India is suing Monsanto for Bio-Piracy of Brinjal !

Bio-Piracy means stealing indigenous plants, and then trying to develop genetically modified versions of them, without giving any compensation back to the local people or nation where the plant originally came from.

Brinjal, also known in Western nations as eggplant, is a native Indian crop for which there are roughly 2,500 different unique varieties. Millions of Indian farmers grow brinjal, which is used in a variety of Indian food dishes, and the country grows more than a quarter of the world's overall supply of the vegetable.  

Let's examine the Players involved...

Mahyco, an Indian Seed Company set up by Dr. B. R. Barwale, catapulted into the big league due to his association with the Rockefeller Foundation who supplied the seed for the first hybrid corn, and with influence of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) an autonomous organization under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. Sharad Pawar currently serves as Minister of Agriculture.

Dr Rath site has an interesting history about Rockefeller Foundation.  Mahyco developed the Bt brinjal through its licensing partner Monsanto. BestMeal.info has a detailed article on Monsanto's dark history: 1901-2011.  Jeffrey Smith defines Monsanto as the world's poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit.

Bt Brinjal was approved for commercialization in India in 2009, but after a public outcry the Indian government, under Jairam Ramesh, the then Environmental Minister applied a 2-year moratorium on its release, reiterating on 17 February 2010 that the Centre had only imposed a moratorium on the release of transgenic brinjal hybrid, and not a permanent ban. Read The Gene Gun At Your Head.  The Daily Star headlined Reason triumphs over Bt brinjal.

Therefore, just prior to the lapse of the moratorium, it was indeed Breaking News to hear that Mahyco/Monsanto will face bio-piracy charges in India from National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), an Indian government agency.

The genetically modified vegetable Bt Brinjal may be still mired in controversy but that has not deterred Mahyco betting on genetically modified Bt Okra (ladies finger) and Rice. Among their HYBRID Vegetable crops include hybrid bhindi (okra), hybrid Tomato, hybrid Ashgourd, hybrid Cabbage, hybrid Watermelon, hybrid Bottlegourd and even hybrid Chili...Mahyco's HYBRID Field Crops include hybrid paddy (Rice), hybrid Wheat, hybrid maize (Corn), hybrid Jowar, hybrid Bajra and even hybrid Mustard, hybrid Castor and hybrid Sunflower. Today, more than 1,000,000 cultivators are under contract to grow seeds for Mahyco. The company has 15 production centres located in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, 23 sales offices and about 2,500 dealers.  Mahyco proudly states in their website, 'we baptize our crops with scientific names' and one of their slogan is 'Changing the Face of Agricultural India'.

The stakes are high for the Players, the consequences dire for the farmers and the People!  Will the People triumph over the Players? - A fundamental question that will decide what is on our dinner plates!