Saturday, July 15, 2006

Why are Indian cotton farmers committing suicide? And what can be done to help them?

Burning GMO Cotton in India

On January 10 of this year, Jamuna Ramdas Ade decided she’d had enough. The cotton farmer from the Indian state of Maharashtra was so deep in debt that she swallowed a mouthful of monocrotophos, an insecticide so poisonous it is banned in Europe and the United States.

Read the rest of the article and find out how to help.

Also on the cotton squeeze, see the article about Seydou Coulibaly, a cotton farmer from Mali who was recently in Louisville to meet with local farmers and students. By Rasa Zimliki (Oxfam) and Andrew Kang Bartlett. Download the two-pager here.