India: Thousands of Farmers Die from Mysterious Kidney Disease
A farmer walks through a paddy field at Tannaurah village in the northern Indian state of Punjab, Aug. 1, 2014. | Photo: Reuters
However, in most cases symptoms remain subtle, and the disease is only discovered after an autopsy is performed.
An investigation by the U.N. has not been able to detect a definite cause, but it pointed to the influence of heavy metals like the cadmium in fertilizers or the arsenic in pesticides, both heavily used by the country's agricultural sector.
About a decade ago, a similar kidney disease appeared in the Americas, including El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Mexico, affecting especially young men working in sugarcane fields. Last year, researchers mentioned the role of Roundup pesticide produced by Monsanto among the possible causes.
Source URL
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_69079.shtml
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)an anti-pest, anti-herbicide experimental farm application it had been testing in the fields in India.
djean111
(14,255 posts)Also would be astonished if the makers of such had not already arrayed their lawyers and lobbyists in order to avoid any fault and/or paying any compensation. Even if it could be proved to be a specific pesticide or herbicide or fertilizer, it would likely still be used until the last bag or liter was gone. That's how they roll.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)As the actual source reports, bans on pesticides and fertilizers that are suspected to be the cause are not enforced.
mopinko
(70,089 posts)same article, but when they substitute india in the title, i guess it makes it scarier. (yes, it is part of india, but it is not the mainland. it is an island.)
i would actually be curious if these farmers even used modern pesticides, let alone roundup. these people barely have money for seed.
and india is one polluted place. i would have to wonder if they could even sort it out. people have little care for the future, so few live to see it.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Removing the regional aspect probably tells a better story.
mopinko
(70,089 posts)maybe not better, but bigger story.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)They know what's best for us, right?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)Killing bugs and killing other plants are quite different things. That's why we have separate names for them, and don't have a generic name for "chemical you spray on crops that kills stuff you don't want" - the role "gun" fills compared to pistol and rifle.
Also, they know what herbicides are in other parts of the article, but then get it wrong on the product they want to blame. That failure indicates they aren't taking much care when assigning blame. Which damages their credibility when assigning blame.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)Those in favor of withholding information, such as labeling, are absolutely suspect.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)are not making an informed decision.
To you, all GMOs are created by Monsanto. Even when shown GMO crops that were not created by Monsanto.
To you, all GMOs are created so that chemicals can be sprayed on the field. Even when shown GMO crops that do not confer chemical resistance.
In other words, you don't give a shit about reality. You have a theory, and are going to demand it be true.
I'm not going to apologize for a pro-reality bias. Even though I'd prefer Monsanto be burned to the ground and the Earth salted so nothing new will ever take its place.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)And as you refer to me constantly in your Woo Warrior! post, I will answer that all I want is transparency and long-term, independent testing. MORE SCIENCE not less. Those of you who have decided that the case is closed and the science is sufficient would have been satisfied with time as a constant.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)to demonstrate the mechanism of that harm. Not "it could hurt by some mechanism we don't know yet".
Give me a mechanism. Then we have something to test and can actually do science. "It's new and I don't know how they do it" is not a mechanism. It's rejecting science, and reality, out of fear. We already do that too much.
Eko
(7,281 posts)"Those of you who have decided that the case is closed and the science is sufficient would have been satisfied with time as a constant."
Cha
(297,175 posts)me being one, of course.
Weed-Whacking Herbicide Proves Deadly to Human Cells
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weed-whacking-herbicide-p/
I really do wonder about people who push poisons and non labeling on us .. all in the name of big ag/giant a$$ corp Monsanto.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)When those who claim to be on the side of Science! are the ones willing to push biased, faulty science that has been shown time and again to be nothing more than marketing PR. GMOs were backdoored by the FDA, they did not have to withstand rigorous testing in order to be approved. That alone should set off some alarm bells. The other being that Dow, Monsato, etc. are notoriously evil companies. That is just like saying that BP and Exxon say the pipeline is safe, so let's trust em.
Shaking my damn head! The posters here are against labeling because they think people should be forced to eat this crap without their knowledge!! Well, at least some places, like Hawaii, the voters weren't fooled by big money like they were here in California. That is another reason to oppose the TPP because it will force countries who previously disallowed GMOs to take them. It's a bad deal all around. And now, farmers who are barely making it are forced to put their health in jeopardy by being covered in toxic poisons? Who wants to defend that?
