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Originally Posted by Saya
There's also the problem that with hybrid seeds, the following generations lose viability even if the seeds can be saved.
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I said that earlier, but it's not necessarily bad. It's only an issue if the profits from harvested crops are not high enough to allow farmers to buy more seed. I imagine it's also a riskier strategy as if your crops fail for whatever reason, you stand to lose more money. The IFPRI report states that suicide rates have not increased between 2002 (introduction year of Bt cotton) and 2007 beyond the previous farmer suicide trend, and it sets out some of the reasons why farmers in India using Bt cotton may get into debt despite high hopes for the product. These include buying fake Bt seeds in an attempt to get a better price, using incorrect seed varieties for their area, and wasting money on pesticide. Bt cotton requires pesticide but significantly less than local plants, yet many farmers continued their previous spraying levels.
Obviously it would be better for farmers if they only had to buy hybrid seed once, I don't think anyone would argue against that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saya
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Again, in the IFPRI document they stated that the way Indian farmers use pesticides is accelerating the rate at which pests become resilient. Not to mention that with any crop; GM, hybrid, or standard, pest adaptation is always a problem. I doubt Monsanto ever promised otherwise, and I imagine they'll be attempting to keep up with the pests with each successive seed product they create. Even in your link they mention that some of the blame lies with the farmers, with quotes from both Monsanto and a report to the Central Institute for Cotton Research ("Farmers are not following the recommended 'refugia'").
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saya
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That article is pretty much just a quote of one or two people and I'm fairly sure he's wrong about hybrids needing more pesticide, unless it varies by crop and for some reason some hybrids need more than standard plants, and some need less. The idea of hybrid seed is that a higher initial cost is offset by a larger yield, but assuming that Monsanto seeds are not financially viable in Haiti, why not plant enough normal crop to get enough seed to cover next season? Or if seed can keep long enough - use hybrids now and store all the normal seed until the donation seed is used up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saya
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That seems to claim suicides are going up, which doesn't match the IFPRI figures. It doesn't address much of anything in detail, and doesn't outline all the possible causes. It also doesn't seem to bring any newer data into the picture even though it's more recent than 2008.
These online news articles don't contain sufficient data or analysis to figure out what's going on. Some of them have errors, some don't consider many variables, many of them copy and paste from each other without checking the facts.
This is a direct link to the document I've been looking at. It's 64 pages long and is an attempt to review the situation. Is it definitely correct? No. But it does provide references and it attempts to address many possibilities.
IFPRI
If you're looking for the other side of the story, then this might be better than what you've been posting so far:
I-SIS
It's an attempt to counter the IFPRI document but I'm still skeptical of it. It's written in a pseudo scientific style, and for some reason the document is free but you have to pay to view the references (common practice is everything free, or just the abstract free - abstracts never contain references). There are also some anecdotal stories which shouldn't be there, and some unfair criticisms of the IFPRI document. E.g. claiming data in IFPRI does not include female farmers but not providing any better data sources, and neglecting to mention that the IFPRI document describes the problems with the available data. It also claims that IFPRI's conclusions "absolve Bt cotton from having played any part in the farmers suicides, laying practically all the blame on inappropriate rainfall and drought, with no mention of the exorbitant price of GM seeds compared with traditional seeds; nor of failed harvests or of increased pesticide use". If anything the actual conclusion was that there are a large number of causes for suicide. Pesticide use is mostly definitely covered and I haven't even read the whole thing. And as I said before, it seems likely that any problems that would cause debt (drought, pests etc) would be exacerbated by the higher cost of hybrids.
Basically, I don't think many of these articles are reliable. I've seen similarly styled arguments against climate change that appear strong at first glance but often turn out to have been misleading.