The impact
you make, rest assured, will be felt not only across our shared biodiversity,
but also across the food bowls of generations of Indians to follow.
But before
you look at the future, a word about the past.
Threats to our
biodiversity are not new. In fact, they date back to the 1960s, when
the Green Revolution began India's irreversible slide towards a grossly
homogenised agriculture. For example, while in the late 1950s around
1700 rice varieties were cultivated in the Jeypore tract of the State
of Orissa, by 1996 the number had dwindled to just around 300 varieties.
Do we have to make such a trade-off? Are there alternatives? Are we
thinking about sustainable agriculture? Pesticides? Fertilizers?
Organic farming? Is the debate skewed? Can all of this be debated in
isolation from each other? Is there space for larger questions to be
asked?
For now, it's the turn of the Gene Revolution. Another so-called
miracle at our door, Genetic Engineering (GE), is being touted as the
new one-stop solution to all our new problems. Forgotten in this mad
haste to find the ultimate cure is the fact that many problems in
Indian agriculture today are by-products of the earlier Green
Revolution.
You can
stop us from making the same mistakes again,
by participating in the debate and getting involved. Read
through the proposed Draft National Biotech Development Strategy, then act.
Given the long-term irreversible impact of this policy,
civil society groups from around the country have come together
to draft a memorandum addressed to Kapil
Sibal, Minister of Science and Technology. Joining Greenpeace in articulating
their concerns are farmers’ organisations, agricultural scientists, lawyers,
social/political and development activists, as well as sustainable agriculture
groups working with farmers.
These groups include people who have been working on issues
related to natural resource management (specifically sustainable agriculture),
with a collective experience of decades of work at grassroot level, and
supported by tens of thousands of farmers and agricultural workers across the
country.
You can add to their efforts by signing a petition in response to the National
Biotechnology Strategy Development paper. Tell the minister what you think
about it, and why your voice must be included in framing a policy whose effects
exclude no-one.
By acting now, you can help shape a future with food
security for all, not just for those
who can afford it.
ACT NOW! Save your food. Save biodiversity.
ACT NOW! Save your food. Save biodiversity.
Donate to save biodiversity and your food.
Donate to save biodiversity and your food.