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1.EVERY TRICK IN THE BOOK - THE MARKETING OF BT COTTON IN INDIA
2.Bollgard Bt Cotton sold on Lies and Lures
COMMENT
A new report - THE MARKETING OF BT COTTON IN INDIA: AGGRESSIVE,
UNSCRUPULOUS AND FALSE - explodes Monsanto's claims that its achieving
higher Bt cotton seed sales in India off the back of the success of
its scientifically-based technology.
Investigations by Greenpeace India and the Centre for Sustainable
Agriculture reveal a very different story. Their report shows that
Monsanto's Indian subsidiary, Monsanto-Mahyco, and its sub-licensee Bt
Cotton seed companies have been pulling every dirty trick in the PR
book in order to lure India's poor farmers into using GM cotton.
Dr G V Ramanjaneyulu, Executive Director of the Centre for Sustainable
Agriculture told a press conference in Hyderabad, "The assertion by
Monsanto that the increase in acreage of Bt Cotton is an indication of
the success of Bt Cotton is as questionable as their false
advertising."
Below (item 2) is the press release, but first here are some of the
examples (sometimes shortened or paraphrased) in the report that show
the kind of extraordinary things Monsanto & co have actually been up
to... state by state (item 1).
For copies of the new report as a pdf file, contact Kavitha Kruganti
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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1.EVERY TRICK IN THE BOOK
(all information taken from the new report: THE MARKETING OF BT COTTON IN INDIA)
In Madhya Pradesh…
FAKE FARMERS
Posters appeared in many places in Madhya Pradesh before sowing time,
featuring a person who claimed to have gained great benefits from
using Bt Cotton seed. These advertisements urged other farmers to
benefit similarly from the use of Bt Cotton.
Investigations revealed that this "farmer" was actually a paan
dabbahwala (the owner of a little shop selling betel leaves and
cigarettes) who is not even a farmer, let alone a Bt Cotton farmer!!!
FAKE CLAIMS
In the same state, other posters showed real farmers claiming very
good yields from growing Bt Cotton. For instance, Ravinder Narain
Patidaar of Sarangi village, Jhabua is shown in one poster as having
obtained a yield of 20 quintals per acre of Bt Cotton.
In reality, Ravinder Narain, obtained only 25 quintals from all the
five acres of Bt Cotton he'd sown (ie 5 rather than 20 quintals per
acre!!). He is disgusted that the company is misusing the photos they
took of him in this manner.
A farmer called Pyarelal Patidaar (from Jamli village) is also unhappy
with the fact that his photo appears on posters which extol the
virtues of Bt Cotton - "I said do not put my photo because I do not
think that Bt Cotton is better than other varieties - however, they
did not listen to me", he explains.
In Tamil Nadu…
MORE FAKE ADVERTISING
A farmer called S Palanisamy s/o Chellapa Gounder Agarathodai of
Vellaiyur of Salem district appeared proudly displaying a tractor on a
poster that suggested that he had bought it after using Bt Cotton.
We went to investigate. At the beginning of this season, Mr Palanisamy
was approached by a company representative who urged the farmer to
register for a contest that could take him to Mumbai. That is when the
company took a picture of Mr Palanisamy in front of a tractor.
However, what the poster does not reveal is that the farmer was not
informed that this photo was for an advertisement for Bollgard (the
Monsanto Bt cotton) or that the tractor was in fact obtained by the
farmer with a private loan! The farmer says that with the yields he
got from Bt Cotton, "I would not be able to buy even two tractor
tyres"!
This episode inevitably appears on a poster called "TRUE STORIES OF
FARMERS WHO HAVE SOWN BT COTTON"!
In Punjab….
STATE SUBSIDY AND DANCING GIRLS
The state government has helped Monsanto by running big promotionals
for Bt cotton in a series of different newspapers. Meanwhile,
Monsanto's Bt promotional tours around Punjabi villages have included
enticing dancing girls performing to music relayed over the public
address system!
In Andhra Pradesh…
EAT, DRINK AND BE FLEECED
The company launched its product in 2002 by giving a big feast for
farmers in many villages.
Chinnapu Reddy reports on his experience:
"There was 95 kilos of non-vegetarian food cooked that day and there
was biryani and chicken fry. On that very day, bookings for the
season's seed supply were made by the dealers and the company
representatives. When parties like that are thrown, farmers like me
tend to think that there must be something to what they are saying and
we agreed to buy the seed. The seeds have now brought farmers nearer
to the gates of suicide deaths again."
Other farmers tell the same story. One farmer in Mallapuram said that
after having eaten the food of the company, a farmer cannot refuse the
seed ("after having eaten from their hand, can we refuse their seed?")
OTHER "FREEBIES"
In states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Monsanto is
also known to have distributed free pesticides with its Bt Cotton
seed!!
And in the 2005 sales season in the Khammam district of Andhra
Pradesh, free bags were on offer to people who participated in village
level publicity meetings.
