.
Nina Fedroff was sent to India in February 2010 to try
and prevent the moratorium on Bt. Brinjal. At a
biotechnology industry conference, a U.S State
Department official said “we will aggressively - Aastha Chaudhary -
confront the Naysayers around the world”.

India is planning to replace the rules under the

Environment Protection Act with a Biotechnology

20 Kisan Ki Awaaz February - 2011

 Viruses and Virus Nucleic Acid Contaminate
Many Vaccines
Risks of cancer and creation of new pathogens should not be underplayed by regulators
* Prof. Joe Cummins
Garbage viruses and DNA in vaccines
Vaccines are currently produced using fertilized
chicken eggs, cell culture or a combination of egg and
cell culture. An 'attenuated' vaccine is created from a
pathogen by reducing its virulence, but still keeping it
viable, in contrast to those produced by 'killing' the
virus (inactivated vaccine). Inactivation is done by
selecting non-pathogenic strains of the pathogen after
treatment such as heat or cold culture, or targeted
deletion of virulence genes.
Many live attenuated vaccines are produced using cell
culture. A number of such vaccines have been found
to contain not only the live attenuated viral pathogen
but also contaminating viruses or viral nucleic acid .
These contaminants are garbage, and people
administering such vaccines should inform patients of
potential risks associated with the garbage. Recently,
the United States Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) acknowledged the contamination of the live
attenuated rotavirus vaccine (to prevent traveller's
diarrhoea) and suspended the vaccine, but later
decided that the benefits of the vaccination outweigh
potential contamination risks . The FDA opinion is
premature because the circovirus contaminating the
vaccine is active in replication, transcription and
translation of viral genes and able to produce toxic
products. Contaminated vaccines are not isolated
cases, they are widespread.
Lessons from SV40 contaminated vaccines
Simian virus 40 (SV40) is a monkey virus
inadvertently administered to human populations in
contaminated vaccines produced in SV40-infected
monkey cells. Molecular biology and
epidemiological studies suggest that SV40 may be
contagiously transmitted in humans by horizontal
infection, independently of the earlier administration
of SV40-contaminated vaccines. In humans, SV40
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
has been found associated at high prevalence with
specific tumour types such as brain and bone tumours,
mesotheliomas and lymphomas and with kidney
diseases . SV40 was discovered as a contaminant of
poliovirus vaccine lots distributed to millions of
individuals in the United States between 1955 and
1963; and contaminated vaccine batches were later
circulated worldwide. After SV40 was observed to
cause animal and human cell transformations in
culture, and tumour formations in animals,
researchers began to search for SV40 in human
cancers .
For example, a 2005 study undertaken in Costa-Rica
showed that SV40 is significantly associated with
cancers of the immune system . US FDA
acknowledges that the SV 40 virus (simian virus 40
from monkey kidney cells) was in the early polio
vaccines and its risks : “The experience in the early
1960s with SV40 contamination of poliovirus and
adenovirus vaccines and the continuing questions
regarding whether SV40 could be responsible for
some human neoplasms [cancers] underscores the
importance of keeping viral vaccines free of
adventitious agents. SV40 contamination of polio
vaccines is an old lesson that seems to have been
ignored in the current rush to profit from
manufacturing vaccines.
Numerous vaccines for humans are contaminated
There are numerous cases of documented
contaminated vaccines intended for humans . Measles
vaccine Attenuvax grown in chicken embryo
fibroblast cells was contaminated with Avian leucosis
(myeloid leucosis cancer virus) and avian endogenous
retrovirus. Yellow fever vaccine YFvax grown in
chicken embryo fibroblast cells was contaminated
with avian endogenous retrovirus. Herpes 3 vaccine
Varivax grown in MRC-5 human cells from aborted
foetuses was contaminated with human endogenous
21
retrovirus K. Rota virus vaccine Rotarix grown in
Vero E6 (African green monkey ) cells was
contaminated with with porcine circovirus 1 and
porcine circovirus 2. Rotavirus Rotateq vaccine
grown in Vero (African monkey) cells had Baboon
endogenous retrovirus as contaminant. Measles
mumps vaccine MMR II grown in chicken fibroblast
cells had Avian endogenous retrovirus and human
endogenous retrovirus K as contaminants; and
Rubella vaccine grown in WI-38 human diploid lung
fibroblast cells was contaminated with Human
endogenous retrovirus K. Rubella vaccine meruvax II
grown in WI-38 human lung fibroblast cells contained
human endogenous retrovirus-K.
Veterinary vaccines are similarly contaminated. The
genomes of all animal species are colonized by
endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). Although most
ERVs have accumulated defects that render them
incapable of replication, fully infectious ERVs have
been identified in various mammals. A feline
infectious ERV (RD-114w) was isolated from many
live attenuated vaccines for pets. Isolation of RD-114
was done independently in two laboratories using
different detection strategies and from vaccines for
both cats and dogs commercially available in Japan or
the UK.
The study shows that the methods currently employed
to screen veterinary vaccines for retroviruses are
inadequate and should be re-evaluated . Tests of
veterinary vaccines for viral contamination in
Hungary found that a torquetenovirus (TTV), a very
small circular single stranded DNA virus, was present
in many vaccines including avian vaccines. The