Cha
(297,175 posts)the will of the People in many cases so it's an ongoing expensive battle to have our land and air poison free.
Judi Lynn
(160,525 posts)BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)And I don't care what anyone says, I have a right to know what I am putting in my body, as do you, as does everyone. They should have spelled "Fud."
Cha
(297,175 posts)pnwmom
(108,977 posts)The French team, led by Gilles-Eric Seralini, a University of Caen molecular biologist, said its results highlight the need for health agencies to reconsider the safety of Roundup.
The authorizations for using these Roundup herbicides must now clearly be revised since their toxic effects depend on, and are multiplied by, other compounds used in the mixtures, Seralinis team wrote.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)The original source never mentioned RoundUp or herbicides, and the scientists studying it believe it's caused by heavy metals in pesticides and fertilizers.
The OP's source (and copy-n-paste source) added RoundUp. The story is plenty compelling without it, and RoundUp's relatively recent arrival to Sri Lanka makes the timing difficult to explain. So why add it?
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)that should be re-examined.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weed-whacking-herbicide-p/
Until now, most health studies have focused on the safety of glyphosate, rather than the mixture of ingredients found in Roundup. But in the new study, scientists found that Roundups inert ingredients amplified the toxic effect on human cellseven at concentrations much more diluted than those used on farms and lawns.
One specific inert ingredient, polyethoxylated tallowamine, or POEA, was more deadly to human embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells than the herbicide itself a finding the researchers call astonishing.
This clearly confirms that the [inert ingredients] in Roundup formulations are not inert, wrote the study authors from Frances University of Caen. Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death [at the] residual levels found on Roundup-treated crops, such as soybeans, alfalfa and corn, or lawns and gardens.
SNIP
The French team, led by Gilles-Eric Seralini, a University of Caen molecular biologist, said its results highlight the need for health agencies to reconsider the safety of Roundup.
The authorizations for using these Roundup herbicides must now clearly be revised since their toxic effects depend on, and are multiplied by, other compounds used in the mixtures, Seralinis team wrote.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)especially when the ban on heavy metal containing pesticides and fertilizers isn't being enforced. And they showed up long enough ago to make a lot more sense as the cause.
The only good thing about RoundUp is evolution is making it obsolete, so we'll be rid of it sooner rather than later.
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)can combine with heavy metals to cause kidney damage.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945589/
Although glyphosate alone does not cause an epidemic of chronic kidney disease, it seems to have acquired the ability to destroy the renal tissues of thousands of farmers when it forms complexes with a localized geo environmental factor (hardness) and nephrotoxic metals.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)RoundUp is new (ish). The banned fertilizers and pesticides have been around for much, much longer.
Also the ban on these products, and the non-enforcement of the ban, could explain the regionalism - the problem's only occurring in part of Sri Lanka, yet RoundUp is used over much more of the country. If the ban is enforced in other areas, that could explain why it's only happening in one part of the country. But I have no idea if enforcement differs in different regions. I also have no idea why heavy metals aren't showing up in groundwater tests.
7wo7rees
(5,128 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)Though the actual source does have things like this pesky sentence:
And doesn't include the words "RoundUp" or "herbicide".
Which kinda hurts the "it's Monsanto killing us all" story in your articles. Since they're also spraying that in other parts of India that are not reporting cases.
Pooka Fey
(3,496 posts)mopinko
(70,089 posts)polly7
(20,582 posts)Then maybe you and Jeff can go show all these farmers in India committing suicide and dying from unknown causes just how to farm right, eh!!!
By Romi Mahajan
December 19, 2014
Moreshwar Chaudhary, 32, killed himself around 3pm on Dec 8th by imbibing insecticide. A small scale cotton farmer with 3 acres to cultivate, Moreshwar was indebted to banks, private lenders, and to a microcredit facility and could not meet the payments. The family mortgaged everything including Yogitas wedding jewelry. Gangabai, his frail sixty-something mother, went back to work as a day laborer to make some money but still they could not manage to make their payments. Moreshwar really wanted to get Yogitas jewelry out of hawk but could not find the money. And the fields did not help. This year, the drought conditions are the worst in decades and the cotton is sparse. Meanwhile the price of these commodities has come down and the input costs have gone up. This cruel hat-trick connived to make cultivation an economically detrimental activity and further immiserated the family; bereft of income and hope, Moreshwar could no longer take the enormous stress and pain and chose to commit suicide.
