Sunday, December 5, 2010

Business, Media, Power, Democracy and Common man

The separation of powers is a model for the governance in democracy with each branch with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that no one branch has more power than the other branches. The normal division of branches is into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary. Open Media is considered to be the fourth (non-governmental) pillar of democracy. Democracy was practiced in Greece and Rome during pre-Christian era Europe. Subsequently democracy failed due to the reason that powers drifted and rested with evangelical religious institutions which are fanatic and self-preserving by initially aligning with monarchy and then growing bigger than monarchy. The 200+ year socio-cultural revolution in Europe which is termed as European renaissance, fueled the concept of Separation of Church and state to some extent, though the adaptation still varies country to country.

On a similar note, ever since the second world war, in particular after GATT /WTO the powers of various branches of democracy is drifting towards businesses globally. Today private businesses control over 50% of world GDP and real wealth (people are just holding on to some numbers in their bank accounts) - with the control of Media (forth pillar of democracy or the only touch-point with which common man supposed to have access to the real news and events with respect to the corridors of power that can impact his life) business houses garnered enormous power by twisting all truths from news creation to coverage and reporting to opinion making. Democracy survives on counter-rallying power or separation of power. Where each centre of power survives and provides a counter weight when there are alternate sources of authority. With control of money and media businesses have easily captured the other branches of powers. Independent and critical media are essential to an informed democracy. But mainstream media being in the hands of business and political powers which they should be watchdogging, becomes a puppet to brainwash the common man.

With the earlier models of Church being the main power center the damage to the Earth and there by the common man was minimal. However this new dangerous mix of business & PR/Media controlled so called democratic governance is resulting in catastrophic damage to Earth and common man. The raise of businesses and their control of government resulting in huge damages to the Earth (nature) and common man can easily be witnessed everywhere in the world. Particularly in US where the dignified opportunities of survival for common man is almost none unless he agrees to work for the business on the terms set by businesses. Thus humans are considered among other resources for the growth of business than sentient beings. Though the businesses invariably control the state and people yet they don't have any accountability to people as their proxies run the government in the name of representing people. The media is a main instrument of stoning people for controlling them.

The fact that Indian media scene is controlled by a handful of media houses limits the spectrum of viewpoints that have access to mass media proves this point. While half of the media outlets being controlled by business groups with political afflictions (Times, Hindu, India today, Zee, Sony, Star/Fox, CNN, UTV, TV18, NDTV, etc.) and supported by businesses, corporate advertisers, PR Agencies and the other half by political groups themselves (Sun, Sahara, Enadu, Jaya, Maa, etc.) independent journalism is hardly seen /heard and the actual news never reaches people.

In the drive to maximize profits the business controlled news outlets to produce news (rather than report) more and more news with fewer and fewer reporters. With less time to do each story, journalists are increasingly pressured to rely on the PR (Public Relations) industry to do much of their work for them: Reporters can rewrite press releases rather than do their own independent research, and TV stations can broadcast promotional videos that are designed to look like news footage. This symbiotic relationship between news outlets and the industries they cover, bound to make people real stupids in a so called intellectual wrapper overtime. Medias deliberately choose to debate and discuss unnecessary news items instead of educating the public on policy matters, price raise, high level corruption, how food travels from field-to-fork, etc. Adding insult to injury the unnecessary attention on the rich and famous by promoting their lifestyle, gossips - propagation of tabloid culture - helps the businesses to sell more of their useless products and keep people as slaves.

Yoga started as a silent peaceful rebellion movement in certain respect during the 90s has become a 3 billion dollar business in US.

Transformation is always at individual level yet history proves that social transformation had taken place, but have the past reformers faced such a powerful foe?...

Monday, November 29, 2010

US S510 Senate Bill and how that will affect India

Iatrogenic is defined as diseases or complications caused by medical examination or treatment or therapies. This includes disease, illness, or death from Drug Side-effects, or CDI (Combined Drug Intoxication) or MDI (Multiple Drug Intake), Drug allergies or inadvertent results of treatment or advice. In addition physical problems harmful consequences of psychological therapies of Psychiatrists also included in IATROGENIC.

