This is an interview on CNN between Dr. Vandana Shiva who works with farming communities across India and Columbia University Economics Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, a former adviser to the Indian government. They are discussing the surge in suicides among India's farmers and relating it to a system of agriculture that has higher production costs than the farmer can cover with earnings.
(CNN) - Thousands of poor farmers in India have committed suicide over the past decade as changes in India's agricultural policy set off a widening spiral of debt and despair. It was estimated that a total of 200,000 farmers have taken their own life.
Shiva is linking the suicides to corporate control of the seeds-- "The farmer suicides started in 1997. That's when the corporate seed control started. And it's directly related to indebtedness, and indebtedness created by two factors linked to globalization." The two factors Shiva discusses were the ceding of control of the seed supply to the corporate chemical industry which lead to increased production costs for already-struggling farmers and the other factor being the falling food prices in a global agricultural economy.
During the interview, Shiva states, "The combination is unpayable debt, and it's the day the farmer is going to lose his land for chemicals and seeds, that is the day the farmer drinks pesticide, And it's totally related to a negative economy, of an agriculture that costs more in production than the farmer can ever earn."
On the other hand, Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, does not relate the suicide surge to globalization and he states, "There are other states in India where cotton seeds have been absorbed and which are really prosperous. So you have to ask, why is it that these are breaking out? What's happening is very much like the subprime mortgages in the United States, where a whole bunch of salesmen went out and sold mortgages to people who couldn't afford them."
I had no idea this was going on in India. It was astonishing how Bhagwati called the death of 200,000 "insignificant". But I loved how Dr. Shiva stood her ground. I will include a link to the video of the interview/debate.
Click the link below!
Video Interview with Dr. Shiva and Professor Jagdish Bhagwati
--Lauren Kelly
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