Huddled in their modest home, we saw Moreshwars wedding picture. He looked peaceful and proud. His older sister sat stoically, supporting Gangabai. A friend of the family, a young man, played with Kanhanniya while telling us about the state of life in the village right now. Others huddled inside and outside the home. Yogitas parents have come from their village to be with her. In this sense, Gangabai and Yogita are lucky- they have a community; this is not always the case given that the traditional social bonds in villages have been rent by a variety of factors that can together be called modernity. Veteran journalist Jaideep Hardikar, who arranged our visit to Gangabais village, put it best- there is nothing to romanticize about the village.
Moreshwar s death does not mean the erasure of debt. The debt that plagued the family and ultimately led to Moreshwars suicide, is also in Gangabais name. The path ahead is painful- and lonely. Lonely especially for Yogita who at 25 will now be consigned to a life of difficulty; in her community widow remarriage is proscribed. She might stay with Gangabai or might move back in with her parents, also desperate small-holding farmers. Right now, its too early. Moreshwar has only been gone a few days.
https://zcomm.org/zcommentary/debt-and-death-in-the-indian-hinterland/
Human tragedy: A farmer and child in India's 'suicide belt'
The children were inconsolable. Mute with shock and fighting back tears, they huddled beside their mother as friends and neighbours prepared their father's body for cremation on a blazing bonfire built on the cracked, barren fields near their home.
As flames consumed the corpse, Ganjanan, 12, and Kalpana, 14, faced a grim future. While Shankara Mandaukar had hoped his son and daughter would have a better life under India's economic boom, they now face working as slave labour for a few pence a day. Landless and homeless, they will be the lowest of the low.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html
'Bitter Seeds' Film Tells of Suicide and GMO Effects on India's Farmers
Posted: 09/21/2012 3:43 pm EDT Updated: 11/21/2012 5:12 am EST
"Every 30 minutes a farmer in India kills himself ..." This frightening fact is pointed out in "Bitter Seeds," the third documentary in "The Globalization Trilogy" directed by Micha Peled. The 12-year project aims to generate debate about public policy and consumer choices in some complex issues relevant to all of us. Peled is the founder of the nonprofit Teddy Bear Films, which he created to make issue-oriented films such as "Will My Mother Go Back to Berlin?" and "Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town."
2012-09-21-wheatseeds.jpg
Like most of his neighbors, the protagonist in the film, Ram Krishna, must engage a money-lender to pay for the mounting costs of modern farming; he puts his land up as collateral.
The only seeds available in India now are GMOs (genetically modified organisms), which require farmers to pay an annual royalty each time they are replanted. The GMOs need additional fertilizers, and as the seasons move forward, more insecticides and pesticides. The soil in which these seeds are planted requires more water. All of which means more and more money for the farmer to lay out.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zester-daily/bitter-seeds-film_b_1902221.html
http://idfa.muvies.com/reviews/3754-bitter-seeds (VIDEO)
Every 30 minutes, another Indian cotton farmer commits suicide. Filmmaker Micha Peled investigates why this is happening and follows one of them to the edge of the abyss.
Medium
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Although, Specter writes about India becoming an exporting nation, he hides the fact that as a result of Free Trade India has now become heavily dependent on imports of oil-seeds and pulsesstaples for millions of Indians. In the nineties, because of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), prices of tortillas in Mexico City rose sharply while the price of corn, sold by Mexican farmers, went down. Free trade does not imply free-market, and more often than not it means the poor go hungry while profits of corporations, especially in agriculture, increase.
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/seeds-of-truth-vandana-shiva-and-the-new-yorker/
********************************************************************************************************
Vandana Shiva's Letter to PM Modi and President Obama
Seed Freedom and Food Democracy
An Open letter to Prime Minister Modi and President Obama from democratic, concerned citizens of India and the US
Intellectual Property Rights are defined as property in the products of the mind, including patents. Patents are granted for inventions, and give the patent holder the right to exclude everyone from the use or marketing of a patented product or process. Over the last 2 decades, patent laws have taken a different direction, under the influence of corporations, from protecting the interests of genuine inventions and ideas to ownership of life and control over survival essentials like seed and medicine. Such monopolies are violative of article 21 of the Indian constitution which guarantees all citizens the right to life.
