Tell Monsanto To Stop Driving Thousands of Farmers to Suicide
- by: Concerned Citizens
- recipient: Monsanto Corporation and Other GM Seed Producers; Government of India
Millions of Indian farmers, promised increased crop yields and income, borrowed money to switch from using traditional seeds to planting genetically modified (GM) seeds. But as harvests have failed and families were left with insurmountable debts, an estimated 125,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide, usually by eating insecticide, and died in despair.
GM seed producers like Monsanto promised farmers that the GM seed, which costs a thousand times as much as traditional seeds, would be parasite- and insect-free. Yet those same crops have been devastated by bollworms and proved less drought-resistant than those grown with traditional seeds.
In the past, when crops failed, farmers would save seeds and replant them the next year. But GM seeds make this impossible: they have been modified so that farmers have to buy new seeds each year.
Sign now to call on Monsanto to intervene in this crisis by providing financial assistance to farmers suffering from otherwise inescapable debt.
We the undersigned call on you to intervene in the humanitarian crisis in which an estimated 125,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide in the wake of a transition to genetically modified seeds. Genetically modified seed producers and government officials promised farmers that GM seed, which costs a thousand times as much as traditional seeds, would be parasite- and insect-free, yet the same crops have been devastated by bollworms and proved less drought resistant than those grown with traditional seeds. Because of so-called "terminator technology," farmers are unable to save seeds to replant the following year, driving them deeper into debt. We call on you to help put a stop to this crisis by providing financial assistance to farmers suffering from inescapable debt due to the use of GM seeds.
