By Jim Hoehn Santa Monica
Your article on “terminator” technology is to be commended (“A growing problem down on the farm,” Environment, June 18). USDA and biotech companies are rushing to bring this technology to the marketplace without serious discussions of its potential economic impact upon American farmers and the communities in which they live. We do know that the impact on small farmers in India has not been positive.
Farmers in that nation sink deeper into debt cycles as they borrow each year to buy seeds from the biotech conglomerates. Stories of high suicide rates among the poor Indian farmers, rather than farmers’ profits, have characterized the implementation of this technology.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 21, 2007. Read the original PDF.