It has been called the biggest wave of human suicides in recorded history. Every 30 minutes a farmer in India commits suicide, crushed — say human-rights activists — by debt, moneylenders and the destructive policies associated with the introduction of expensive genetically modified cotton seed. Prince Charles has spoken of the “truly appalling and tragic rate of small farmer suicides in India, stemming in part from the failure of many GM crop varieties.” Britain’s Daily Mail called it “The GM genocide.” Except linking suicides to GM seeds is simply not true. “The issue of farmer suicides is not just entirely a farmer issue, or rural issue, or a village issue — it is a much more broader political-economic problem,” said Raju Das, a developmental studies professor at York University.