Prime Minister Modi and President Obama, let this Republic day in India sow the seeds of Earth Democracy and Vasudhaiva Kutumbhakam, for our times and the future. We hope you show great leadership by working together to strengthen the laws to protect your citizens and countries instead of making it easier for corporations to take control over life-forms for short term profits. Let us build Purna Swaraj for all life on Earth, freedom to grow our food and know our food. Let us work toward a future where our food is our freedom.
This is an excellent letter explaining exactly why Indian farmers are suffering so badly. Long, but well worth reading.
http://www.momsacrosstheworld.com/vandana_shiva_letter_to_pm_modi_and_president_obama
India's Food Security Act: Myths and Reality
By Vandana Shiva
Source: Aljazeera
Monday, September 23, 2013
Excerpts:
However, both the food crisis and the economic crisis are a result of the so-called reforms. More people are denied their right to food because, on the one hand the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers are being destroyed to carry out the reforms of corporatising the agriculture sector, with corporate seeds and chemical products, and corporate procurement instead of public procurement. The result is debt, hunger and despair.
One out of every four Indians today is a victim of hunger. And half of the hungry are farmers who cannot eat what they grow, either because they are planting cash crops such as cotton; or they're growing costly crops such as rice, wheat and corn, which they have to sell in order to repay the loans they get to buy seeds, fertilisers, etc.
That is why lowering the cost of production and increasing the livelihood sustainability of small and marginal farmers must be the first step in building food security. However, the Food Security Act is totally silent on production, procurement, and farmers' livelihood and food rights. This in my view is its biggest failing.
The silence on production makes many people feel that the Food Security Act could increase India's dependence on food imports. We are already spending millions of dollars in importing and subsidising pulses - grain legumes - and edible oils. Until the Green Revolution, India was the biggest producer and exporter of oilseeds and pulses.The Greed Revolution which is based on rice and wheat production has destroyed our self-sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds, and the globalisation and libralisation of the food trade has made it worse. We need to introdruce tariffs on imports of edible oils and pulses, both to give our farmers a level playing field, and to reduce our trade and budget deficits.
Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/indias-food-security-act-myths-and-reality-by-vandana-shiva.html
jeff47
(26,549 posts)The actual story is talking about a disease in Sri Lanka. There have been zero reported cases outside Sri Lanka.
But that isn't the story you wanted to tell. So we now return to our outrage-based version of geography.
polly7
(20,582 posts)You're denying freak seeds and pesticides affect anyone, so wtf does it matter to you 'where' it exists. My apologies that the author fucked up on the geography, but get over yourself.
Here, just for you: [URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]
What do you attribute these 'mysterious cases' of kidney disease in those places mentioned to?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)And was really easy to find with a simple Google search, if you came across your article first. The lack of a link to the original story should have set off alarm bells.
Also, it matters because RoundUp is sprayed in many places in India. Yet zero cases of this kidney problem outside Sri Lanka.
Also, it matters because we are better than Fox News. When reality doesn't align with what we want, we don't just resort to lying. Even when its a chance to attack a bad corporation.
Also, it matters because lies like this get people killed. Banning GMOs won't stop fertilizers and pesticides from killing these people. You took a story about their suffering and turned it into the story you wanted to tell. "To hell with their pain, I've got a story I want to tell!"
polly7
(20,582 posts)Last edited Wed Jan 21, 2015, 01:56 PM - Edit history (3)
(Studies)
by Eva Sirinathsinghji / January 20th, 2015
Kidney disease has reached epidemic levels in regions that heavily use glyphosate such as farmers in Sri Lanka and sugar cane workers in Central America. Kidney problems have been highlighted by scientific studies, including Séralinis rat feeding study where kidney tumours were observed [50]. A meta-analysis of feeding studies conducted by Séralinis lab revealed kidney pathology in animals fed Roundup Ready soybeans, while in vitro studies have shown that glyphosate had cytotoxic effects on human embryonic kidney cell lines [52,53] (see [54] GM Feed Toxic, Meta-Analysis Confirms,SiS52, [55] Death by multiple poisoning ,glyphosate and Roundup, SiS 42).
