Deadly ‘Terminator’ Strikes Roots In The Country

In November and December ’98 farmers in Karnataka and A.P. burnt down field trial farms of genetically engineered cotton seeds set up by Mahyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co. Ltd) in collaboration with the US TNC Monsanto. This brought to light the fact that the Mahyco -Monsanto combine was secretly conducting field trials of ‘Terminator’ genes, while experimenting on the new pest-resistant Bollgard cotton seed. This created an uproar throughout the country, exposing the complicity of both State and Central Govts to a secret deal struck with US agri-business that will destroy the Indian farmer.

American agri-business is making major inroads into Indian agriculture by taking over the entire seed production of the country, by introducing dangerous genetically engineered strains. As India is the largest cotton growing country in the world, Monsanto has first targetted the cotton crop with the Bollgard (Bt) seed and Terminator gene, through its chief agent within the country, Mahyco.

Monsanto has field trials going on at 350 sites throughout the country where the Bt seed is being tested. While some opposition has been voiced on the Terminator gene, not a word of protest from the ruling class media has come on the Bollgard. The servile Indian Government has been allowing Monsanto to freely experiment on the Bollgard seed, while in the US, Monsanto has been forced in fact, to withdraw over 2 mn kilograms of this genetically engineered cotton seed. The Bt seed secretes a toxin throughout the plant’s life-cycle to make it resistant to major worms.

The negative aspect of these pesticide-secreting crops is that the presence of the toxin throughout the plant’s life-cycle is likely to encourage the development of resistant strains of common crop pests. Secondly, active toxin secreted by these plants may harm beneficial insects, moths and butterflies, in addition to those species that the growers may wish to eliminate. And these genetically manipulated crop plants can interbreed with weeds and contaminate other normal seeds thus threatening both conventional crops and resulting in the development of new resistant strains of weeds. The damaging effects of the Bollgard seed have not only led to its withdrawal in the USA, but Monsanto has had to make a multimillion dollar settlement with farmers over this seed in Sothern USA. Further, three farmers who refused to settle were awarded $ 2mn in damages. Inspite of this the Indian government allows this seed to be introduced in India.

The Terminator is even more deadly. It has a far reaching impact on the future of the agrarian economy ... the damage caused will be social, economical and ecological. Firstly, the terminator seed produces a toxin which destroys the next generation seed, thereby forcing the farmer to turn to the company each year to buy his seeds for planting. Next, this terminator seed can spread in an unplanned manner. It can spread to neighbouring farms through pollination ... thereby encompassing an entire area. once a few farmers have started using it.

Thirdly, the Terminator seeds, containing the toxin, may create as yet unknown harm to humans and animals consuming them. The toxin can also affect birds, insects and bacteria that eat or infect the seed. Besides what changes there may be in the composition of the grain after storage, is not yet known. And finally, all terminator seeds have to be soaked in tetracycline solution before sale... the antibiotic residue will have a long term disastrous impact not only on the soil ecology, but also on the workers handling the seeds.

Globalisation does not stop at control of lndia’s industry and finance, but also seeks a vice-like grip over Indian agriculture and our food production, thereby controlling the very life-line to the Indian people’s survival. Recently the giant US TNC, American Rice Inc. (ARI), took over Agro Tech India Ltd, a rice milling company promoted by the Punjab Agro Industries Corp. It is the first time ever that a TNC has been allowed to take over an Indian rice company !!

But, it is the giant Monsanto that is making the deepest inroads into our agriculture. Monsanto has set up a 50:50 joint venture with Mahyco. This research centre called Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech Ltd is the company that is at present conducting the field trials on Bollgard cotton seed. In addition, in April 1998 Monsanto bought a 26% stake in Mahyco itself.

But this is not all. In May 1998, Monsanto also struck an agreement with the Indian Institute of Science (II Sc) Bangalore, to set up a huge ultra-modern facility to conduct research in transgenic genes. Monsanto has planned an investment of $25 mn in a laboratory at the II Sc, which will allow the TNC access to Indian germ plasm (crop varieties). This agreement has been shrouded in secrecy - hidden from the public but.with the full knowledge of the State Govt and the Centre. In fact, while the American vampires hover over the Indian countryside, our traitorius rulers are readying the Indian farmer as juicy prey.