presence of any extraneous agent may have a
significant impact on the safety of the vaccine .
A rogues' gallery of vaccine contaminating viruses
and DNA
Avian leukosis (myeloid leukosis cancer virus)
Avian leukosis virus (ALV-J) appears to be a
recombinant of an exogenous avian leukosis virus
(ALV) with an envelope (env) gene probably
originating from an endogenous (subgroup E) ALV.
ALV-J can infect cell cultures from other avian
species, but not mammalian cells. No genetically
resistant meat-type strain of chickens has been found
22 Kisan Ki Awaaz
to date. Commercial Leghorn chickens appear to be
resistant to tumour development, but they may be
susceptible to infection. Most tumours associated
w i t h A LV- J i n f e c t i o n a r e e x p r e s s e d a s
myeloblastomas or myelocytomas . Even though the
bird cancer virus does not appear to infect mammals,
the persistent exposure of young human may select
mutations of the virus that are virulent in people; and
virulent recombinants can always be created with
endogenous human viruses.
Avian endogenous retrovirus
Avian endogenous retrovirus (AER) are a highly
diverse group comprising many inserts into the
chicken genome. There are three families of such
endogenous retroviruses, related respectively to avian
sarcoma or leukosis cancer virus, mouse leukemia
viruses, and human endogenous retroviruses. Most of
the AER are dormant in the chicken chromosomes, but
several are active and capable of making RNA
transcripts . The active transcripts may replicate by
reverse transcription and recombine with related
viruses.
Human endogenous retrovirus K
Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are
suspects in some autoimmune diseases, in particular,
multiple sclerosis; a member of the family of human
endogenous retrovirus W has been identified as “MS-
associated retrovirus” (MSRV). HERVs comprise
nearly 8 percent of the human genome, with 98 000
elements and fragments ; all appear to be defective,
containing nonsense mutations or major deletions,
and cannot produce infectious virus particles. Most
are remnants of viruses that integrated many millions
of years ago. However, one family HERV-K
(comprising less than 1 percent of HERV elements) -
have been active since the divergence of humans and
chimpanzees, and is one of the most studied.
There are indications it has even been active in the past
few hundred thousand years, as some human
individuals carry more copies of the virus. The lack of
elements with a full coding potential within the
published human genome sequence suggests that the
family is less likely to be active at present . HERV-K
contaminants in vaccines should not be considered
innocuous as they may recombine with related viruses
February - 2011
or with viral sequences in the human chromosome.
Baboon endogenous retrovirus
Baboon endogenous retrovirus (BERV) is a
inactivated retroviral sequence. BERVs are also
found in the African green monkey . BERV
circulating in the bloodstream of humans could
conceivably mutate and recombine to form a virus
that could spread rapidly in the human population
because the virus is new to the immune repertoire of
the human.
Feline infectious ERV (RD-114)
An infectious endogenous retrovirus was discovered
in live attenuated vaccine for cats and dogs. EVR RD-
114 is related to other oncogenic virus such as feline
leuekemia virus and mouse leukemia virus 83 .
Porcine circovirus 1 and porcine circovirus 2
The pig circoviruses are small circular single stranded
DNA viruses. Type 1 virus does not cause illness in
pigs while type 3 virus causes a serious wasting
disease of young pigs. The viruses are frequently
found infecting mammalian cell lines. Circovirus
type 1 and type 2 infect many human cell types. Type 1
virus proliferates without causing distinct cell
damage while type 2 virus does . Type 2 virus causes
cytoskeleton rearrangements in dendritic cells,
leading to immunosuppression .
Porcine circovirus is lodged in the cell nucleus where
it is replicated. Replication is by a rolling circle
mechanism where the single stranded viral
chromosomes are rolled off a double stranded
replicative master. The virus is so small that it only has
room for a few genes including two genes for
initiating DNA replication along with genes for
nuclear localization and viral coat protein and a few
genes for virulence. The host cell nucleus provides the
enzymes for DNA replication .
Torquetenovirus (TTV)
Torquetenoviruses (TTVs) are vertebrate infecting,
single-stranded circular DNA viruses. Two
genetically distinct TTV groups (TTV1 and TTV2)
infect swine worldwide with high prevalence.
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Currently, swine TTVs are considered non-
pathogenic, although TTV2 has been linked to post-
weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome, a porcine
circovirus disease TTV replicates similarly to the
circovirus but is much smaller than the circovirus .
TTV is often presumed to be non-pathogenic, and is
distributed widely among mammals including
humans. TTV infection is widely dispersed in the
human population and the virus has been found to
accumulate in the central nervous system and
implicated in dementia . Children with recurrent
pneumonia have been found to lack ciliary motility
associated with high level infection of ciliarycells
with TTV .
To conclude
Human and veterinary vaccines have been found
contaminated with wide array of viruses that are
deemed harmless or less risky than the attenuated live
virus of the vaccine. These contaminating garbage
viruses are nowhere near as well investigated than
they should have been prior to the commercialization
of the vaccines. The contaminating garbage viruses
are deemed harmless because they do not elicit sera
