Please find below a representative sampling of submissions from November, 1999 - January, 2000. Some submissions have been edited for length. Only those submissions which were not accompanied by a name, location, and valid e-mail address have been omitted.

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Was "Cremate Monsanto" operation in India operated by Western organizations? Is the rejection of GM in Mexican Chapas a Western NGO act? Is the reaction of the Cillian Center for Education and Technology against the Terminator an initiative of someone from the "wealthy West"?

I can't accept your opinion and I feel that 3rd world countries really don't want your seeds.

Rony Armon
Israel
armonb@inter.net.il

Their contribution to Indian agriculture cannot be ignored. However, their intentions on preservation of Indian natural environment is questioned by most of the environmentalists.

Tgk Murthy
ctri, rajahmundry
tgkmurthy@rediff.com

Dear Friends,

Enjoy the Magic Lantern!!! Learn how to make believe and be a successful wizard like Monsanto.

Herb Hoche
Union, ME USA
SeasWithLife@acadia.net

Developing countries cannot be self-sufficient economically nor politically. This is a fact. In the process of their Growth, they invariably land up owing debts to the world development bodies. These bodies are Financed to a great extent By the rich nations whereby these nations have a say in the activities of these bodies.

Here lies the basic paradox. A helping hand subject to unfair conditions. Environmental issues are so much conditioned by requirements of the developed world, that an attempt to generate indigenous technologies and finding global applications for them ultimately leads to conflict. Such is the basis of the upcoming WTO meet where India and other developing nations need to convince the world of their stifled position.

Anindita Chakravarty
India
anichakravarty@yahoo.com

The scientific approach that Monsanto embodies is too simplistic. When one argues that one CANNOT predict the consequences of transgene technology, scientists reply that there is no evidence to point to damage. This argument may be flawed for the following reasons:

1. Scientists depend on funding for their research. They depend on cutting edge research for personal success. Therefore, they may be biased, and they they are very eager to keep exploring this new technology, without CAREFULLY considering the consequences.
2. Scientists working in labs in America have even less connections with India's needs than environmentalists.
3. Even if the scientists ARE well intentioned, history has showed us that they only learn that a new technology is damaging AFTER they observe the effects of the damage. THUS, India stands at risk.

Aaftab Jain
Bombay
affyj@hotmail.com

As student of agriculture and a poultryman by profession and having been born in India I am fully familiar with the situation in agriculture in that country. The days of splitting the Indian farm any further are over and we need to employ the latest technological advances and a heavy dose of capital to increase the productivity of the Indian farmer.

I have seen this happen in the Poultry Industry. When it started in the early Sixties there was so much opposition to the introduction of the better breeds and strains from the private poultry companies from the U.S. and Canada. Charges were being hurled that they were going to bring diseases such as never existed in India. Yet testing done privately from the Indian countryside showed that all or almost all diseases of chickens were already present in India. I think we should have an open mind on the new technology and use it to the hilt once found harmless and productive.

Gopal Pandey
North Carolina, U.S.A
crostrad@concentric.net

I believe let others do the needful if our own people are not concerned about environment. The environmental concern is the thing that every Indian should think of. It is true that very little is done in this area, either on the behalf of government or NGOs. There should be more education and awareness regarding these small things, which they look like but actually they are not.

The very common practice of waste/garbage disposal in India is, just throw wherever you are. But the garbage may contain some hazardous/toxic materials that eventually lead to poisoning of that area. In some other acts, like making a noise polution or for that matter any other polution, it is going to be serious problem in near future. As we know, there is already a global warming and temperature of the atmosphere has gone up, leading to melting of the ice from the icebergs and hence raising sea level high. This eventually will gobble up the small islands and vanish their name from the pages of the history. So it is better to educate the people and save the world from the disaster that we can avert.

Israr
USA
ihansari@hotmail.com