VIRAL MARKETING: SPREADING THE WORD
There is also a wide network of informal agents placed at the village
level - farmers who earn commission on sales that they bring about by
promoting the Bt seed to fellow farmers.
In Maharashtra…
BOLLYWOOD BOOSTER
Many of the above practices are used to sell Bt Cotton in Maharashtra
too. In addition, Nana Patekar, a Bollywood star, who has been used by
the company in its prime time television advertisements and posters in
several states, was engaged to address farmers meetings in several
places in Maharashtra, urging them to use Bt Cotton.
MORE CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT!
Maharashtra also has other kinds of opinion-leaders promoting Bt
Cotton. For instance, a religious leader called Sant Satyapal Maharaj
is known to urge his followers to adopt Bt Cotton in places like
Akola. It is not clear how the Sant, who is not a farmer, is vouching
for the product!
To sum up….
Unabashed by what science has been disclosing about the
ineffectiveness of the Bt technology, Monsanto's Indian subsidiary
Monsanto-Mahyco and its sub-licensee Bt Cotton seed companies have
been busy aggressively hyping GM seeds to India's poor farmers by all
kinds of dubious and dishonest means.
There's a striking contrast between the lavish nature of Monsanto's
brash promotional campaigns in India and its flat refusal to pay any
compensation to the farmers who have suffered often terrible losses as
a result of cultivating its GM seeds.
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2.PRESS RELEASE
Bollgard Bt Cotton sold on Lies and Lures: Greenpeace & CSA
Hyderabad, September 19th, 2005: The Monitoring and Evaluation
Committee (MEC) on Bt Cotton[i], coordinated by Greenpeace India and
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) today condemned Monsanto and
other Bt Cotton companies for using false and misleading claims as
well as unethical practices to sell their Bt Cotton seed.
The organizations put forward evidence to support their claims against
such marketing which included compilation of numerous practices that
the companies adopt to sell its product and then to claim it as "the
willingness of Indian farmers". The MEC has called for accountability
mechanisms to be put in place, to ensure that aggressive and unethical
practices used by the Bt Cotton seed corporations to gain market share
are put under check.
"The Bt Cotton seed companies are going berserk with their deceitful
ways claiming high yields and great benefits on Bt Cotton. Never
before have seed companies used so many tools and methods to ensure
sales for their product. The aggressive and misleading selling
techniques adopted by the Bt Cotton companies show utter disregard for
the farmers' choice to buy seed. This also severely limits the options
available for promoting safer alternatives like organic farming," said
Dr G V Ramanjaneyulu, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable
Agriculture at a press conference in Hyderabad. "The assertion by
Monsanto that the increase in acreage of Bt Cotton is an indication of
the success of Bt Cotton is as questionable as their false
advertising", he added.
"Agriculture is a state subject and most states have failed utterly to
evaluate the frightening scale of this Bt Cotton disaster. The
agricultural department needs to take a firm stand to ensure that the
regulatory regime is strengthened for the protection of the farmer,"
said Thangamma Monnappa, GE-Free India campaigner, Greenpeace India.
Ms Kavitha Kuruganti, Researcher, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
said, "The Bt Cotton industry would like us to believe that their
sales are an indication of farmers' acceptance of the technology and
that it is a science-based industry. We have a different story to
tell. This compilation of various marketing practices, including
stories of outright lies on the Bollgard posters, misleading
advertisements of farmers with exaggerated claims to lure other
farmers, of using a variety of incentives and even questionable means
to attract and entrap farmers makes us question the claims of the
company. Such aggressive marketing in a situation where the technology
itself is imprecise and where accountability mechanisms are
non-existent is bound to spell doom for many farmers".
The MEC organizations, based on their documentation of Bt Cotton
marketing practices from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, would write to the State Directors
of Agriculture for immediate action in the matter. They would also
approach the Advertisements Standards Council of India for its
intervention in this regard.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) demands:
- that the aggressive and even false marketing of Bt Cotton
be stopped immediately
- that the Bt Cotton companies reveal the total amount spent
on marketing the seed so far
- that liability be fixed on the companies in all those cases
where they are found to have resorted to unscrupulous, misleading,
aggressive and false marketing
- that the governments pro-actively put out information to
farmers about how to protect
themselves from such companies and also put into place simple
mechanisms for loss-incurring farmers to claim compensation and
remediation
For further information, contact:
Kavitha Kuruganti, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
Tel: +91-9393001550, E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thangamma Monnappa, Genetic Engineering Campaigner, Greenpeace India
Tel: +91-98454 37337, E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[i] The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee [MEC] to monitor Bt Cotton
across the country was set up by Adivasi Ekta Sangathan, AKRSP, CEAD,
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Grameen Vikas Trust, Greenpeace
India, Jan Saahas, Kheti Virasat Mission, Krishnadevaraya Rythu
Sankshema Sangam, Krushi, MARI, Navajyothi, Pasumai Tayagam, Prasun,
Rashtriya Satyagrah Dal, Sampark, Sarvodaya Youth Organisation,
SECURE, VASPS and YUVA.