conversion (production of antibody) even though the
garbage viruses frequently produce proteins that are
toxic in specific tissues.
The contaminating garbage vaccines are actively
cytotoxic in some cases, and potentially so in other
cases by mutation or recombination to create new
retroviruses that are life threatening. Among the
garbage viruses, the small circular single stranded
DNA viruses deserve special attention as they are so
widespread in the human and animal populations.
Such widespread dispersal of TTV and circoviruses
could cause disaster. The first step in dealing with the
garbage viruses is to provide informed consent to
those being vaccinated with contaminated vaccines.
The second is to carry out post-release monitoring for
potential hazards from mutation and recombination,
as highlighted in this article.
H t t p : / / w w w . i -
sis.org.uk/Viruses_and_Virus_Nucleic_Acid_Con
taminate_Vaccines.php
23
 USDA Decision on GE Alfalfa Leaves Door
Open for Contamination, Rise of Superweeds
*ROGUE AGENCY CHOOSES “BUSINESS AS USUAL” OVER SOUND SCIENCE
* CENTER ANNOUNCES IMMEDIATE LEGAL CHALLENGE TO USDA'S FLAWED ASSESSMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 27, 2011 The Center for
Food Safety (CFS) criticized the announcement today by
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that it will
once again allow unlimited, nation-wide commercial
planting of Monsanto's genetically-engineered (GE)
Roundup Ready alfalfa, despite the many risks to organic
and conventional farmers USDA acknowledged in its
Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). On a call
today with stakeholders, Secretary Vilsack reiterated the
concerns surrounding purity and access to non-GE seed,
yet the Agency's decision still places the entire burden for
preventing contamination on non-GE farmers, with no
protections for food producers, consumers and exporters.
“We're disappointed with USDA's decision and we will
be back in court representing the interest of farmers,
preservation of the environment, and consumer choice”
said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center
for Food Safety. “USDA has become a rogue agency in its
regulation of biotech crops and its decision to appease the
few companies who seek to benefit from this technology
comes despite increasing evidence that GE alfalfa will
threaten the rights of farmers and consumers, as well as
damage the environment.”
The Center sent an open letter to Secretary Vilsack calling
on USDA to base its decision on sound science and the
interests of farmers, and to avoid rushing the process to
meet the marketing timelines or sales targets of Monsanto,
Forage Genetics or other entities.
CFS also addressed several key points that were not
properly assessed in the FEIS, among them were:
· Liability, Implementation and Oversight -- Citing
over 200 past contamination episodes that have cost
farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales, CFS
demands that liability for financial losses incurred by
farmers due to transgenic contamination be assigned to
the crop developers. CFS also calls on USDA to take a
more active oversight role to ensure that any stewardship
plans are properly implemented and enforced.
·Roundup Ready alfalfa will substantially increase
herbicide use USDA's assessment misrepresented
conventional alfalfa as utilizing more herbicides than it
does, which in turn provided a false rationale for
introducing herbicide-promoting Roundup Ready alfalfa.
24 Kisan Ki Awaaz
In fact, USDA's own data shows that just 7% of alfalfa hay
acres are treated with herbicides. USDA's projections in
the FEIS show that substantial adoption of Roundup
Ready alfalfa would trigger large increases in herbicide
use of up to 23 million lbs. per year.
·Harms from glyphosate-resistant weeds USDA's sloppy
and unscientific treatment of glyphosate-resistant (GR)
weeds ignored the significant contribution that RR alfalfa
could make to their rapid evolution. USDA failed to
analyze how GR weeds fostered by currently grown RR
crops are increasing herbicide use; spurring more use of
soil-eroding tillage; and reducing farmer income through
increased weed control costs, an essential baseline
analysis.
“We in the farm sector are dissatisfied but not surprised at
the lack of courage from USDA to stop Roundup Ready
alfalfa and defend family farmers,” said Pat Trask,
conventional alfalfa grower and plaintiff in the alfalfa
litigation.
The FEIS comes in response to a 2007 lawsuit brought by
CFS, in which a federal court ruled that the USDA's
approval of GE alfalfa violated environmental laws by
failing to analyze risks such as the contamination of
conventional and organic alfalfa, the evolution of
glyphosate-resistant weeds, and increased use of
glyphosate herbicide, sold by Monsanto as Roundup. The
Court banned new plantings of GE alfalfa until USDA
completed a more comprehensive assessment of these
impacts. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals twice
affirmed the national ban on GE alfalfa planting. In June
2010, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban on
Monsanto's Roundup Ready Alfalfa until and unless
future deregulation occurs.
“Last spring more than 200,000 people submitted
comments to the USDA highly critical of the substance
and conclusions of its Draft EIS on GE Alfalfa,” said
Kimbrell. “Clearly the USDA was not listening to the
public or farmers but rather to just a handful of
corporations."
Contact: Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director,
Center for Food Safety: (703) 927-2826
February - 2011
 Farmers feed the world
* Prodita Sabarini
“The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed,” said activist
Henry Saragih, quoting Indian non-violent activist Mahatma Gandhi recently at his office in Jakarta.

