Dr. Thierry Vrain in Surrey, a critique of Genetically Engineered agriculture

Posted on by
Reply

This is the seventh video I have filmed, edited and put up, on Dr. Thierry Vrain. The first three of them were on his organic farm (Innisfree Farm) in Comox valley. The next three were short clips of me interviewing him in his study, about GMO and why there were cause for serious concern on the value, and business plan, of GM crops.Thierry Vrain

And then he came to Surrey, BC, to address general public at the Northwood United Church in front of three hundred people. He made an hour long speech accompanied with a powerpoint presentation projected on a large screen behind him. Thierry, in his soft and patient manner, untangles the long story of how the GMOs came to interest the farmers on the promise of lowering labour in weed and pest control efforts, by replacing it with easily available and applicable pesticides, and also by using specialized genetically engineered crops that are either tolerant to specific pesticide/herbicide or produce toxins themselves, that would kill the pests without the need for additional pesticide. That, initially, worked like magic, and saved a lot of labor for the farmers. But, the gain was to be short lived, while the damage and danger, turned out to be rather ominous for the health of the people as well as sustainability of a biologically diverse ecology.

Where Thierry is especially effective is explaining to the general public about the intricacies of genetics, and how the GMO technology is not as precise and controlled as people normally associate high tech science to be.

His hour long presentation was received in virtual pin drop silence by the rapt group of listeners, only some of whom had already some knowledge about GMO, while a large group had not much idea of what GMO really is and how much one should be concerned regarding the business plan, the science, the process and the end product of Genetically Engineered Agriculture.

This remarkable event came to be thanks to the following groups :

Event Sponsors 
1. Coalition for a GE free Surrey
2. GMO free Langley
3. The Council of Canadians
Media and Other Sponsors / help groups
1. Raoul Bedi, Conscious Media Consultant and Food Security writer , of the Vedic Harmony Centre.
2. Andrew Rezmer of Conscious Living Radio
3. THE BOVINE blog.
4. GE free BC
5. Tony Mitra : tonu.org

Aruna Rodrigues, the Supreme Court of India, The Government, and GMO

Posted on by
Reply

Ms. Aruna Rodrigues describes herself as an ordinary citizen of India. And yet, she has taken on an extraordinary endeavour. She has, through a writ petition in the supreme court of India, challenged the Government of India, no less, in its reckless promotion of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). She hopes to have the court to put a stop to bringing in all GMO, and set up completely independent regulatory body that can be influenced neither by the politicians nor by the biotech industry, to conduct safety tests on these GMO against possible risk to humans as well as natural biodiversity of the nation.

Aruna Rodrigues

Aruna Rodrigues

She started on that case about ten years ago, and it took her two years to gather sufficient data to file the case, in 2005. The famous case is now drawing to a close, and many feel that she has an even chance, and some claim it is better than an even chance, that she might succeed.

At stake here might be the very future of India’s food security and food sovereignty. There has been many in recent years that claim that India’s science and commercial institutions are being used to solve American problems, often at the disadvantage of India’s own interests. Some claim that this agenda comes high up from the Govt, and that it may be a sell-off of national interest for the purpose of assisting foreign commercial goals.

Of relevance here ia a special clause in the Indian constitution, in article 32, which might be unique to India and absent in other democracies, which gives the power to an ordinary citizen of India, to challenge the Government in the Supreme Court, if the citizen’s basic and fundamental rights, as guaranteed in the constitution, are infringed upon by the Government.

Also of relevance is the Cartagena Convention on Biological Diversity, often called the Cartagena Protocol, which came into force in 2003 and to which India is a signatory. This protocol seeks to protect the biological diversity of individual nations, against possible threat by introduced Living Modified Organisms (LMO) created by the Biotech industry, and which might be imported through trade negotiations. This protocol in fact became the binding international agreement on Biosafety. The Protocol stipulates, among other things, that parties shall consult the public in decision-making processes and place important decisions in this regard in the public domain. India, in spite of having signed it, may not have followed the protocol in the manner in which it promoted GMO.