When farmers attacked the suspected field trials, the Indian rulers, both at the Centre and at the State level, started defending Monsanto denying any experimentation with the Terminator. This, inspite of the fact that the Union Minister of Rural Development B. Patil stated that he “ has received information that Monsanto is developing and conducting field trials on the ‘terminator gene’ seeds at a private farm in Ranebennur taluk of Haveri district (Karnataka)”. He added that, “there is every possibility of the company resorting to such trials in other states.”

Inspite of this admission, the Karnataka agricultural minister, has said that there is no connection between Monsanto’s genetically engineered Bollgard cotton seed and the terminator gene... and yet in order to diffuse discontent he has set up a high level committee to inspect the sites of the field trials. Worse, the ‘lap-(top) dog’ A.P. Chief Minister, running to the support of Monsanto, immediately declared that he has proof that the terminator seed technology was not involved in the trials. Such prompt denials are amazing given the fact that several scientists, including an official of the Department of Biotechnology have admitted that they do not yet possess the ability to test whether a seed has been genetically modified.

The press has also carried a series of planted articles. by pliable journalists seeking to confuse the issue and protraying Monsanto and their agents in positive light. The Seeds Association of India, has gone so far as to openly support Monsanto’s stand on terminator and said that, “development of new technologies should not be hampered by apprehensions over gene protection.”

For all its patriotic rhetoric, the BJP Govt at the Centre has secretly worked out a plan to facilitate the penetration of imperialist gene technology into the country. The Govt has decided to set up a Cotton Technology Mission with a view to develop new varieties and plant protection technologies ... this is in fact, just what Monsanto is doing! They have allocated a sum as large as Rs. 750 crores for this over the next five years. In other words, the Govt plans to subsidise Monsanto’s research in India. Not surprising, the ‘nodal agency’ for this Mission is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) which was the chief agency of the Green Revolution in India. It would be worth recollecting that this ICAR had a joint program with the Rockfeller Foundation in the 1960s for research in hybrid crops - they worked so closely together that in the field, that Foundation people acted as ICAR staff. And even more coincidentally, the first and chief agent for marketing Green Revolution seeds in India, Mahyco, is the main collaborator of Monsanto in India today.

Unknown to most people, the ‘terminator gene’ patent has already been filed in India, over three years back, in November 1995. The patent, by the name Terminator, had been jointly filed at Chennai, by the Delta & Pine Ltd (now taken over by Monsanto) and the US Govt. This became possible due to the ‘mailbox mechanism’ that India was forced to set up as part of the WTO’s requirements prior to India amending her patent law. For all BJP’s tall talk, it is a known fact that once India’s patent laws are fully compatible with WTO’s terms, there is no way one can stop them from invoking this patent in India. And recently, the Govt has issued an Ordinance to amend the Patent Act to keep to the WTO deadline of April 19, 1999.

For living up to his loyal credentials as chief agent of US agri-business in India, the Chairman of Mahyco, B.R. Barwale, was awarded the 1998 World Food prize of Rs. one crore ($250,000). Barwale certainly has a particularly ‘distinguished’ record of having been cultivated and groomed by the imperialists.

The metamorphosis of Barwale from big landlord - with 350 acres in Jalna, Maharashtra - to chief comprador took place in 1963 when the green revolution was being ushered into India. Barwale, then a local producer and trader of seeds, was the first Indian to market and produce hybrid seeds provided by the Rockfeller Foundation in league with the ICAR. Mahyco was founded in 1964 and it soon set up a chain of research stations and labs with technical assistance provided by the Rockfeller Foundation. Today more than 73,000 cultivators in various states are under contract to grow seeds for Mahyco and it has an annual turnover of Rs. 130 crores.

Now the Rockfeller Foundation has been replaced by Monsanto and it is this wide network of research, production and distribution that the TNC will use to introduce its gene technology into India. This, combined with the infrastructure and money provided.by the Govt and research staff provided by the educational institutions, will allow Monsanto to wreck havoc in India’s countryside. While these comprador agents get a few crumbs off the Monsanto table, India’s farmers will get pauperised by being tied to US agri-business, and the country’s ecology and bio-diversity will be permanently destroyed.