You are thinking that the Iatrogenic deaths and diseases must be a small portion of the healthcare system in US but the truth is far from it. First a small background of US health care system:

Before that a fundamental question: Why we need know about US healthcare system - 9 out of top 12 pharma companies in the world are from US and they are the ones controlling the Healthcare system not just in US... They not just control drugs, control the therapies, curriculum of medical education system and the entire chain of healthcare from birth to death of an individual.

All have Manufacturing and/or distribution networks in India and many of these so called formulations are available in India with different trade names or simply imported and sold to public

In 2003, at 14% of the Gross National Product, healthcare spending reached $1.6 trillion in US. Considering this enormous expenditure, US should have the best medicine in the world. US should be reversing disease, preventing disease, and doing minimal harm. However, careful and objective review shows the opposite. Because of the extraordinary narrow context of medical technology through which contemporary medicine examines the human condition, Modern medicine system completely missing the full picture. Medical system is not taking into consideration the following monumentally important aspects of a healthy human organism: (a) stress and how it adversely affects the immune system and life processes; (b) insufficient exercise; (c) excessive caloric intake; (d) highly-processed and denatured foods grown in denatured and chemically-damaged soil; and (e) exposure to tens of thousands of environmental toxins. Instead of minimizing these disease-causing factors, modern medicine actually cause more illness through medical technology, diagnostic testing, overuse of medical and surgical procedures, and overuse of pharmaceutical drugs. The huge disservice of this therapeutic strategy is the result of little effort or money being appropriated for preventing disease in which nutrition from natural foods play a major part

FDA (Foods and Drugs Administration) the sole body is responsible for approval all the food products and drugs sold in USA is the single agency responsible many deaths in US than terrorist attacks or road accidents combined or more than Cancer or Heart Attack deaths

The number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million. Dr. Richard Besser, of the CDC (Center for Disease Control, another Govt. body) in 1995, said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was 20 million. Dr. Besser, in 2003, now refers to tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics. The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million. The total number of iatrogenic deaths (officially reported) is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death rate, 553,251 both are lower than the deaths caused by medical system. In the past 20 years alone over 25 drugs initially approved by FDA is withdrawn (after the pharma companies made huge profits selling the druts) due to adverse side-effects such as Heart-attack, Cancer, etc.

FDA topbrass are Doctors who were with Big Pharma companies or Corporate Hospitals and keep moving from one entity to another - now with the new Twist of Chemical companies acquiring Pharma companies such as Monsanto, Novatris, etc. The agenda of these Chemical companies are also pushed by Govt. (FDA) in the name of Healthcare etc. Thus there is a Senate Bill S510 called as Food Safety Modernization Act to control people from growing their own food and natural health supplements such as Pudina /Turmeric /Aloe vera etc. is being tabled in US. With S510 all will be forced get (so called) healthcare provided by FDA approved hospitals, foods and medicines (in other words being lab animals for testing drugs and contributers to the greed of these corporations and their Board)

S510 is passed, personal control over gardening will be severely restricted and saving seeds will be outlawed, theoretically setting the stage for a complete food monopoly by Monsanto and its GMO agenda. In short, it will grant the U.S. government new authority over the public’s right to grow, trade and transport any foods. Food production of any kind will essentially be under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security and anyone caught growing food without permission, even in their own backyard, could be charged with a criminal offense.

Now the coterie of Corporate Pharma, Corporate Hospital, Corporate Insurance, Corporate Farmers and Corporate Government Oops just Government, want to enter and control end-to-end another important area of our life - Food - which is already crowded with all sorts of chemical stuff, claims and counter claims. From now onwards one would witness GM foods sold as health foods, approved by Govt. agencies, prescribed by a doctor and included as part of the treatment coverage by insurance companies...

Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, Herbal medicines, Naturopathy, all will be banned in US and also in Europe... when S510 comes to effect

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Myth of a Germ-free world

An interesting article on why we can't have a germ free environment and we are probably the cause of it. Instead of helping the friendly bacteria surrounding us in fighting with the harmful ones we are killing the friendly ones and making the harmful ones tolerant to anti-bacterial stuff. In this deal also having a weak immune system...