And so, I had requested Aruna for a telephone talk on record, for the purpose of creating a public awareness podcast on this important issue, which affects not just India, but literally half the world. The famous court case is drawing to a close. There are many that hope, myself included, that she might actually win the case, and force the Government of India in doing what is right for the people of India, and stop this reckless introduction of untested and possibly unsafe GMO products to promote interests of foreign biotech corporations.

The under 19 minute podcast can be listened to by clicking the play button at the bottom of this page. Alternately, folks can also subscribe to my podcast from iTunes, and have it downloaded for listening at leisure through their iPhone or iPod etc.

My thanks go to Ms Aruna Rodrigues for allowing me to speak to her on a short notice.
I shall be happy to receive your feedback – at tony.mitra@gmail.com

Relevant Reference:
  1. Order of the Supreme Court in 2012, about formation of expert committee : http://indiankanoon.org/doc/126946252/
  2. PDF copy of the original interim report from the Expert Committee, as submitted to the Supreme Court of India in 2012, essentially recommending that field trials of GMO be stopped till instruments are put in place and independent safety assessment study can be done effectively : http://indiagminfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/SC-TEC-interim-report-oct17th-2012-GMO-PIL.pdf
  3. A report from Hindu, in 2012, about the first (interim) report of the expert committee to the Supreme court, essentially recommending a 10 year ban on all field trials of GMO : http://indiankanoon.org/doc/126946252/
  4. A report from David Andow (one of the scientist whose report was presented to the Indian supreme court) on Bt.Brinjal : https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/science_acj/Xu3sTURqQk
  5. Article from Raw Earth Living on Bt. Brinjal : http://rawearthliving.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/legal-cases-laid-ground-for-gmo-bt-brinjal-ban-india/
  6. Cartagena Protocol : http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/text/
  7. List of Signatories to the Cartagena Protocol (note USA and Canada are almost the only countries missing) : http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/parties/
Aruna Rodrigues challenges Govt. of India about GMO [ 18:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Dave Goulson on Neonicotinoid insecticide affecting wellbeing of bees

Posted on by
Reply

There is a marked difference to the attitude of people across the atlantic, when it comes to acceptance of industrial chemicals into our food system, and Europe is providing to be more cautious than North America. The case of neonicotinoids insecticide is an example. The EU have imposed temporary ban on a few of these chemical, whereas there is no similar movement in the North American continent that I know of. This ban was based on a few high end research done on the effect of these insect nerve agents. There are many news articles from Europe that cover this story, as exampled here in the screen shot on the British news outlet – The Guardian. You can click on the image and go to the source.

One of the important scientific reports that was pivotal in EU reaching a decision to ban some neonicotinoids was done by Prof. Dave Goulson, currently with the University of Sussex in the UK. He was gracious enough to speak with me on phone for the purpose of this podcast.

Prof. Goulson studied Biology at Oxford University, and did a PhD on butterfly ecology at Oxford Brookes University. THen he served as a lecturer at University of Southampton for 11 years, where he specialized in bumblebee ecology and conservation. In 2006 he became Professor of Biology and Stirling University and in 2006, founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a charity devoted to reversing bumblebee declines. In 2013 he moved to Sussex University.

Dave Goulson

Dave Goulson

Dr. Goulson has published over 200 scientific articles on the ecology of bees and other insects, and am author of “Bumblebees; their behaviour, ecology and conservation (2010, Oxford University Press)” and “A Sting in the Tale (2013, Jonathan Cape)”, a popular science book about bumblebees.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2010 I was BBSRC “Social Innovator of the Year” and in 2013 I won the Marsh Award for Conservation Biology from the Zoological Society of London. The conversation is presented here is just under 40 minutes long.

The most recent book that he wrote – A Sting in the Tale” (not tail), is available in north America as an e-book for Amazon kindle or Apple iPad as well as in hardcover. I have downloaded the first few pages of the book in my iPad as a sample, and intend to buy the full book, from what I read already. The book promises to be a good science book on the bees but with a humorous tone that attempts to keep the uninitiated reader glued to the tale, and an essential read for those concerned about ecology and sustainability the natural plant world around us and its intimate and complicated relationship with insects, and other small organisms.

