The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : `Palm oil no solution to agrarian crisis'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 31, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

`Palm oil no solution to agrarian crisis'

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ecologist and activist Vandana Shiva has urged the Biodiversity Board to prevent the introduction of palm oil as a solution to the agrarian crisis in Wayanad.

She was speaking after inaugurating a day-long seminar on `Annaswaraj- campaign for food rights and food sovereignty' organised by the Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action in the city on Wednesday.

Ms. Shiva attributed the slump in prices of high value commodities such as pepper as one of the biggest reasons for the crisis in Wayanad. "Pepper is what led to the colonisation of this country by foreigners. But today pepper growers in the State are the worst hit," she said.

Agrarian distress was one of the biggest problems affecting the country with hundreds of thousands of farmers committing suicides.

The arrival of multinational retails chains could adversely affect food sovereignty, with small-scale traders forced to shut shop, she said.

Describing free trade as neither free nor honest, Ms. Shiva said food imports were today governed by the bio-terror laws of the United States and Europe.

Malnourishment and hunger was the second biggest factor affecting the country. "India has more number of children who experience hunger than sub-Saharan Africa," she said.

Ms. Shiva suggested the introduction of nutritional classes in schools.

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