[Reader-list] The Mango Tango Bush's Secret Biotech Deal In New Delhi

[Ravi Agarwal]

The Mango Tango Bush's Secret Biotech Deal In New Delhi

March 10th, 2006




Pamela Drew 



President Bush announced that Americans would soon be eating India's farmed mangoes, but he failed to explain why. It has a lot to do with why he's willing to negotiate on the nukes. The real power in the US is biotech and the US and India have another, more covert deal made especially for them.




While many in Congress and the American press have questioned the President's nuclear deal with India, no one has looked at what the bio-techs are getting. As always, the hidden agenda tells more than the stated one. In the Bush playbook it has always been a resource grabbing strategy. In this case food is definitely on the table. It is a 1000-crore project called the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative in Agricultural Research and Education.




The announcement in the Indian press read, "Promising a second "green revolution," US President George W. Bush was cited as announcing Friday an investment of 130 million dollars to boost Indian agriculture and biotechnology as he wrapped up a visit here, stating, "By working together, the United States and India will develop better ways to grow crops and get them to market and lead a second green revolution."

American press covered the protests surrounding the President's visit as general anti-US sentiment. Sure there's some of that. Many Americans share their anger over US policies. But in India, much of the protest relates directly to the loss of farms and depressed economy caused by Monsanto's Bt cotton. Monsanto is a known enemy.

Indian farmers have suffered terribly with the introduction of genetically modified cotton. The Bt variety GM crop yields have been so terrible there have been widespread economic losses, record farm failures. The GM cotton is cited as the leading cause of suicide among India's farmers.

That is no problem for the bio-techs who sweep in and snatch up the land just as they're doing in America. The rate of loss for family farms in America is 350 family farms per week. That's the "green revolution" Bush style. That's the American lifestyle the trade deal will share with India and why many in India are angry and protesting.

The President went on to add, "We are establishing a new 30-million-dollar science and technology commission that will fund joint research in promising areas like biotechnology".

Anyone who has spent time on Capitol Hill knows that Commissions are a way to have your friends look into something and fix the results. What they can't fix they classify. The Warren Commission investigated Kennedy's shooting before half of America was born and we still don't know what they found. That's the type of commission the President's 30 million dollars is setting up for India.

The "Indo-US Knowledge Initiative" means that the bogus science funded through industry front organizations, we Americans have, can now take hold in India. With the proper "tools" they can improve the way they do their math and science. The math tracks the profits, and the science finds what ever it needs to, so the math works out. The Bush team and K Street created the environment for everything from ENRON's accounting to cancer causing hormone milk in the school lunch programs and others can learn.

The "green revolution" is about profits for the bio-techs and the India deal is a sweet package. Bush has promised the approval of new varieties of 'Frankenfoods' grown in India for export to the US. This coupled with the Congressional attack on the food labels will assure no Americans can know what any of the profiteers are feeding us. It also gives India access to the vast US food markets. It's a way of thanking us for our jobs.

Specifically what the deal in New Delhi involved was installing Monsanto's hand picked henchmen in the key positions with India's research and regulatory boards. While the strategy is the same everywhere Monsanto and the Bushwackos go, the names change. From my view it's easiest and best to use the words of the local experts to summarize the situation.

"There is a complete blackout at the top about what's going wrong. This is the worst agrarian crises since Independence," says Devinder Sharma an agricultural scientist, who is also a food policy analyst on the forum for biotechnology and food security.

Sharma says the Initiative's board is dominated by large multinationals like Walmart and Monsanto, who are all set to determine the Indian agricultural research agenda.

"The American IPR regime offers patent holders rights to life form, plants and seeds, so there is also the threat of losing rights to indigenous genetic resources. There is also the additional fear that India could become the dumping ground for all the genetically modified crops that there are no takers for in Europe and many other parts of the world," Sharma says.

When President Bush announced on Friday that Americans would soon be eating India's famed mangoes, he failed to explain why. Maybe now it will be in perspective.

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