Now the scientists are trying to make some improvement in agricultural production. But how long will this improvement last? If there is no rainfall how will all their "improvements" help? The rainfall is not in their hands...
[Posted
Nov 5, 2008]Unholy marriage of scientific advancement and corporate greed
Unscrupulous use of science for greed threatens the world's food supply and growers
Daily Mail Oct 3, 2008
- ANDREW MALONE
The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops
When Prince Charles claimed thousands of Indian farmers were killing themselves after using GM crops, he was branded a scaremonger. In fact, as this chilling dispatch reveals, it's even WORSE than he feared.
Far from being 'magic seeds', GM pest-proof 'breeds' of cotton have been devastated by bollworms, a voracious parasite.
Nor were the farmers told that these seeds require double the amount of water. This has proved a matter of life and death.
With rains failing for the past two years, many GM crops have simply withered and died, leaving the farmers with crippling debts and no means of paying them off.
Having taken loans from traditional money lenders at extortionate rates, hundreds of thousands of small farmers have faced losing their land as the expensive seeds fail, while those who could struggle on faced a fresh crisis.
When crops failed in the past, farmers could still save seeds and replant them the following year.
But with GM seeds they cannot do this. That's because GM seeds contain so- called 'terminator technology', meaning that they have been genetically modified so that the resulting crops do not produce viable seeds of their own.
As a result, farmers have to buy new seeds each year at the same punitive prices. For some, that means the difference between life and death. go to story
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Many may claim that in the modern age material scientists have helped increase agricultural yield. But we fearlessly proclaim that it is precisely such atheistic views that have brought the world to the present acute food crisis. If we are not careful, the day will soon come when fruits will be reduced to just skin and seed, cows' udders will dry up, and paddy fields will grow only grass. The scriptures predict that these things will come to pass in the Kali-yuga. more
Improvements that do not help
excerpt from Back to Godhead Magazine #17-06, 1982, "Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out"
PRABHUPADA: Material nature's only business is beating us and kicking us. But we are so foolish that we think, "This kicking is very nice." That is our disease—we accept the kicking as very nice. We are always suffering three kinds of disturbances: adhyatmika, adhibhautika, and adhidaivika. These are disturbances caused by our own body and mind, disturbances caused by other living entities, and disturbances caused by the demigods, like severe weather or famine. We are always suffering from some disturbance, yet still we are thinking this material world is very nice, and we are trying to improve it. That is foolishness. The disturbances will always continue, so what is the meaning of improvement?
For example, now the scientists are trying to make some improvement in agricultural production. But how long will this improvement last? If there is no rainfall how will all their "improvements" help? The rainfall is not in their hands; that is adhidaivika: it depends on the demigods. If the demigods want, they can completely stop the rain. So what is all this nonsensical "improvement"?
Krishna says this material world is a place that is meant for misery. So how will you improve it? "Yes," the scientists say, "we are advancing. In the future people will live eternally; nobody will die." This is folly, illusion. People who are trying to do something that is impossible are fools, mudhas. Their mentality is like that of the ass. The master sits on the back of the ass and hangs a bunch of grass in front of him. The ass thinks, "I'll get it," and walks on and on. "If I just walk a little forward," he thinks, "I shall get the grass." He has no brain to see that he'll never get the grass—that as he is moving the grass is also moving.
So, the scientists are just like the ass. They do not see how foolish their "improvements" are. For example, now we have manufactured so many airplanes. It was thought, "Within two hours we shall be able to go many hundreds of miles. This is very nice." But there are so many dangers in an airplane. Now there is the problem of how to protect us from accidents. So what is the improvement? The improvement is that now two hundred men at a time can die all together. This is the improvement. What a horrible civilization!
DEVOTEE: But someone may say, "You say this is a horrible civilization. So why don't you withdraw from it? Why don't you live by yourselves on a farm somewhere instead of in the cities, using the same cars and airplanes that we use?"
PRABHUPADA: People are suffering for want of Krishna consciousness, so we are trying to make them Krishna conscious. That is our only interest in the material world. Otherwise, we have no interest in staying here. We are not social workers or political workers: we are Krishna's workers. We advise people: "Become Krishna conscious and all your problems will be solved." That is our duty—to advise them, to convince them, to give them all facilities to become Krishna conscious. But if they still do not take the medicine, what can be done? They will go on suffering. These rascals who have the idea that by "improvements" they will be happy in this material world—they will never understand Krishna consciousness.
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