GM, Chemicals and Seed Control

The Green Revolution introduced hybrid seeds, forcing farmers to buy new seeds every year, making them increasingly dependent on the same corporations for herbicides and pesticides. Genetically Modified (GM) seeds led to even greater corporate control.

According to statistics by the National Crime Records Bureau of India, almost a quarter of a million farmers in India committed suicide between 1995 and 2009 [1]. Behind these suicides a clear picture emerges of farmers being forced into using GM seeds and unsustainable chemicals, then being trapped in cycles of debt to the companies providing them [2].

[1] Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Every Thirty Minutes: Farmer Suicides, Human Rights, and the Agrarian Crisis in India(New York: NYU School of Law, 2011)

[2] War on Want, Food Sovereignty: Reclaiming the Global Food System, October 2011