As many as 5,000 people are expected to come together in Maharashtra’s Akola district [June 10] for what will be the world’s first farmer protest in favor of genetically-modified (GM) crops. The Shetkari Sanghatana, a farmer organisation founded by former Rajya Sabha member Sharad Joshi, is spearheading the protest.
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The participating farmers will borrow from Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of satyagraha, and plant the banned herbicide-tolerant Bt Cotton (GM cotton is allowed in India, but this variant isn’t) and Bt Brinjal seeds in a plot at Akoli Jahangir village ….
Carrying, storing, selling, or sowing of banned GM crops can earn you [a fine] and five years in jail, but the farmers say they are prepared.
“We are going to plant cotton and brinjal seeds on a one-acre plot. If police arrest us, we’ll go to jail. If we’re asked to go to court, we will do that too,” Shetkari Sanghatana president Anil Ghanwat told ThePrint over the phone.
Read full, original article: Thousands to risk jail, Rs 1 lakh fine at world’s first farmer stir in favour of GM crops
