|
|
|
|
|
|
文章评论 |
|
|
|
作者:wwni60 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-07 19:15:49 |
|
|
Once again you have used news media as a source. News media are known to create sensational stories without vigorous factual validation.
I did not find the information you quoted from this Saturday's Globe and Mail, but did find a similar article published in 2007 at Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/dream-farms-turning-into-nightmares/article689330/?page=all. A few paragraphs you quoted are identical to the old publication. It looks like this new article is regurgitated from the 2007 article. As usual the old article provided no citations as to where all these numbers were derived. Again these accusation have been proved false based on 2013 Nature publication (+ ~60 citations) and a lot of citations listed in Wikipedia I have cited. For example the sentence "In the past five years, around 11,387 farmers nation-wide have committed suicide" was cited in 2007 publication. I can't believe that the same sentence was cited again in 2015 according to your quotes. In another word there were 11,387 suicide between 2002 and 2007, and exactly 11,387 between 2009 and 2014.
As to 290,000 suicides in past 20 years this is nothing new and the number is better than expected. Prior to GMO introduction to India in 2002 Indian farmer's suicide is hovering around 15000 to 17000 a year. The expected total suicide number should be more than 300,000 in 20 years.
There are some truth to extra financial burden some farmers accumulate due to more expensive GMO seeds, partially because that 1) people who give out loans are asking 60% interest and 2)some non-cotton farmers switched to farm cotton due to promises of high return that GMO cottons will generate. Due to in-experience and adverse environmental conditions these farmers may lose crops. But that is not GMO but bad business environment to blame. Overall the cotton yield per unit land has increase by 24% since the introduction of GMO cotton and cotton farmers income has increased by 50%. The pesticide use in India's cotton field has decreased by 10 to 50+%.
I will stop here and do not want to waste time to make a point against a statement generated from proven false, regurgitated, no fact-check news media. |
|
|
|
作者:香椿树1 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-07 17:16:17 |
|
|
Monsanto, which has just paid out $2.4 million to US farmers, settling one of many lawsuits it’s been involved in worldwide, is also facing accusations that its seeds are to blame for a spike in suicides by India farmers.
The accusations have not transformed into legal action so far, but criticism of Monsanto has been mounting, blaming the giant company for contributing to over 290,000 suicides by Indian farmers over the last 20 years.
“The people would give out the loans if they believed these seeds would give the greatest yields,” Krimsky told RT. “So they are not going to get a loan if they don’t go with the GMOs. And many of them felt coerced to take the GM seeds. The GM crops have not done as well in all regions of India... [That has led to] much greater indebtedness with the GM crops that did not perform as well.” |
|
|
|
作者:香椿树1 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-07 17:07:49 |
|
|
"In the past five years, around 11,387 farmers nation-wide have committed suicide, according to a study completed by a group of Indian think tanks this month".
"Why so many dead farmers, and why now? This is not a case of abject poverty: In fact, these are among India's less destitute farmers, in material terms. The villages are prosperous, most houses have colour TV and access to telephones, and most larger villages have excellent schools and agricultural universities. This has baffled authorities in India and the West. After visiting a dozen families, though, a surprising set of patterns becomes clear." |
|
|
|
作者:香椿树1 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-07 17:03:26 |
|
|
<Seeds of debt sow suicide in India> From Saturday's Globe and Mail, Canada |
|
|
|
作者:wwni60 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-07 06:10:54 |
|
|
Haha, Now I understand where you get your facts, the news media. This was an old news even debunked by India government. The data indicated from Wikipedia I cited above indicates the farmer suicide rate due to debt burden is less than 3%. Of the 3% I am not sure how many of them are cotton farmers and how many grow Bt cotton. A recent publication (2013) from Nature (http://www.nature.com/news/case-studies-a-hard-look-at-gm-crops-1.12907) indicates that number of Indian farmer suicide is in the range between 15000 to 17000 from 1997 to 2007. The India's Bt cotton adaptation started in 2002 and did not really take off until 2005. So there is NO correlation between the suicide rates and Bt cotton use, let along the causation! Here is the quote from the Nature publication
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subtitle: GM cotton has driven farmers to suicide: False During an interview in March, Vandana Shiva, an environmental and feminist activist from India, repeated an alarming statistic: “270,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide since Monsanto entered the Indian seed market,” she said. “It’s a genocide.”
The claim, based on an increase in total suicide rates across the country in the late 1990s, has become an oft-repeated story of corporate exploitation since Monsanto began selling GM seed in India in 2002.