The head of the Indonesian Farmers' Union (SPI) and the secretary general of La Via Campesina, a
global alliance of small-scale farmers and rural workers and leads a global movement advocating a
return to locally-produced food to address the global food crisis and environmental degradation.

UK-based weekly The Observer recently listed him as one of the 20 Green Giants, “activists,
filmmakers, writers, politicians and celebrities who will be setting the global environmental agenda in
the coming year”. In 2008, The Observer's sister publication, The Guardian, listed him as one of the 50
people who could save the planet.

T he UN Food and Agriculture organization

(FAO) announced the world's food price index
had hit an all-time high in December,
exceeding that of 2008 when a global food crisis
caused riots in several countries, including Indonesia.
and an amendment of the Law on Food.

La Via Campesina strongly rejects the World Trade

Organization and free trade agreements on
agricultural products, he said.

For Henry, the main drivers of the global food crisis “Ever since the Uruguay round, hunger problems have
are a global trade system that allows speculators rather increased, and so has poverty, environmental
than farmers to control food prices, the use of food for degradation, forest destruction, the decreasing of
mechanical and animal farming, and climate change. biodiversity.

Henry said that other experts had cited population And big corporations are taking land from farmers,”
increase as another factor, as world population was he said, referring to international meetings between
predicted to grow to 9.2 billion in 40 years time, one- 1986 to 1994 that resulted in the establishment of the
third larger than it is now. WTO.

Henry, however, added that La Via Campesina
believed the world could feed itself if every country
controlled its food supply what he calls “food
sovereignty” and empowered their own farmers to
provide food for their local communities. Thus, he
quoted Gandhi.
After years of advocating small-scale farmers' and
rural workers' rights, fighting against big
transnational corporations and the World Trade
Organization (WTO), the organization succeeded last
year in lobbying the UN to recognize the role and
rights of small farmers in the world.
In Indonesia, Henry said his movement was pushing
for a Law on Farmers' Protection and Empowerment
He explained that Indonesia imported soy, fruit, milk
and rice at very low prices, which made it hard for
local farmers to compete in these markets.
This phenomena is taking place in other countries as
well, he went on. Japanese and Korean farmers also
feel the burden of free trade.
“Farmlands are neglected there because, given the
production costs in Japan and Korea, the farmers there
cannot compete with products from other countries,”
he said.
In 2003, Korean farmer Lee Kyung-Hae killed
himself in Cancun, Mexico, during a protest against
the WTO.