The 40 minute conversation is converted here as a podcast. You can listen to it directly by clicking the play button at the bottom this page. For those that wish to store the audio and listen at leisure through their iPod, iPhone or iPad etc, can do so from Apple iTunes, by subscribing to my podcast, which is free. Type “Tony Mitra” in the iTune Store search field, and the podcast should show up with the logo as shown at left. All the episodes are almost exclusively related to GMO or sustainable and ecological farming.

Dave Goulson on Neonicotinoids and the bumblebees [ 40:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Women of Comox Valley – Carmen Walkeling

Posted on by
Reply

It was on a sunday, late in April 2013, that I visited the organic farm “Eatmore Sprouts” of Ms Carmen Wakeling. This visit was made possible because of effort and initiative of Ms Peggy Carswell of “Fertile Ground”. She was a friend of Carmen and was visiting her, when she mentioned that I was coming to Comox Valley and that I was interested in meeting with organic farmers of the regions, with a view to possibly recording a video or two of the farms for raising public awareness.

And it was Carmen that agreed to take time out on a Sunday, and wait for me at her farm, even as I was a few minutes late.

I write this series of blogs about the women of Comox valley because I find so many of them constructively engaged in sustainable farming issues, which I find encouraging as well as inspirational. The world was, at one time, engaged with sustainable farming. That was the only way to farm. And then came industrial civilization and the invention of mass scale monoculture and chemical dependent high input farming, with genetically modified and untested food varieties in a farming model that had less involvement of people and more of machines, factory products, lawyers and politicians. And before we realized, the organic natural farmers were on the back foot, and shrinking in number.

Besides, I have personally found womenfolk to have a more caring, healing, outlook to life. Existence did not have to be a battle of survival where my success is only possible with someone else’s demise. There was a more nurturing way to look at life.

Anyhow, I found Carmen to be both enterprising, level headed, efficient, charming, and yet friendly and accommodating – one you would immediately take to as a friend.

This is the first part of our interview. The others will appear here, so stay tuned. I hope you will like it.

Women of Comox valley – Peggy Carswell 2

Posted on by
Reply

During our three days of stay at Kel & Peggy’s home, there was time to listen to their relationships with people of the tea growing region of North East India, in the province of Assam, and their work towards teaching the locals on the forgotten methods of sustainable chemical free farming, and same time their attempt to set up a fair trade system for the small tea growers of the region.

Peggy

Peggy

In this second video clip, a mere 7 minute episode, she describes how they managed to get Dr. Debal Deb to Assam for a few days, to teach folks the art and the need for seed preservation, and to interact with school children about same. Apparently, it was the children rather than the grown ups that recharged Dr. Deb’s optimism about the future. Like they said – child is the father of man.

What makes this video more interesting for me is that Debal is a personal friend of mine, apart from being a unique zero carbon footprint scientist and a mystic. There is a sizzling noise from the background, as something was cooking in the attached kitchen, and we apologize if folks find it disconcerting.

The 7 minute talk is converted here as a podcast. You can either listen to it directly from this page by clicking the play button at the bottom of this page. For those that wish to store the audio and listen at leisure through their iPod, iPhone or iPad etc, can do so from Apple iTunes. Type “Tony Mitra” in the iTune Store search field, and the podcast should show up. One can subscribe to the podcast (its free) and listen to the episodes later. All the episodes are almost exclusively related to GMO.

Peggy Carswell on Dr. Debal Deb [ 7:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Women of Comox valley – Peggy Carswell 1

Posted on by
Reply
Peggy Carswell

Peggy Carswell

Last month, I had the privilege of meeting up with a number of remarkable women in Comox valley, Vancouver Island, in British Columbia. All of them were self employed, all engaged in running organic farms, and all of them unique in their own way. This blog is prepared and dedicated to them, through a video for each of them. The story starts with Peggy Carswell. How we came to know each other itself is a story, and is linked with her connection with the tea growing regions of north east India, in the province of Assam.

This blog will be expanding in the coming days. But for now, we have a ten minute video of Peggy talking about how a bunch of school kids in the town of Jorhat in the Indian province of Assam, influenced their parents, and eventually the community, to go organic. Its a remarkable story.

