Micha Peled's documentary exposé on BT farming in India reveals the true impact of genetically modified cotton on India's farmers, with a suicide rate of over a quarter million Bt cotton farmers each year due to financial stress resulting from massive crop failure and the exorbitantly high price of Monsanto's proprietary BT seed.
Under the Bt cotton Programme, involving Bollgard-1 and Bolgard-2 genes, 14 Bt cotton hybrids have been released for the North, Central and South zones of India & Bt hybrids have been released through other cotton seed companies in the country.
cotton | Fearne Cotton | cotton mill | Cotton Mather | Cotton Bowl Classic | James Cotton | Cotton-Eyed Joe | Cotton | Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere | Robert Cotton | Jerry Cotton | Sidney Cotton | Manchester cotton warehouses | The Cotton Club | Nick Cotton | John Cotton Dana | Cotton Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota | Cotton Township | Cotton gin | Cotton Bowl | Will Cotton | The Cotton Club (film) | Sydney Cotton | Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Combermere | Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet | Sir Robert Cotton | Olive Cotton | Memphis Cotton Exchange | McKinney's Cotton Pickers | King Cotton |
Due to the biotech seed monopoly in India, where Bt cotton seed has become the ubiquitous standard, and organic seed has become absolutely unobtainable, thus cooercing all cotton farmers into signing Bt cotton seed purchase agreements which enforce the intellectual property interests of the biotech multinational corporation Monsanto.
The film also refutes false claims purported by the biotech industry that Bt cotton requires less pesticide and empty promises of higher yields, as farmers discover the bitter truth that in reality Bt cotton in fact requires a great deal more pesticide than organic cotton, and often suffer higher levels of infestation by Mealybug resulting in devastating crop losses, and extreme financial and psychological stress on cotton farmers.