In some sections of the social media a few vested interests have been propagating that Akshaya Patra Foundation (particularly its Jaipur unit) is involved in using GMO seeds and food and is feeding it to children, thus becoming a willing participant in infusing GMO foods into India.
These people who are interested in only a malicious campaign state that: “Many NGOs like Akshaya Patra are accepting GMO seeds/foods from Monsanto because they are giving it free of cost. And this food is being given to poor children who are being used as laboratory rats to test this food…” In an earlier article (http://www.struggle-for-truth.org/articles/dayalu-nitai-stop-the-spin-and- hype) we had exposed the tactics of this group whose only intention is to malign the various services rendered by devotees of ISKCON Bangalore and Akshaya Patra. These groups do not care to get their facts right but twist, distort and embark on propaganda based on half-baked information. This attempt by them to falsely propagate that GMO foods are being used on poor kids by Akshaya Patra exposes their brazen prejudice and bias against the sincere services rendered by ISKCON Bangalore devotees. They even accuse that Akshaya Patra is treating poor children like some laboratory rats when not even one grain of GMO food has ever been served by Akshaya Patra to its beneficiaries. Neither has Akshaya Patra used the GMO seeds of Monsanto in its vegetable farm in Jaipur nor has it sold or sent any of the GMO products of Monsanto to anyone in India. In fact, Monsanto was allowed to sell only its BT Cotton seeds and BT Brinjal in India. BT Brinjal was banned by the government many years ago. Akshaya Patra has no involvement whatsoever with BT Cotton or cotton growing or selling and it has never used BT Brinjal in its kitchens.
Akshaya Patra Foundation has received donations from Monsanto for a kitchen garden project.
The involvement of Monsanto is only in the form of making donations. The kitchen garden project received a donation of 30,00000 (INR) (about US$ 50,000) for the initial setup of the garden and Monsanto has committed to donate 20,00000 (INR) (US $ 33,333.30) annually for five years. It has already been supporting the project for 4 years by such donations. It is very
unfortunate that these people are propagating as if the entire Akshaya Patra is being run using GM foods. This donation was made by Monsanto as part of their CSR initiative.
Vermicomposting Monsanto has not interfered in any way in how the vegetables are grown or how the food is cooked or how the farmers are trained in farming using this model vegetable garden. In fact traditional agricultural methods are being used for growing vegetables, vermicomposting and the fertilizers are indigenously produced from cow dung and used in the farm. Seeds are bought from the regular market and are not taken free from Monsanto as being propagated. The farm also houses a solar dehydration plant in which vegetables are dried. This is part of the traditional Indian method of farming so that vegetables can be used later without compromising on quality and nutrition. In addition, deep freezers are not used in storing the vegetables as they cause environmental pollution. The farm also has a built-in green house for seedling purpose.
These have already been confirmed in various reports (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=8JC0aPb9c-E) and even on the website of Monsanto. It should be noted that nowhere has it been stated that GMO crops or seeds have been used in Akshaya Patra’s kitchen garden project.
Akshaya Patra Clarifies: Sri Ratnangada Govinda Dasa, the President of Akshaya Patra, Jaipur unit, responding to our questions, said, “We have no interest in maligning others; we are only interested in serving Srila Prabhupada and it is very unfortunate that some vested interests are trying to disturb our good work by false propaganda. We request all our supporters, donors and well-wishers to not get carried away by these mischievous elements. The success of our mission is very evident by the blessings of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna.” Students in front of the Dehydration Plant When this correspondent mentioned to Govinda Dasa that Monsanto on its website states “… the initiative also includes a program that has trained 400 local farmers in modern farming techniques and educated 3,000 school children in the nutritional value of different vegetables…” He clarified that the training mentioned does not involve any GM crops or seeds but it is referring to innovative methods like solar dehydration, green house, etc.” Juhi Gupta of Monsanto clarified, “We would want to reiterate that Monsanto has only been a funding agency in the project & Akshaya Patra has solely implemented/ conducted the project – none of the seeds used are GM, since that seems to be the main point of contention. The only GM crops existing in India is BT cotton & none of the food crops in India are GM. The interventions undertaken by Akshaya Patra for this project are anything but traditional – Green House and dehydration units are the very core of innovative techniques.” Greenhouse Conclusion: Propaganda mongers state that Monsanto is a demonic company and Akshaya Patra has formed an unholy nexus to treat poor children of India as laboratory rats for GMO food. Akshaya Patra Foundation clarifies: 1) Is Akshaya Patra Foundation feeding poison to children since it is cooking food seeds of Monsanto?