Peggy Carswell speaks about children in Assam ushering a real green revolution.

Peggy Carswell - how children in Assam changed a community [ 5:11 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Thierry Vrain – part six

Posted on by
Reply

This sixth and last part of the interview with Dr. Theirry Vrain at his Innisfree farm in the Comox Valley covers the closing statement from Thierry regarding a seeming contradiction with regard to Genetically Modified organisms. On one side, these GMO are not being subjected to safety test by food and health administrations of Canada or the US because these organisms are supposedly substantially equivalent to the non GMO counterparts. But on the other side, the patent office has granted patents for these GM products on the basis that these organisms are uniquely different from any other out there.

In the second part of the video, Thierry answers the question not directly related to GMO, but a very important aspect of soil-plant-bacteria relationship, that of nitrogen fixing.

Thierry Vrain – Part 6: Closing statement from Dr. Vrain on the contradiction of substantial equivalence and substantial uniqueness of patented GM products, and also about the issue of Nitrogen Fixing by soil bacteria.

The previous parts are also available in earlier posts on this blog. For convenience, we are including those links here:

Thierry Vrain, Part 1,2,3,4

Thierry Vrain, Part 1,2,3,4

Thierry Vrain, Part 5

Thierry Vrain, Part 5

 

Vancouver marches against Monsanto

Posted on by
Reply

“Hell no Monsanto – we don’t want your GMO”

The chant reverberated across the open grounds before the art gallery in Vancouver, in pouring rain, and over a sea of umbrellas. I had never met Laura (NoEnbridge) Yates face to face before. And in a few minutes, she became one of my heroines.

In a strong and unflinching voice, she started the gathered crowd going, raising the level of passion till the protesters matched her in full throated cry – hell no Monsanto, we don’t want your GMO.

There were quite a few people with massive TV cameras wrapped in waterproof covers. Some were likely from the media. But what I saw in the TV later on, they missed the point, and the passion. Monsanto was just a news item, nothing more. But for the people gathered, it was far more than having fun shouting around in the rain. It was a call at arms for protection of farmers, farm produce and the very food we chose to eat.

At the end point of the march, at BC place, we finally got the mini-group picture – of the four musketeers that joined hands with the thousands in Vancouver and millions around the world, to bring down the evil empire. Thats pocket dynamo and march coordinator super volunteer, Laura (NoEnbridge) Yates, with Tony (citizen journalist) Mitra, Phil (leading GE free Surrey) Harrison and Tony (leading GE free Vancouver) Beck.

Clip 01 : Laura Yates addresses the protesters

And now, we have the second clip of the event, going all the way to the end of the march, to present a very original rap music by Swami G – named MONSANTROCITY. Borrowing from the farmer suicide catastrophe in the GMO cotton belt of India, the song combines the sad and alarming story of naive farmers falling for the sales gimmick of Monsanto and getting ever deeper into a spiral of debt resulting in hundreds of thousands of farmers committing suicide by drinking the very pesticide sold by Monsanto.

Clip 02 : Swami G on MONSANTROCITY

In clip 03 we see that, even when joining a global protest against a single corporation, a first ever event for this planet, one can do it with rhythm, rhyme, music and dance. We do not know the names of the impromptu dancers on the street and are thankful for their spontaneous exuberance. They show us how to send off MONSANTO with a song and a dance.

Tony, Heather, Phil & Jeff

Tony, Heather, Phil & Jeff

Included also is a still photo of Phil, Jeff, Heather and Tony, not just cause they are friends, but because Tony and Phil are actually engaged in trying to have Vancouver and Surrey declare themselves GMO free sometime in near future, and we should wish their efforts all success and extend a helping hand where possible.

Clip 03 : Monsanto sent off with a song and a dance

Bobbie Blair of Ge free Langley, was introduced by Shyanne and took the mic, representing not a scientist or and expert on GMO, but as a concerned mother, and touched a sympathetic chord among the listeners. As he urged people to reconnect with their food source, and support local farmers, so the community can get good food on one side, and local farmers can survive the same time – she got a thundering applause. Well said – Bobbie. Keeping GMO away calls for a multi faceted approach, one where we ourselves need to change the way we source our food.

