[quote="Wayne Stollings"]I was wrong, as 250,000 is a high number of suicides for farmers in India. To reach that total you have to include every suicide past 1997, which is five years before the Bt cotton was introduced. It seems there was some intentional misrepresentation by the anti-GM folks, which really makes me question everything else .... especially when I look into the larger picture.
http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/file ... p00808.pdfKeep investigating that larger picture because there is one.
"A recent paper from IFPRI, "Bt cotton and Farmer's Suicides in India" ..... covers up the risks ... and is detatched from reality.Yet it is aimed at shaping public opinion about GM crops by using every trick in the trade to separate the impact of of GM crops on farmers from the seed monopoly and the technology of producing non-renewable seeds ...."
http://www.whale.to/b/shiva1.pdfAnd, ....
When Bt cotton does well it is "technology". When it does badly, it is blamed on something else. This opportunistic separation is at the heart of IFPRI's false argument that Bt cotton and farmer's suicides are not related. As the IFPRI article which you reference states: "In specific regions and years, where Bt cotton may have indirectly contributed to farmer's indebtedness leading to suicides, it's failure was mainly the result of .... some environmental factor ... in which it was introduced or planted" ... Bt cotton as a technolgy is not to blame." Vendana points out that this argument is askew because all technolgies are embedded in their environments. "There are no disembodied technologies, other than in ideology."
But dig a little more ....
http://i-sis.org.uk/farmersSuicidesBTCottonIndia.phpSome of the "effects of Bt cotton are a resurgence of secondary pests as well as reduced yields of other crops on land cultivated with Bt cotton." (Plagues of mealey bugs).
"A decade of planting with GM cotton or any GM crop with any
Bt genes could lead to total destruction of soil organisms, leading dead soil unable to produce food."