February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz 25

Korean farmers cannot compete with imported
products such as Australian beef or rice from
Indonesia and Thailand, Henry added.
And while local farmers and farms in Korea were
neglected, in response to the 2008 global food crisis,
big transnational companies including Korean
companies started opening farms in developing
countries, including Indonesia.
“Japanese and Korean farmers could actually feed
their communities if the farmers there were given
some support,” he said.
Henry argued the neo-liberalist system had created a
chaotic world economy system. He pointed to the
growing number of crops used to feed animals instead
of humans.
“Soy from Latin America is exported to Copenhagen
for the pig industry there to be exported all over the
world,” he said. “The production of animal feed is
energy-consuming so is its transportation and for
this the Amazon forest is cleared,” he said.
La Via Campesina's slogans include “Farmers feed
the world” and “Small-scale sustainable farmers are
cooling down the Earth”.
Henry said La Via Campesina was advocating “food
sovereignty” as a solution to the food crisis and global
warming through agrarian reforms that would
strengthen small-scale farming.
He added that access to food should be seen as a basic
human right and not be treated as commodity.Henry
comes from a family of farmers.
He was born and raised in Tarutung, in a small rural
city in North Sumatra.
After graduating from the School of Social Politics of
North Sumatra University in Medan, he returned to
his hometown and saw how farmers there struggled to
survive, as they did not own their own land.
Meanwhile, large swaths of land were given to pulp
and paper companies that polluted the Asahan River.
In 1993, he secretly founded the North Sumatra
26 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Farmers Union, as farmers were not allowed to form
unions under the Suharto regime.
The military often raided their meetings, grabbing and
interrogating him in the process. “We had to have
1,000 minds to avoid getting caught,” he said.
When people were setting up new political parties on
the eve of the reform era, he and other farmers set up
the SPI.
In 2000, the SPI became the Southeast Asian
representative for La Via Campesina. In 2004, Henry
was elected general coordinator of the movement. He
was re-elected for a second term in 2008.
Henry divides his time between Jakarta, Medan and
the rest of the world.
He practically lives in his Jakarta office when working
in the capital, sleeping on a small bed tucked behind a
cabinet.
He returns to Medan almost every three months to see
his family.
“I'm very lucky my wife understands my struggle,” he
said. “She's also an activist. She helps out
communities and sets up micro-financing for
women.”
Henry said his position as general coordinator of La
Via Campesina would end in 2012. The torch of
leadership as well as the office will be passed on to
farmers in Mozambique in Africa in 2013.
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
February - 2011
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February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
okys dj jgs gS A ljdkj }kjk [kkus dh oLrqvksa dk ok;nk
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cM+k dkj.k gS A vkt Hkz"Vkpkj esa fyIr ljdkjh e'khujh dk
izHkko ux.; gks x;k gS vkSj ljdkj dk vfLrRo nkWao ij
yxk gS A turk ds eu esa vfo'okl dh Hkkouk ?kj dj xbZ
gSA vkfFkZd mnkjhdj.k dh uhfr;ksa dk ifj.kke ns'k dk vke
vkneh Hkqxr jgk gS A
ljdkj us iwjs ns'k esa vko';d oLrqvksa ds jkstkuk vkSj
lkIrkfgd ewY;kas dh ns[k&js[k dh O;oLFkk dj j[kh gS A
bldk eq[; mns'; ekWax vkSj vkiwfrZ dks iwjs ns'k esa larqfyr
cuk;s j[kuk gS A blds }kjk ljdkj vYidkfyd vkSj
nh?kZdkfyd uhfr;ksa dks viukdj vk;kr rFkk fu;kZr dh
O;oLFkk djds nkeksa dks fu;af=r djus dk dke djrh gSA
ftlls fd vke vkneh ds nSfud iz;ksx es vkus okys [kk|
inkFkksZ dh lqpk: O;oLFkk cuh jgs vkSj eagxkbZ ls cpk jgsA
[kk| vkiwfrZ ea=ky; vkSj for ea=ky; esa blds fy, vyx&2
fo'ks"k lSy cuk;s gq, gSA le;&le; ij efU=;ksa ds lewg dh
cSBdksa esa eagxkbZ dks jksdus ds fy, D;k&2 vko';d dne
mBk;s tk;s vkSj dSls O;oLFkk dks lq/kkjk tk;s bl ij
vko';d fu.kZ; fy;s tkrs gS A vHkh dqN fnu igys efU=;ksa
ds lewg dh cSBd esa xsgWaw vkSj pkoy dk izns'kks dks vfrfjDr
dksVk voafVr djus vkSj nkyksa ds fu;kZr ij yxh jksd dks
c<+kus dk fu.kZ; fy;k A bl fu.kZ; ds ckn dsUnz ljdkj us 7
flrEcj 2010 dks 25 yk[k Vu vfrfjDr [kk|kuksa dk vkoaVu
izns'kksa dks dj fn;kA izns'k ljdkjksa us 9 uoEcj 2010 rd
bl vfrfjDr vkaofVr [kk|kuksa dk ek= 6 izfr'kr gh mBk;kA
bldk eryc gS fd izns'k ljdkjksa ds ikl xjhch js[kk ls uhps
jgus okys yksxksa ds fy, vko'; [kk|kUu miyC/k gS A
dSchusV lfpo dh v/;{krk eas lfpoksa dh desVh cuh gqbZ gS
bl etcwr vkSj egRoiw.kZ desVh dk dke Hkh eWagxkbZ dks
27
fu;af=r j[kus vkSj vke vkneh dks eagxkbZ ls cpkus ds fy,
vko';d dne mBkus dk gS vkSj loksZPp ^^dSchusV deSVh
vkWu izkbfll** dh eagxkbZ jksdus dh iw.kZ ftEesnkjh gSA bl
ckr ds vusdksa mnkgj.k gS fd ljdkjh e'khujh rc tkxrh gS
tc fLFkfr dUVªksy ls ckgj gks tkrh gS A rktk mnkgj.k I;kt
vkSj phuh dk iwjs ns'k ds lkeus gS A egkjk"Vª ds fdlkuksa us
viuh I;kt vçSy 2010 esa 10 fdyks I;kt dk dV~Vk vf/kd
ls vf/kd 40 ls 45 #i;s eas cspk vkSj iwjs uoEcj 2010 esa
10 fdyks I;kt dk dV~Vk vf/kd ls vf/kd 80 ls 85 #i;s
es cspk A cs&ekSle dh cjlkr ls tks orZeku esa [ksr esa [kMh
I;kt dh Qly dks uqdlku gqvk A mldk vlj rqjUr cM+s
tek[kksjksa us mBk;k vkSj vius xksnkeksa esa ls eafM;kas es I;kt
dh lIykbZ de djds ywVekj 'kq: dj nh A bl [ksy esa cM+s
dkjksckfj;ksa us vkSj vkx yxkbZ vkSj ywV epkbZ gS A
nwljk mnkgj.k phuh dk yhft, vpkud fu;kZr [kqy tkrk gS