Clip 04 : Bobbie Blair addresses the crowd

A talk with MADGE

Posted on by
Reply
MADGE

MADGE

MADGE stands for Mothers Are Demystifying Genetic Engineering. How I love that name. Its a group founded by three women of Australia, incorporated half a dozen years ago, and is is engaged in, among other things, raising awareness on the harmful effects of GMO agribusiness on the ecology and health.

I came to know about MADGE through twitter comments they made about GMO in Australia, read up on them, and asked if I might talk with one of them for a podcast, in order to spread information about their good work in our corner of this connected planet. Fran Murrell of MADGE has my thanks for accepting the offer.

Frances Murrell

Frances Murrell

An alternative explanation for MADGE is “Mothers advocating deliciously good eating” – since all mothers are concerned with health for their children, and are usually the ones that buy food for the family. Therefore, this is a key group that should know what good food is. These women of MADGE have mostly seen how GMO played out in the world, became concerned about the path their nation was attempting to follow with regard to food security.

Australia has had very long periods of drought – the last one lasting almost ten years, which kept use of some of the GM crops such as Bt.Cotton to a minimum. However, as the cycle changes and Australia gets more rain, GMO cotton planting might increase, with all the anticipated side effects such as super-weeds, poisoned soil, and even stronger pesticides etc.

Meanwhile, Australian provinces are one by one lifting the ban on GM Canola, although demand for it from farmers and consumers are minimal. Like everywhere else, Governments do not fully fund educational institutions any more. So many of the science agencies in Australia are funded or co-funded by biotech corporations. In short, science is no more neutral. Money is talking larger than true science, in other words. Independent scientists, if they find issues of health or safety concerns in a GMO product, are often victimized, muzzled, or fired. More of GM crops are looming over the horizon in Australia.

But there is also a bright side. People are rising up in grassroots movements around the world, rejecting this industrial system of spraying poison and shipping food halfway across the world, and rebuilding relationship between the soil and all living creatures, spreading awareness, and volunteering in rebuilding a better world.

Podcast logo on iTunes

Podcast logo on iTunes

The talk, lasting 26 minutes, are converted here as a podcast. You can either listen to it directly from this page by clicking the play button at the bottom of this page. For those that wish to store the audio and listen at leisure through their iPod, iPhone or iPad etc, can do so from Apple iTunes. Type “Tony Mitra” in the iTune Store search field, and the podcast should show up. One can subscribe to the podcast (its free) and listen to the episodes later. All the episodes are almost exclusively related to GMO.

If you wish to send a suggestion or comment, please do so to tony.mitra@gmail.com.

Thanks/ Tony

Fran Murrell of MADGE covers GMO in Australia [ 25:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

More from Dr. Thierry Vrain on GMO

Posted on by
Reply

Our talk with noted Canadian soil biologist and retired genetic engineer, Dr. Thierry Vrain was partially covered in an earlier blog, as linked below, which included 4 video clips and one podcast. The first three video trio were about their loverly organic farm. The last one, part 4, was about GMO and the health risk it might carry.

In this video he further elaborates on the bad science behind the GMO technology on one side, and the absence of third party independent testing of the GMO products to assess health risks on the other.

Dr. Thierry Vrain

Dr. Thierry Vrain

Just like part 4, this video too has been converted into an audio podcast as well, so that folks wanting to store the audio podcast in their iPhone or iPod can do so by subscribing to it on iTunes. If you wish to locate the podcast, open iTunes and type “Tonu” in the top right search field and then check the podcast section of the search result. For those that wish to be notified when an additional blog appears, consider clicking the follow (RSS) button at the top right of this blog.

Thierry Vrain – Part 5: Dr. Vrain exposes the dichotomy with regard to GMO feed, where it is substantially equivalent so it does not need to be subjected to safety test on one side, and same time it is totally different from non-GMO food so that it can be granted a patent, on the other side.

Dr. Thierry Vrain on GMO, 2nd episode [ 11:30 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download