Hardly a week passes somewhere in the world that there isn’t a debate on the issue of genetically modified crops.
The pros and cons of both sides are equally compelling. It has always been an issue that has fascinated me. That fascination coalesced with my frequent stays in Africa.
West Africa has seen a drop in its annual rainfall over the last twenty years of thirty per cent. Clearly, that presents an agricultural dilemma. It is clear to see when countries whose main crops are rice, peanuts and bananas are compelled to begin importing these items to satisfy local demands. Previously that wasn’t a problem.
What disturbed not only me, but activists around the globe, was what certain biotech companies were up to, as they began to promote their drought resistant and health giving varieties of seeds as the elixir of the human race. To further these ends, massive amounts of corporate corruption took root and flourished and contravened all conventions and were downright criminal. Huge international court cases followed and companies named and shamed.
Reports also began to leak out that GM crops were being developed so as to cause all other natural seeds to wither and die before they themselves expired….hence the title of the book. Farmers, to survive, would have no alternative but to purchase seeds from the biotech companies, year in and year out, forever.
While in Africa, I remember watching two emaciated children getting into a terrible brawl over finding and trying to eat a small orange found in a gutter. That struck home with some force.
I developed a small life and a love of the place. Such beautiful people… such terrible corruption, some of which I witnessed and others I was told of.
Suicide Seeds, is a work of fiction but is NOT too far away from what happened. Some characters are totally fictitious, other not, there are those who are dear to my heart. In some way they appear in this story. The dogs are for real and so is Beach Dog. Bless him.
SUICIDE SEEDS is FREE on Kindle Unlimited.
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