Street Riots Form in Response to Monsanto Intrusion into Nepal
After the Nepalese government decided to allow Monsanto into their borders and subsequently force farmers to use genetically modified seeds, the citizens took to the streets. The starving nation let Monsanto in despite recent and massive bans in a number of EU countries. In addition, Monsanto’s GMO crops have been shown by a team of 900 scientists to be virtually ineffective at combating starvation — in fact, they perform way worse than traditional and sustainable agriculture.
Now, according to some Nepal-based activists, Monsanto has been run out of the country by fierce protesting. Threatening the nation’s main crop, corn, Monsanto’s GM corn would certainly not help the 40% of Nepalese citizens who are currently malnourished. It seems that the Nepalese people are quite aware of this fact as well, as hordes of activists demonstrated their opposition to Monsanto and genetically modified creations on the city streets. Hundreds of the anti-Monsanto activists gathered in Kathmandu in front of the U.S. embassy, pouring out from their homes just shortly after the announcement was made.
According to the activist group ‘Stop Monsanto in Nepal,’ the protests may have succeeded. In a post on Facebook on April 6th, the group stated:
Celebrating Victory! We knew from internal sources that the Nepal-Monsanto-USAID deal was postponed indefinitely but we didn’t have a public document to claim the victory officially. But Hari Dahal, Joint secretary and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) mentioned on a recent ‘BBC Sajha Sawal’ that Monsanto will NOT be allowed in Nepal.
The news comes just after Monsanto was taken to court over ‘knowingly poisoning workers‘ and causing devastating birth defects. Argentinean tobacco farmers stated that the biotech giant knowingly poisoned them with herbicides and pesticides and subsequently caused ”devastating birth defects” in their children.
I live in Nepal and have been following the issue of Monsanto in Nepal since USAID first announced a partnership to bring more Monsanto HYBRID maize seeds into Nepal. There never was mention of GMO seeds, although it would be easy to predict that as the next step. This article is very inaccurate — Monsanto hybrid seeds have been in Nepal for several years, under the name of various Indian companies. Corn in Nepal is mostly used for feeding cows and buffalos. There was no riot; just a peaceful demonstration. There still is no official announcement from either USAID or the Nepal Ministry of Agriculture about seed policy. Please check your information more carefully before publishing, since this kind of inaccuracy only discredits the anti-Monsanto movement. Meanwhile, there are many of us in Nepal actively demonstrating and promoting high yield organic agriculture as a better approach, with no side effects besides healthy people and healthy environment.