ftldk ykHk flQZ phuh ykWch mBkrh gS A ?kjsyq cktkj esa
phuh eagxh gks jgh gS vkSj nwljh rjQ fdlkuska dks xUus ds
nke fiNys o"kZ ds eqdkcys esa 70&80 #0 izfr dqUry phuh
feys de ns jgh gSA fdlkuksa dh xUus dh [ksrh dh ykxr c<+
jgh gSA mldk ykxr ewY; Hkh phuh feys mls blfy, ugh ns
jgh gS D;ksafd fdlkuska us xUus dh Qlys dh cqokbZ fiNys
ckj T;knk dj yh A eryc lkQ gS fd fdlkuksa us dksbZ Hkh
Qly T;knk iSnk dj nh rks mls mldh Qly de Hkkoksa ij
cspus dks etcwj fd;k tkrk gS A ckr pkgs izd`frd vkink
dh gks ck< ls] vksyks ls] lw[kko``f"V ls uqdlku flQZ fdlkuksa
dk gksrk gS A phuh ykch o ok;nk dkjksckj ds cM+s
f[kykfM+;ksa ds }kjk bl ns'k ds vke vkneh dks ywVk tk jgk
gS A D;ksafd czkthy esa xUus dh Qly esa uqdlku gksus dh
otg ls vUrjk"Vªh; cktkj esa phuh ds Hkkoksa esa cgqr c<ksRrjh
gks xbZ gS vkSj phuh dh ekWax cgqr c< xbZ gS A
,slh fLFkfr esa rks phuh feyksa dks fdlkuska dks fiNys o"kZ ds
xUus ds nke 270&280 #0 izfr dqUry dks c<+kdj de ls
de 350 #0 izfr dqUVy nsus pkfg, Fks A ysfdu fiNys o"kZ
ls dsUnz ljdkj us vHkh rd pyh vk jgh ,l0,e0ih0 dk
uke cnydj ,Q0vkj0ih0 ¼ykHkdkjh ewY;½ fd;k gS mldk
mn~ns'; flQZ phuh feyksa dks ykHk igqWpkus vkSj dkuwuksa ds u,
28 Kisan Ki Awaaz
ipM+ksa esa Qalkdj fdlkuksa dks cckZn djuk gS A vkt blh
,Q0vkj0ih0 dh otg ls m0iz0 ljdkj us Hkh xUuk ewY;
200&205 #0 izfr dqUry fu/kkZfjr dj fn, A vkt ns'k dh
phuh ykWch ljdkj ls feydj xUuk mRiknd fdlkuksa dk
[kqydj 'kks"k.k dj jgh gSA vc [ksy nsf[k, xUuk lLrk vkSj
phuh eagxh vkSj vkus okys le; esa phuh vkSj eagxh gksxh A
tcfd ns'k esa phuh dk mRiknu Hkh T;knk gksxkA
ekWax vkSj vkiwfrZ okys vFkZ'kkL=h crk;s fd ;s lc D;k gks
jgk gS mnkjhdj.k dh uhfr;ksa ds uke ij tc lc dqN cktkj
ds gokys gks tk;sxk vkSj cMs dkiksZjsVl dk dCtk cktkj ij
gksxk rks eagxkbZ ,sls gh c<sxh] vkxs vkSj c<+sxhA ljdkj us
viuh uhfr;kWa ugh cnyh rks bl lc [ksy esa flQZ vke
vkneh ejsxk rFkk fdlkuksa dk 'kks"k.k vkSj c<+sxk A cktkj dh
rkdrs dHkh fdlh oLrq ^,* ds nke c<k;sxs rks dHkh ^ch* ;k
^lh* ds A blh otg ls orZeku O;oLFkk ls vke vkneh dk
fo'okl VwV jgk gS flLVe ls Hkjkslk [kRe gks jgk gSA D;ksafd
tek[kksjksa }kjk cukoVh deh fn[kkdj ywV epkbZ tk jgh gS A
mUgsa ljdkj dk dksbZ Mj ugh gSA u rks vko';d oLrq dkuwu
1955 dk vkSj uk gh fizos'ku vkQ CySd ekfdZV ,DV 1988
dk D;ksafd ;s dkuwu rks ns'k ds NksVs nqdkunkjska vkSj O;kikfj;ksa
ds fy, cuk;s x;s Fks A
vkt ljdkj d`f"k ds fy, ctV ij ppkZ djus ds fy,
fdlkuksa ds laxBuksa ls ckr ugh djrh cfYd fQDdh
¼,QvkbZlhlhvkbZ½] lh0vkbZ0vkbZ0] ,lkspSe vkSj ih,pMh tSls
m|kSfxd laxBuksa ds yksxks dks cqykdj viuh uhfr;ksa r;
djrh gSA ljdkj dc le>sxh fd Hkkjr esa dkiksZjsV
d`f"k dk ekWMy ugh py ldrk ftl ns'k esa 85
izfr'kr fdlkuska dh tksr nks ,dM ls de gks vkSj ek=
38 izfr'kr d`f"k Hkwfe ds fy, flapkbZ ds lk/ku gks ogkWa
flQZ vius izkd`frd la'kk/kuksa ij vk/kkfjr QkeZj
lSfUVªd d`f"k ds ekWMy dks viuk dj gh ns'k dh
[kk|kUu lqj{kk dks cuk;s j[kk tk ldrk gS A bl ns'k
dh lcls cM+h eqnzk jksVh ¼[kk|kUu lqj{kk½ gS vkSj lkjk
[ksy blh jksVh ij dCtk djus dk py jgk gSA
* v/;{k] Hkkjrh; d`"kd lekt
February - 2011
 Green Chemistry from Wastes
* Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
C losed loop zero-waste chemical processing of
waste biomass from agriculture is the future of
green chemistry, says Prof. James Clark of
York University,
Green Chemistry UK
Green chemistry is thriving in the UK, as Professor
James Clark will tell you. He heads the Green
Chemistry Centre of Excellence, York University, and
is a founding director of the UK-based Green
Chemistry Network.
True to the “closed loop” approach that has been
making headway in industry and mainstream politics
(Closed Loop, Cradle to Cradle, Circular Economy &
the New Naturephilia, Clark is especially keen on
using waste as a feedstock for 'biorefineries'.
A typical biorefinery operating on the closed loop
principle sequentially extracts and processes waste
biomass feedstock to obtain a range of valuable plant
products, ending with fuels of various kinds, and the
wastes are further recycled for processing.
Closed loop biorefinery for wheat straw using
waste CO2 as solvent
CO2 is a waste product from power plants that burn
fossil fuels, and in the manufacture of fertilizers and
cement.
This waste product (and major greenhouse gas
responsible for global warming) can be captured for
use, for example, as fire suppressant, in carbonated
beverages, food preservation, and refrigeration, but
the volumes required are typically small.
One potential use that involves large volumes is as an
extraction solvent. Liquid CO2 happens to be a very
good organic solvent for extraction; it is easily
removed, and much safer for health and the
environment than the usual organic solvent hexane.
Liquid CO2 extraction is more selective, requires
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
shorter extraction times and no solvent residues will
be left in the product so it is easier to obtain organic
certification.
Yields and properties of oils extracted with CO2 are
comparable to those extracted with hexane. Liquid
CO2 extraction is already commonly used on an
industrial scale to achieve better quality and taste in
edible oils.
One of the biggest industrial scCO2 plants for the
extraction of sesame oil was built in South Korea; it
has an extractor volume of 2 x 3800 litres, and a
pressure of up to 550 bar (1 Bar = 0.9869 atm) is
currently used.
Other materials such as corn, whea tgerm, sunflower
seeds, safflower seeds and peanuts have also been
extracted with scCO2. Using this waste resource
(CO2) in oil extraction makes
petrochemical/fossilfuel-based solvents redundant.
Another abundant waste product is wheat straw from
agriculture, which is usually simply burnt.
Clark and colleagues propose that wheat straw can be
