Sunday, October 18, 2009

NEED FOR SEED

NEED FOR SEED
Hey Folks in the States who can so easily procure whatever you desire, please give us hand, or, uh, rather some seeds to grow with.
The situation in this part of india and perhaps most of India is that the local farmers have been led down a dysfunctional path which some of you may be aware of - - which is that the large seed and fertilizer companies and the banks have sold and loaned the farmers into insolvency and failure so that 46 farmers a day are committing suicide. Please read this article for further information about this travesty. And, what we notice here locally, is that there is now a very narrow range of food types available for purchase at the markets.
We would like to grow our own organic food for consumption at FM and also be able to help the indigenous peoples here return to true heritage seeds. When I recently asked a local what we could do for them, he said, get us good seeds. The practice has been, I am told for the large seeds companies sell the farmers on buying their hybrid “high yield” seeds, promising them riches, only find later after borrowing money from the bank, that they must buy the companies fertilizer and pesticides to make the plants produce, and the seeds of many of these hybrids and GMO plants are sterile and will not produce plants for the next wave of plantings, so the farmers must buy more. A bad year for crops can result in the farmer not being able to keep up with the bank payments and as a result he loses his land and his ability to feed his family and his respect, leading to many regrettable suicides.
Well, while we are not ready to reform the agricultural systems of India, we would like to supply ourselves¸ our workers, and the locals as it becomes possible, with healthy organic food and some simple practices which will provide more and better nourishment for us/them

1 comment:

  1. I've read about the sterile seeds. It's really intense that the agricultural area surrounding Fire Mountain has been conned into using them. What seeds would you like us to send over for yourselves, workers and other locals??

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