permaculture

[Steve Hoog <livingpotentials@yahoo.com>]

Looks like India has sold it's agricultural soul for some nuclear 
energy--steve h

  Good letter in Sunday Morning Call -- another big giveaway to 
corporations. Our Senators and Rep should be ashamed of 
themselves...... -Peter

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Morning Call December 17, 2006

U.S.-India agreement will hurt retailers, farmers

Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, and Rep. Charlie Dent recently 
signed on to a nuclear trade agreement with India. Hidden in that 
agreement was the "Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture", consisting 
of three sectors: the seed sector, primarily represented by Monsanto; 
the trade sector, represented by giant agri-business; and the retail 
sector, represented by Wal-Mart.

The World Trade Organization and the United States have been busy 
orchestrating this agreement with the Indian government to force 
Indian farmers to purchase non-renewable seeds from corporations like 
Monsanto and Cargill. For centuries, peasants throughout the world 
have been planting their own seeds, harvested from the previous 
year's crops at no cost to the farmer. Now, all farmers in India will 
be forced to purchase their genetically modified seeds from Monsanto 
at the going market rate every planting season.

The trade portion of the new agreement is a giant land grab in which 
Indian farmers are being forced off their land by giant agri- 
businesses such as ADM and Con-Agra. The Indian government is 
utilizing state and old colonial laws to force peasants off their lands.

Wal-Mart is poised to open 500 new stores in a country of 400 million 
potential customers. Small Indian retailers will be forced out of 
business; they will not be able to compete with such a giant retailer.

The people of the United States are being kept in the dark about the 
trade practices designed by Paul Wolfowitz of the World Trade 
Organization and then rubber-stamped by Congress. Depriving farmers 
of their land in order to maximize profits of giant corporations will 
only serve to create more injustice for the poor and more hatred 
toward the United States. It's time the people of this country demand 
a change in the way we do business around the world.

Louise A. Legun
Allentown
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