17.10.2012 | permalink
During a recent United Nations summit meeting on genetically modified organisms in Hyderabad, a busload of scientists [...] saw dramatic improvements in [Bt cotton] yields, explained representatives from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications [...] The farmers were less enthusiastic. True, their fields were no longer infected by the bollworm after switching to Bt cotton – but the farmers were paying for it. “We’re getting higher yields, but we’re not better off,” said T. Venkatesh, one of the cotton farmers, in an interview. “Our costs have gone up much faster than the price of cotton.”