processed in an integrated, close to zero-waste
biorefinery that combines extraction with liquid CO2
and low temperature microwave pyrolysis to produce
a variety of products including energy; and the final
waste product CO2 can be internally recycled for
extraction.
In the wheat straw biorefinery, CO2 is used to extract
complex compounds including fatty acids, wax ester
and fatty alcohols. Low temperature microwave
pyrolysis (<200 ºC) requires less energy and produces
higher quality oils and chars than conventional (high
temperature) pyrolysis.
The oils can be fractionated to produce either
transport fuels or platform chemicals such as
levoglucosan and levoglucosenone. The chars can be
burnt to provide heat.
The quality of the chars was improved by washing to
29
remove most of the postassium and chlorine, which
produces fouling.
The economic feasibility (as well as green potential)
is enhanced by integrating the technologies
sequentially in a close to zero waste system,
beginning with extraction, followed by a combination
of biochemical and thermal processing, with internal
recycling of energy and waste gases.
Extraction of valuable plant chemicals prior to their
destruction during biochemical and thermal
treatments can significantly increase the overall
financial returns.
Biochemical processing offer advantages in typically
low processing temperatures and high selectivity and
specificity of reactants and products generated.
However, it generally requires pre-treatment of the
biomass, long processing times, large amounts of
space, and difficult lignin treatments; and
downstream processing such as distillation may be
energy intensive.
Alternative thermochemical routes include
gasification, pyrolysis and direct combustion to
produce oils, gas, char or ash.
They are fast and typically continuous systems, but
non-specific, and generally require high temperatures
in excess of 500 ºC. So it is best to be able to take
advantage of both technologies in a flexible and
efficient way.
Wheat straw is by no means the only waste biomass
feedstock available. There is a large variety of
biomass wastes containing waxes, lignins, cellulose,
hemicellulose and inorganics that are ideal feedstock
for a biorefinery.
Agricultural residues, and in particular different kinds
of straw, are a major source of available biomass in the
UK. The main technologies in a biorefinery are
extraction, biochemical and thermochemical
processes.
Compared with traditional technologies, the team say
, “a near to zero-waste biorefinery leads to a diverse
and intricate web of products for different markets.”
30 Kisan Ki Awaaz
A lab experiment for proof of concept
In order to provide proof of concept for the scheme
presented in Fig. 1, the team used wheat straw pellets
(7 mm diameter) from Jackson Farms, UK, containing
10 percent moisture and a density of 1.2 g/cm3 as
feedstock .
These were air dried and milled, and extracted for wax
with scCO2 at various temperatures (40-100 ºC) and
pressures (100-300 bar) for 2 h with a 40 g/min flow
rate.
After that, samples of 150 to 200 g straw pellets was
treated with microwave at max power of 1 200 W at
2.45 Ghz at below 180 ºC.
The first stage is the extraction of valuable
compounds using scCO2 to substitute for organic
solvents.
The waxy cuticle of straw can be selectively extracted
using scCO2, which leaves no solvent residue, so the
products can be used in food, personal care or
pharmaceutical applications.
It has already been employed commercially for hop
extraction, decaffeination and coffee and dry
cleaning.
Compared with hexane, wax yields with scCO2 at 100
ºC are the same, but unwanted co-extracted
contaminants such as pigments, polar lipids and free
sugars are far greater in hexane.
The wax extracts contain fatty acids, alkanes,
aldehydes, diketones and wax esters, all having
commercial applications as lubricants, food
flavourings, or replacements for paraffin waxes in
cosmetics. The CO2 can be recycled.
Microwave pyrolysis of the extracted wheat straw
pellets yields a high quality char (30 percent) superior
to those from conventional methods and with
enhanced energy value, making it suitable as a coal
replacement.
The process also yields the following: bio-oil (20
percent) suitable for upgrading to liquid fuel, an
aqueous solution of organic acids and aldehydes, an
February - 2011
aqueous solution of sugars (35 percent), and a gas
fraction (14 percent) containing combustible organic
compounds (CO and methane) that could be used to
produce energy.
The bio-oil is potentially one of the most valuable
products of wheat straw microwave pyrolysis as it can
partly replace crude oil for producing transport fuels
and chemicals.
The major hydrocarbon component in the microwave
pyrolysis oil is 2,3-dihydrobenzofuran, and a high
yield of monosaccharides such as levoglucosan.
The former is useful in the pharmaceutical industry as
therapeutic or prophylactic agents, as inhibitor for
lipoperoxide production and cytoprotective agent.
The sugars could be separated from the oil by simple
water extraction into a second aqueous fraction. This
opens up the possibility of taking sugars from the oil
and upgrading them. Levoglucosan is attractive as
feedstock for fermentation.
It has been shown that levoglucosan produced by
pyrolysis of cellulose can be fermented to citric acid
by the fungus Aspergillus niger.
Levoglucan itself has been identified as a key
renewable platform molecule for more selective
chemistry such as the synthesis of polysaccharides
possessing biological activity, for example, anti-HIV
and blood anticoagulants.
Acid base additives influence the yield of different
