The Seeds Of Suicide: How Monsanto Destroys Farming
Warning: This article contains disturbing photos From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Why Are Indian Farmers Committing Suicide and How Can We Stop This Tragedy? In a land where reincarnation is a commonly held belief, where the balance sheet of life is sorted out over lifetimes, where resilience and recovery has been the characteristic of the “kisan,” the peasant cultivation, why are Indian farmers committing suicide on a mass scale? 200,000 farmers have ended their lives since 1997. Farmers’ suicides are the most tragic and dramatic symptom of the crisis of survival faced by Indian peasants. Rapid increase in indebtedness is at the root of farmers’ taking their lives. Debt is a reflection of a negative economy. Two factors have transformed agriculture from a positive economy into a negative economy for peasants: the rising of costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities. Both these factors are rooted in the policies of trade liberalization and corpo...