But, says Glover, “it is nonsense to attribute farmer suicides solely to Bt cotton”. Although financial hardship is a driving factor in suicide among Indian farmers, there has been essentially no change in the suicide rate for farmers since the introduction of Bt cotton.
That was shown by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC, who scoured government data, academic articles and media reports about Bt cotton and suicide in India. Their findings, published in 2008 (ref. 4) and updated in 2011 (ref. 5), show that the total number of suicides per year in the Indian population rose from just under 100,000 in 1997 to more than 120,000 in 2007. But the number of suicides among farmers hovered at around 20,000 per year over the same period.
And since its rocky beginnings, Bt cotton has benefited farmers, says Matin Qaim, an agricultural economist at Georg August University in Göttingen, Germany, who has been studying the social and financial impacts of Bt cotton in India for the past 10 years. In a study of 533 cotton-farming households in central and southern India, Qaim found that yields grew by 24% per acre between 2002 and 2008, owing to reduced losses from pest attacks6. Farmers’ profits rose by an average of 50% over the same period, owing mainly to yield gains (see ‘A steady rate of tragedy’). Given the profits, Qaim says, it is not surprising that more than 90% of the cotton now grown in India is transgenic. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If your story is true then there is one problem here. Indian farmers have come to overwhelmingly embrace genetically modified cotton. Yet there is an enduring belief that Bt cotton has failed in India, with tragic consequences. As someone has said "It is hard to imagine farmers spreading a technology that is literally killing them.”
India’s agricultural minister said in 2012 that the country “has harvested an average of 5.1 million tons of cotton per year, which is well above the highest production of 3 million tons before the introduction of Bt cotton.” India is the world’s second-biggest cotton producer, behind China. BTW, Bt cotton makes 80+% of all cotton grown in China.
Finally I would like to end the argument with my own experience. I was born in a farming village north of Shanghai. We grew corn as main food staple and cotton for income. I had sprayed cotton insecticides all summer at an age of 14 until I left my hometown at age of 17 (1977). People there did not realize that all surface water system was contaminated with pesticide yet they continued use the water for everything including drinking. Many people have died at an earlier age including my mom, she was died of cancer 25 years ago before she was 60. A quarter of my playmates have died before they reach 50. If we had Bt cotton then we probably would have used a lot less pesticide, life of these farmers would have been prolonged for many years. |
|
|
|
作者:香椿树1 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-06 21:34:55 |
|
|
Monsanto’s GMO Seeds Blamed For Suicide Rate Rising For Farmers In India http://www.inquisitr.com/1670760/monsantos-gmo-seeds-suicide-rate-rising-farmers-india/ |
|
|
|
作者:香椿树1 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-06 21:31:41 |
|
|
The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html#ixzz3WavDoLJr Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook |
|
|
|
作者:wwni60 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-06 17:32:16 |
|
|
Many Chinese writers like draw conclusios or make statements bases on heresays instead of factual data. In this case I can understand that the writers does not like numbers or may not understand statistics. But if you want convince someone, please do some goole search! |
|
|
|
作者:wwni60 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-06 17:18:37 |
|
|
Reasons for farm suicides.¶ (in 2002)[21] Percent (of suicides) Habits like drinking, gambling, etc. 20.35 Failure of crops 16.81 Other reasons (e.g. chit fund) 15.04 Family problems with spouse, others 13.27 Chronic illness 9.73 Marriage of daughters 5.31 Political affiliation 4.42 Property disputes 2.65 Debt burden 2.65 Price crash 2.65 Borrowing too much (e.g. for house construction) 2.65 Losses in non-farm activities 1.77 Failure of bore well 0.88 ¶Note: "Reasons were given by close relatives and friends. There are multiple reasons for suicides. Not even one case was given only one reason."[21] for suicide |
|
|
|
作者:wwni60 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-06 17:13:02 |
|
|
Please read this link before making any unsubstantiated claims. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_suicides_in_India |
|
|
|
作者:wwni60 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-06 17:03:44 |
|
|
Sorry, I should have said "..... WITHOUT factual evidence..." |
|
|
|
作者:wwni60 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-06 17:00:49 |
|
|
I am amazed that people can make claims with factual evidence to support. |
|
|
|
作者:wwni60 |
|
留言时间:2015-04-06 17:00:41 |
|
|
I am amazed that people can make claims with factual evidence to support. |
|
|
|
|