In Sri Lanka, chronic kidney disease of unknown aetiology (CKDu) has afflicted the agricultural population in recent years. A study published in 2014 linked glyphosate-based herbicides to the epidemic. It appears that hard water in the agricultural regions leads to heavy metal toxicity in the kidneys via glyphosates metal chelating activity, and is responsible for the 400 000 cases of the disease and 20 000 fatalities [56] (see [57] Sri Lanka Partially Bans Glyphosate for Deadly Kidney Disease Epidemic, SiS 62). The government temporarily banned glyphosate from hard water areas, but this decision was reversed due to a lack of agricultural workers to take over the manual weeding required without the application of glyphosate. Similar health problems are widely affecting communities in Central America with one in four sugar cane workers reporting kidney disease in some areas [58, 59]. This epidemic forced the El Salvador government to call for international help after the epidemic began overwhelming the health systems. The El Salvadorian government has since approved legislation to ban glyphosate herbicides, though this is yet to be enforced.
Pesticide Illnesses and GM Soybeans
Ban on Aerial Spraying Demanded in Argentina
Coalition of doctors, health professionals and researchers demand ban on aerial spraying based on evidence documenting increase in pesticide-related illnesses since the introduction of GM soya Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Roundup_of_Roundup.php (Institute of Science In Society)
mopinko
(70,089 posts)i dont think there is any way to get any clear data here. tho there certainly doesnt seem to be any attempt to do so here.
india is nothing like america. at all. the poverty is so grinding it is palpable. the soil is so poor, i was surprised to even see food.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)So I guess your trip was a waste. With such a narrow view, it's no wonder you missed it.
mopinko
(70,089 posts)where people going hungry is way too acceptable.
people there ARE starving in the streets. everywhere.
i am sure the view from your house is more accurate, tho. sure. sure.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)mopinko
(70,089 posts)come on.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)And since we now know that GMO crops do not produce any higher yield than their conventional counterparts, and in some cases (as with cotton in India) less, then perhaps we don't really need them.
mopinko
(70,089 posts)and like here, the problem is the concentration of wealth and the caste system.
mopinko
(70,089 posts)and others-
How Seeds of a False Story Took Root and Spread
By Keith Kloor | May 9, 2012 12:42 pm
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123
When a questionable story gets rolling and takes on a life of its own, you can usually count on journalists to check it out thoroughly. Not that debunking it necessarily puts an end to the matter, as we discovered with President Obamas birth certificate and the global warming hoax cooked up by thousands of scientists. Some stories, no matter how discredited, remain believable for certain audiences.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/collideascape/2012/05/09/how-seeds-of-a-false-story-took-root-and-spread/#.VL2mg4c-BE4
polly7
(20,582 posts)Awards
Showing all 4 wins and 0 nominations
Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival 2011
Won
Green Screen Award Micha X. Peled (director)
Won
Oxfam Global Justice Award Micha X. Peled (director)
Teddy Bear Films Inc. (production company)
Cinema for Peace Awards 2013
Won
International Green Film Award Micha X. Peled
Teddy Bear Films Inc.
International Documentary Association 2012
Won
Humanitas Award Micha X. Peled (director/producer)
You can watch it here: http://www.alluc.com/l/Bitter-Seeds-2011-WEB-DL-x264-NoGRP-mkv/dpug0ll I'd never seen the whole thing before, it's heartbreaking.
mopinko
(70,089 posts)it just isnt a true story.
polly7
(20,582 posts)mopinko
(70,089 posts)i disagree w you. tough.
polly7
(20,582 posts)You can disagree all you like, it doesn't change the facts.
mopinko
(70,089 posts)that i doubt is available in india. suicides are common.
and nature magazine says cotton harvests were, in fact, up.
your appeal to emotion does not sway me. sorry.
polly7
(20,582 posts)sway me. Your assertions ....... not so much.
mopinko
(70,089 posts)To be brutally honest there was nothing in there which was significant, given the scatter [of data] you had, says Stephen Morse, professor of sustainable development at the University of Reading in the UK, whose farm extension studies were cited in the IFPRI report. If they had done a proper [statistical] analysis they might have picked up something. But he too is highly sceptical of a causal link between Bt cotton failure and suicide. There is no evidence of any kind of a jump or any kind of surge.
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n1/full/nbt0109-9.html