-Deccan Chronicle The slogan was that there would never again be scarcity of food because we can now make “bread from air”. There are two distinct futures of food and farming. One leads to a dead end. A dead planet: poisons and chemical monocultures spreading; farmers committing suicide due to debt for seeds and chemicals; children dying due to lack of food; people dying because of chronic diseases spreading due to nutritionally empty, toxic...
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Beware the kill switch of agriculture -Prabhakaran Nair
-The Indian Express Makka ki roti aur sarson ka sag is a popular food item in northern India, in particular, Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh where both maize and mustard are widely grown. All vegetarian dishes made in much of northern, eastern and western India are cooked in mustard (sarson) oil. Why, suddenly, has mustard taken centre stage? GM mustard has begun to stir both the scientific and activist lobbies,...
More »Kalahandi to grow more cotton this year
-The New Indian Express BHAWANIPATNA: Cotton will be raised on 55,000 hectares (ha) of land in the current kharif season across Kalahandi, one of the major cotton growing districts in the State. With weather being conducive, sowing of cotton seeds has been completed on 45,550 ha and by next week, coverage will exceed the targeted area, said agriculture officials. Each hectare gives a yield of eight to 10 quintals. Kalahandi district contributes...
More »Why 'one nation, one MSP' is not working -Rajalakshmi Nirmal
-The Hindu Business Line Varied production costs, low-grade produce, limited surplus are key factors Farmers across many States, including Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, are up in arms demanding implementation of the National Commission on Farmers report, which suggested fixing the minimum support price (MSP) for crops 50 per cent above the cost of production. But the MSP of many crops already has a built-in profit margin of 40-50 per cent. So, what is...
More »Sarson Satyagraha: Activists up in arms over genetically modified food -
-The Indian Express In May this year, a regulatory body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, had given its go-ahead for cultivation of genetically modified mustard. Earlier, it was Bt cotton that was genetically modified and its ill-effects on the ecology are for all to see. Chandigarh: PEOPLE CONCERNED about changes being made in their food, especially at the genetic level, came together at the Sukhna Lake on Friday morning under...
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