GENE EDITING: UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES AND RISKS
GENE-EDITED CROPS & FOODS
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India videos
India is another of the key battlegrounds over GM crops. Monsanto's GM cotton has been commercialized there but has provoked considerable controversy. And a huge public and scientific outcry stopped GM Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine) from being commercialised as India’s first GM food crop.
Bt Cotton Adoption in Vidarbha also shows the disastrous failure of Bt cotton in some parts of India, where it has left farmer debt and suicides, poisoned soil, and even reports of sickened and dead livestock in its wake.
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A fascinating talk by Dr Suman Sahai of GeneCampaign containing a powerful indictment of the science of GMOs. She talks about how the need to protect the money and power invested in "dominant paradigms", such as the Green Revolution, GMOs and Nanotechnology, has skewed our science. When implementing such technologies, lip service is paid to things like the precautionary principle and the social/economic effect of such technologies, but they have little influence on if or how these technologies are to be implemented. (Time: 19:57)
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Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh's cautious stance in imposing a moratorium on genetically modified Bt brinjal has been vindicated, if indirectly and ironically, by none other than seed giant Monsanto. Monsanto recently admitted that pests have developed resistance to the first GM crop it introduced in India. (Time: 2:03)
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India could be the first country to take legal action against agribusiness giant Monsanto for so-called "biopiracy" – or taking indigenous farming knowledge to develop genetically modified crops. Are biotech corporations trying to monopolise and patent the world's food supply? (Time: 33:41)
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At a moment when India is enjoying record economic growth, The Dying Fields turns to the four million cotton farmers who have been left behind, struggling to survive on less than two dollars a day. PBS News report on globalisation/Bt cotton disaster in Vidarbha (excerpt). (Time 2:52)
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Bitter Seeds is the final film in Micha X. Peled's Globalization Trilogy, following Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town and China Blue. The films won 18 international awards, aired on over 30 television channels and screened in more than 100 film festivals. They also connected viewers to NGO action campaigns and encouraged Western consumers to understand their impact on the rest of the world. (Time: 2:38)
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Monsanto's culpability in the high suicide rate of cotton farmers in Central India. (Time 5:00)
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We are now witnessing the beginning of the second Green Revolution in India, sometimes referred to as the "Gene Revolution". Although touted in the West as being the great rescuer of third-world farming, in this film the Indian food policy analyst Devinder Sharma explains how the original Green Revolution was a disaster for sustainable agriculture and for the environment.
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A documentary on GM crops, particularly Bt cotton, in India. The film covers losses suffered by farmers, allergies, animal deaths, field trial violations, state governments asserting their rights to reject GM, regulatory failures, and successful alternatives to GM. (Time for all 5 parts: 35:33)
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Dr Mira Shiva is a medical doctor and public health activist in India. She gave her feedback to public hearings on the introduction of Bt Brinjal (aubergine) in India. In February 2010, the Indian Government made a decision to halt the commercial production of GM Bt brinjal/aubergine/eggplant, which contains an insecticidal toxin protein from the soil bacterium Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis). In this video taken at Navdanya, Dehradun, India, Dr Mira Shiva speaks about her feedback to the public hearings on Bt Brinjal. (Time: 13:57)
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Vandana Shiva talks about why GM and chemical agriculture threatens food security in India. (Time: 6:02)
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In the following interview, Vandana Shiva explains the work done at the organisation she founded in 1987 – Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm and Bija Vidyapeeth, the research and training arm. She reiterates that ecological farming is pro-peace, pro- biodiversity, pro-culture and pro-livelihood for the poor. (Time: 16:40)
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Renowned filmmaker and social activist Mahesh Bhatt has launched a scathing attack on multinational biotech companies and their nexus with regulatory bodies for unleashing ‘bio-terrorism’ in the country. Speaking at a function organized to launch his new film, ‘Poison on the Platter‘, directed by Ajay Kanchan, Bhatt said, “In their mad rush to capture the multi-billion dollar Indian agricultural and food industry, the biotech MNCs are bulldozing warnings by scientists about the adverse impact of GM foods on health and environment, and hurtling mankind toward a disaster, which will be far more destructive than anything the world has seen so far, because it will affect every single person living on this planet”.
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Vandana Shiva speaking at "The Globalization Conference" in Oslo, November 2010. She touches on On Monsanto, bio-piracy, intellectual property, seed and life patenting, herbicide-resistant weeds, bt-cotton, bt-eggplant, biodiversity, the escalating cost for farmers, escalating farmer debt and suicides, the undermining of biodiversity, self-regulation and biosafety. (Total time: 18:46)
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Linn Cohen-Cole and Sean Croxton discuss farmer suicides in India and the link to Monsanto. (Time: 4:01)
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The Deccan Development Society aims to warn farmers of the dangers of introducing Bt Cotton and other GMOs onto their farms. This video, made by The Community Media Trust, a wing of the Deccan Development Society, charts the negative impact Bt Cotton has on farmers in the global South. (Time: 50:04)
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Film from India on risks of GM foods, including Bt brinjal (aubergine). Subtitles in English. (Time: 1:28)
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Genetically modified Bt brinjal could soon be on your dinner table. But activists say consumers are not even given a choice on whether to eat GM foods or not. (Time: 2:20)
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Monsanto rides roughshod over Indian cotton farmers, leaving a wake of false claims and doctored information, farmer debt and suicides, and sickened and dead livestock. (Time: 7:31)
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Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has put an indefinite moratorium on genetically modified brinjals, saying more information is needed on their impact on human health and the environment. (Time: 8:28)
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Excellent Greenpeace film (from India, with English subtitles) about the deaths and illnesses that occurred in sheep and goats after grazing on Bt cotton, as well as pest attacks and other problems with the crop. (Time: 16:30)
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Given that "public sentiment is negative", Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh says more information is needed on genetically modified Bt Brinjal's impact on human health. (Time: 0:51)