[Reader-list] Fwd: [The_Development_CAFE] Awarness article: Biotech deal by Bush in India

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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.

New Yahoo! Suicide with electricity. Call regular phones from your PC 
and get flashed.


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