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  • From: Steve Hoog <livingpotentials@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: India agreement will hurt retailers, farmers
  • Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 06:54:02 -0800 (PST)

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

-----------------------------------------------------

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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  • [permaculture] Fwd: India agreement will hurt retailers, farmers, Steve Hoog, 12/21/2006

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