If such a calamity is to be prevented, the Indian people must continue attacks on these rapacious TNCs as initiated by the farmers of Karnataka and AP. In Bagladesh the Grameen Bank was forced to scrap its agreement with Monsanto. Already over 50 farmer and peasant/agricultural labour organisations under the banner of JAFIP have come together to oppose WTO policies. Such organisations must be strengthened and given more teeth. Thus effective blows can delivered against the imperialist invasion, facilitated by their local agents in India.

Monsanto - A Corporation Of Chemical And Genetic Warfare

In the US, Monsanto has been well known as a leading chemical corporation that has been repeatedly indicted for ecological damage and extensive harm to people’s health. It ranks fifth in the US EPA’s list of corporations that have severely damaged land, water, air and the underground. It has been exposed for its swindles, coverups, and its arm twisting tactics against those who have stood up against it. And Monsanto has been an important collaborator in the development of chemical warfare weapons for the US Government.

Monsanto rose from being a small manufacturing concern for artificial sweetners set up in 1901 to an industrial chemicals giant by the end of the 1920s. By the 1940s plastics and synthetic fibres was the centrepiece of its business. It is responsible for the first major disaster in the chemicals industry in 1947, when a freighter carrying ammonium nitrate blew up 270 feet from its plant in Texas killing over 500 people.

Monsanto’s main product was an organo-chlorine called PCBs and its main plant located in East St Louis, Illinois has been responsible for serious harm to the people and ecology of the region. According to a study, East St Lotuis, a poor suburb, has some of the sickest children in the US. It has reported the highest rate of foetal deaths in the US. Much of the world’s oceans have been polluted by PCBs. The manufacture of PCBs was banned in the US in 1976 after repeated exposure of its toxicity. Monsanto was also responsible for the famous Times Beach dioxin contamination incident in nearby Missouri. But Monsanto used its closeness to the Reagan administration to scuttle thorough investigation and wriggle out of responsibility in this case.

But Monsanto’s association with dioxin related poisoning is much older and begins with the chronic sickness of many of its workers in its West Virginia herbicide plant in the late 1940s. With the typical nefariousness and ruthlessness of these imperialist corporations, Monsanto hid the fact that it was dioxin induced sickness, but it used the knowledge of the chemical related sickness of its workers to secretly coordinate with the US Army to develop dioxin etc as agents of chemical warfare in the 1950s.

Hence Monsanto was one of the main producers of Agent Orange used widely by the US forces in the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was used as a foliant to destroy crops and forest cover of the Vietnamese guerrillas. If this was not bad enough, the chemical weapon produced by Monsanto had a much higher concentration of dioxin than that produced by the other manufacturers.

Therefore in an out of court settlement brought against Monsanto and six other chemical companies by affected Vietnam War veterans Monsanto was ordered to pay 45.5% of the $180 mn settlement. The damage caused to the Vietnamese people has never been calculated. During this trial it came to light that many Monsanto products, from its popular herbicide Roundup to the ‘Lysol’ brand disinfectant were contaminated with dioxin. And all this was denied by Monsanto through false health studies and extensive disinformation.

With Monsanto having shifted its focus to biotechnology the same methods are being used in this field to fulfill its aims of world domination and high profits. But its development and aggressive promotion of recombitant Bovine Growth Hormone (for dairy cows) and ‘Roundup Ready’ soyabeans and insect resistant varieties of cotton seeds etc has been facing militant opposition in the US and Western Europe. Monsanto has been carrying out a publicity blitzkrieg to promote its image as a nature friendly company, "a saviour of a starving world", while developing and manipulating genetic technology in order to achieve domination and control over agricultural and dairy production. In this it has the full support of the US Government ...not surprising, considering Clinton’s ally and former US Trade Representative, Mickey Kantor is now one of the Directors of Monsanto Corporation.

(Courtesy Ecologist - Sept/Oct. ’98)