India:
Quote"
"In February this year, when the farmers sat on dharna [protest], officials had promised to sort out the matter in one month but the promise was never fulfilled. On the contrary, several protesters were falsely implicated for loot and dacoit," Kunwar Nishad, a representative of the organisation, told the Times of India.
"However, despite several assurances and the matter being raked up in parliament, the state government continues to turn a blind eye to the sufferings of these farmers."
Following the suicide threat, the district administration scrambled to placate the farmers.
"The state government is ready to pay four times extra compensation to the farmers. We have already submitted our files. The funds will be released soon," Mathura's district magistrate Rajesh Kumar told reporters.
"
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/india-25000-farmers-seek-presidents-permission-commit-suicide-independence-day-1514988 (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/india-25000-farmers-seek-presidents-permission-commit-suicide-independence-day-1514988)
Meanwhile in America, corn farmers are gathering together in my county to sue the government for catastrophically low corn prices or something like that.
Which I suddenly realized is why my uncle is farming a lot of kale this year for the first time in my Mom's memory.
Fried Kale chips... mmmm...
Quote from: JasonPratt on August 17, 2015, 08:27:26 AM
Meanwhile in America, corn farmers are gathering together in my county to sue the government for catastrophically low corn prices or something like that.
Which I suddenly realized is why my uncle is farming a lot of kale this year for the first time in my Mom's memory.
Does she remember telling him "Don't be corny."?
Bit of an update on that -- Uncle Butch says the story behind the legal action is that farmers buy genetically enhanced seed from various places, and one of them sold seed that had some kind of virus or other infection embedded in it; consequently when ships carrying the harvest started to arrive in China the government there failed the crop on inspection and... somehow the farmers haven't been paid yet, so they're seeking damages from the grain breeding and production company.
Don't know how the farmers couldn't have been paid yet (that's why there are brokers and the commodities market), and I don't know how that could be possibly tied in to corn prices having actually gone down (which is why I figured they were growing this other stuff we hadn't seen before. It's milo, not kale, btw.) If that much corn failed, the price ought to be going up to match the lack of supply.
The story doesn't really add up, though I may be missing some key pieces; but I thought I'd send the update along anyway.