fractions. For example, sulphuric acid treatment
reduced bio-oil yield three-fold in favour of biochars,
and ammonia treatment increase the char fraction by
nearly 40 percent; due to polymerisation of bio-oil in
the presence of acid-base catalysis. The additives also
had a strong impact on the distribution of chemical
compounds in the bio-oil.
Following char wash, 50 percent of potassium, 80
percent of chlorine, and 35 percent of sulphur were
extracted, while only minor amounts of calcium and
silicon were removed. The wash also contains
decomposition products of cellulose suitable for
fermentation.
February - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Economic. energetic and green considerations
The extraction using supercritical CO2 has been
shown to be significantly cheaper than using hexane,
chiefly as a result of savings on expensive post-
extraction steps including solvent removal and
purification for hexane. As part of an integrated
biorefinery, CO2 captured as a product of
fermentation and the processing energy from burning
other fuels may also be used for extraction.
Although the capital cost of a supercritical CO2
extractor is significantly higher than hexane
extraction, the lower operating costs should result in a
shorter payback time, and the greener credentials of
the technology should encourage investment.
The microwave process is very tolerant of water
compared to conventional pyrolysis and is suitable for
most biomass types without pre-drying.
Preliminary energy balance calculations based on the
thermodynamic properties of the structural
components of wheat straw during the decomposition
process indicated a energy requirement of 1.8 kJ/g for
microwave pyrolysis compared to 2.7 kJ/g for thermal
convectional pyrolysis.
Low temperature microwave pyrolysis therefore
produces better quality oils and chars than
conventional pyrolysis at 1.5 times the energy
efficiency.The major difficulty with Clark's
biorefinery is in finding markets for the various
products. That is almost impossible without an
integrated holistic approach to developing a circular
economy around green, closed loop chemistry.
The circular economy maximises reciprocities and
cooperation as well as synergies between the different
sectors (Sustainable Agriculture Essential for Green
Circular Economy, ISIS lecture); in the case of Clark's
biorefinery, between chemical industry and
agriculture.
But we must guard against the overuse of agricultural
biomass for industrial processes and fuel to the
detriment of food production and soil fertility
Http://www.i-sis.org.uk/
31
More than 250 Economists Call for Trade Reforms to
Allow Capital Controls
I n a letter delivered January 31, more than 250
economists urged the Obama administration to
reform U.S. trade rules that restrict the use of
capital controls.
The statement reflects growing consensus among
economists that capital controls, while no panacea,
are legitimate policy tools for preventing and
mitigating financial crises.
Signatories include several economists who have
been generally supportive of free trade but are critical
of the capital control restrictions (e.g., Arvind
Subramanian, Senior Fellow of the Peterson Institute
for International Economics and Nancy Birdsall,
President of the Center for Global Development), as
well as former IMF officials (e.g., Olivier Jeanne of
Johns Hopkins University) and a Nobel laureate
(Joseph Stiglitz).
The United States has trade or investment agreements
with 52 countries that restrict the use of capital
controls and allow private foreign investors the right
to sue governments that violate these restrictions.
Several additional deals are in the works, including:
U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement. Status:
pending congressional approval.
Trans-Pacific Partnership. Status: Trade
negotiators from the United States and eight other
countries will meet for a 5th round of talks in Chile on
Feb. 15.
Investment treaty with China. Status: The U.S.
government is expected to soon complete a review of
its model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), which
will accelerate negotiations with China, India, and
several other countries.
32 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Presidents Obama and Hu “reaffirmed their
commitment” to these ongoing negotiations in a Jan.
19 joint statement.
Kevin Gallagher, Boston University professor and
research associate at the Global Development and
Environment Institute at Tufts University (GDAE),
and Sarah Anderson, director of the Institute for
Policy Studies Global Economy Project, initiated the
statement.
In 2009, Gallagher and Anderson examined this issue
as members of the Investment Subcommittee of the
State Department's Advisory Committee on
International Economy Policy.
“It's in the U.S. interest to allow other governments
the authority to apply sensible capital controls,” says
Anderson. “In a globalized world, expanding the
policy options to combat financial crisis makes sense
for U.S. businesses, workers, and the environment.”
“U.S. trade treaties are inconsistent with the emerging
consensus in the economics profession and among the
international financial institutions that capital
controls are a legitimate part of the toolkit,” says
Gallagher.
“The U.S. and its trading partners should have all the
possible tools available to prevent and mitigate future
financial crises.”
Kevin Gallagher, Boston University and Global
Development and Environment Institute
(kpg@bu.edu), Emily Schwartz Greco, Institute
for Policy Studies (emily@ips-dc.org),
Sarah Anderson, Global Economy Director,
Institute for Policy Studies (sarah@ips-dc.org )
February - 2011