In a fair world, Aruna Rodrigues would be heralded as an incredible individual for her ongoing struggle to protect the socio-economic and environmental integrity of India. So says respected environmentalist, author and campaigner Leo Saldanha.
He adds: Since 2005, she has tirelessly pursued a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court of India, in which she has made a case why India should not yield to pressures from mega agri-transnational corporations and certain sections of the Indian agricultural sector who are keen on promoting genetically modified organisms in farming.”
India’s apex regulatory body, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, recently sanctioned genetically modified (GM) mustard for cultivation. This would be India’s first GM food crop, despite a public interest litigation (PIL) before the Supreme Court to prevent cultivation as well as the widespread rejection of GM mustard by farmers’ organisations.
Editor’s Note: Indian environmentalist, Vandana Shiva spoke out against the patenting of seeds by Monsanto in 2014 and won. Vandana points out at the 2 minute mark the merging of companies such as Astra and Zeneca and Novartis to become the major pharmaceutical companies they are today at a time when Monsanto was talking about five companies controlling the global seed supply of the future. Interesting parallels today between mRNA genetic technologies being pushed on the global market as the best cure for ‘covid.’ — mmd