Totally false, as GM seeds are not used by the Akshaya Patra Foundation for farming. The locally available traditional seeds are used.
2) Is Akshaya Patra growing GM vegetables in its kitchen garden?
Totally baseless and false as no GM vegetables are grown in the kitchen garden. 3) Is Akshaya Patra feeding GM vegetables to poor children?
Since there is no growing of GM vegetables, the question of serving the same does not arise. 4) Is Akshaya Patra training farmers in the Monsanto techniques of farming?
Akshaya Patra has not given any training to farmers in Monsanto techniques, but farmers are invited to the farm to gain knowledge about dehydration processes, green house seedling methods and vermicompost processes. 5) Has Akshaya Patra educated children about GM foods and GM farming?
The children were brought to the farm from the nearby villages and they were taught about the advantage of dehydrating vegetables, green house techniques, importance of cows and go seva and made to chant the Hare Krishna Mantra and given prasadam. No child was taught anything about GM foods or Monsanto farming techniques.
Tomato plants Malafide Intentions: It is very unfortunate that some of the members of the group headed by Dayalu Nitai Dasa have resorted to a totally negative campaign against the Akshaya Patra Foundation without verifying the facts. This attitude of Dayalu Nitai Dasa and his followers is not new; they have undertaken a systematic misinformation campaign against Akshaya Patra and the Hare Krishna Movement in Jaipur. I shall also be exposing many more of their misleading propagandas in future articles.
Srila Prabhupada has stressed the importance of cooperative spirit in preaching. It is very unfortunate that Dayalu Nitai and his team don’t seem to have this word “cooperation” in their dictionary. They seem to thrive on conflict and in trying to find fault in others not knowing that when they point a finger at someone, the other three fingers point towards themselves. Unless they rectify this attitude, they cannot claim to be true followers of Srila Prabhupada.
It is ironic to note that the very same group which accuses the Akshaya Patra Foundation for receiving donations from a company like Monsanto has no qualms in taking donations for their festivals from companies dealing in leather products. Not only did they collect the donations from this company but they also publicly acknowledged the same. There cannot be two different yardsticks for measurement. If receiving donations from Monsanto is wrong, so is receiving donations from any company or individual involved in any kind of sinful activities, especially businesses involved in slaughtering cows and other animals.
It is also to be noted that a festival was conducted by this group with donations from a person who is known to be a fake drug dealer causing health hazards to thousands of people. It will be interesting to check if Dayalu Nitai and his team have a system of taking character certificates of donors before collecting donations from them.
Extract of resolution: When the leaders of Akshaya Patra were contacted they shared with us a resolution passed in this regard by their group: It is clarified to the devotees worldwide that Akshaya Patra Foundation only availed donation for the last 4 years from Monsanto and did not use any of their GMO seeds or their farming techniques. We acknowledge their donation contributed towards growing vegetables using locally available seeds employing normal traditional agricultural methods for the mid-day meal program.
The donation for the year 2014-15 has already been received.
It is hereby resolved that the Monsanto donation of about USD 33,000 per year to Akshaya Patra Foundation will be declined from the next financial year 2015-16 as the content posted about Monsanto’s partnership with Akshaya Patra Foundation in their website is ambiguous. In the absence of explicit clarification that this partnership does not involve usage of GMO seeds or Monsanto’s innovative techniques of agriculture, the said content tends to wrongly imply that funding partnership involves GMO seeds and techniques.
However, Akshaya Patra will reconsider accepting their donation if Monsanto limits itself to state in its website that the partnership is to support education through the mid-day meal program of Akshaya Patra Foundation. or Add a line at the end of the existing content of their website as follows: This partnership does not involve usage of GMO seeds or training in agricultural technique.