Call for International Treaty
by Jim Syfers, Editor
Beginning in the 1980's a variety of causes -- mechanization of agriculture, IMF and government policies, globalization -- have forced millions of the world’s small farmers into cities where they have become part of what the World Bank calls the "flexible labor force". For most this means living in a wooden crate and cardboard box slum and joining a daily scrimage for the few temporary jobs that may be available. In India their numbers are estimated at over 150 million. Once in the city slum they generally can’t go back since their places in the native village have been taken. Others, facing debt they cannot possibly handle, commit suicide. In 1997 these farmer suicides in India numbered over 13,000.
Since 2002 there has been a further problem for the small farmers of India. With the cooperation of the Indian government, Monsanto Corporation persuaded many thousands of farmers to invest in their "high yield" (and high priced) varieties of genetically modified cotton. Cotton modified to produce the bacterial toxin Bt in all its cells, or cotton modified to be herbicide resistant. But the yields were not high. They were in fact too low to pay for the seed, fertilizer and pesticides used to grow them.
Trouble was first manifest when field workers had allergic reactions to the Bt cotton crops, sending some to hospital. Then the crops developed a fungus infection called Lalya, theorized by some to be a result of the degradation of the soil by the Bt in the roots of the cotton. This was followed by massive infections of mealy bug, a pest not previously found in Indian cotton and impervious to Bt. In addition, over 1800 sheep that were allowed to graze in the cotton fields after harvest were reported to have died. The poor yields and higher costs meant more debt and the wave of suicides continued, reaching a peak of 18,241 in 2004, despite relief efforts by the government. It is hard to imagine the extent of the social devastation that must be the result of these suicides.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights commits states party to the treaty "to improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge...". As the above ongoing tragedy illustrates, however, there are grave dangers involved in placing scientific knowledge in the unregulated service of profit making corporations. Several organizations in the UK -- The Institute for Science in Society (ISIS) and Scientists for Global Responsibility -- are currently calling for an international convention (treaty) on knowledge. Such a convention would require, for example, that knowledge serve the public interest, that it cannot be privately owned, and that it promote a sustainable society. The full draft of the proposed convention is available on the ISIS website, which has been tracking the disaster in India in a series of articles. isis.org