One of my old posts on this topic is here... Save Bacteria!

Visit the Web-page link for more info... Myth of a Germ-free world

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Kisan Swaraj Yatra

The Kisan Swaraj Yatra is a nation-wide mobilization drawing fresh attention to the continuing agricultural crisis in India, and calling for a comprehensive new path for Indian agriculture – that will provide livelihood and food security for small farmers, keep our soils alive, and our food and water poison-free. The bus-Yatra will start at the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram on Oct 2nd 2010, and pass through 20 states to reach Rajghat, New Delhi on Dec 11th 2010

http://www.kisanswaraj.in/

Happen to take part in Chennai leg of the yatra, felt should have taken part in the entire yatra - timely wakeup call to all people (food producers and consumers). Fellow farmers please save yourself from the health/economic problems of chemical farming practices and also save the nation. It is in your hands...

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Should this happen in India ??!!!

Immediately after general public, several concerned scientists and farmers rejected Bt-brinjal...

Our (Indian) government is into something which is unthinkable even in a dictatorship country

The proposed BRAI (Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India) Act 2010 is going to put you in jail if you question the safety of GM Foods.

Many concerned citizens objected to one particular aspect of the bill which states “whoever, without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public about the safety of organisms and products…shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to one year and with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees or with both”.

“The Bill seems to have draconian clauses to stifle anti-GM voices in the country and is designed to be a Clearing House for GMO applications rather than to protect the health and environment of people in the country,” Dr P.M. Bhargava, Founder-Director of the Hyderabad based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and a vocal critic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) told The Hindu over phone.

Another controversial aspect of the Bill, opposed by anti-GM groups, pertains to clinical trials of GMOs and is therefore related to providing the public with “false” or misleading information.

Chapter XIIII of the BRAI Bill states that “whoever, himself or by any other person on his behalf, conducts clinical trials with organisms or products… shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to ten years and with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees or with both”.

“This is meant to harass civil society groups and scientists who are voicing their concern on this (GE /GM) technology,” said Dr. Bhargava. “There is no penalty if someone promotes GMOs without safety tests, but there is a penalty if someone wishes to inform the public about the hazards of GMOs. Besides, who is to decide on “misleading” and on what basis?” he asked.

KNOW THAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO CATCH YOU - A CIVILIAN FOR QUESTIONING THE SAFETY OF FOOD AND NOT THE TERRORIST WHO KILLS INNOCENT PEOPLE

THIS HAPPENS ONLY IN INDIA ?!...

Read the recent news items from The Hindu and India Today.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article108821.ece

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/84730/India/Govt+moots+jail+for+GM+food+critics.html

Scientific American report on how a GM Seed company (Monsanto) uses seeds to control the entire food chain (be happy that it is only human food chain !)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-seed-companies-control-gm-crop-research#comments

IMPORTANT: GM Cotton (BT Cotton) ineffective - Flash News: (despite this Govt. wants to force GM Foods on us !)

http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/06/stories/2010030664831400.htm

WHAT IS TO BE DONE ???... - WHAT ELSE, CREATE AWARENESS, PROTEST PEACEFULLY... and sign the below petition also

http://www.petitiononline.com/sackpawa/petition.html

Some info on GMO or GM /GE /Transgenic /Genetically modified, etc.

The biotech MNCs have been allowed to build a monopoly on patented genetically modified (GM) seeds, and planted them on 90 percent of India’s cotton fields in just 7 years. It is allowed to harass and intimidate farmers, not just for saving its GM seeds illegally, but for patent infringement, should a farmer choose not to grow GM crops, and the non-GM crop becomes contaminated, inevitably, by the neighbours’ GM seeds or pollen that get propagated by air, bees, butterflies, etc

In USA not only Monsanto and others have prevented GM products in the supermarket from being labelled, so no one can say whether GM food has harmed people, some US states have enacted a food libel law that forbids anyone to say bad things about GM foods that leads to loss of profit for the Biotech industry. Indian government's move to introduce BRAI Act 2010 is by itself an example of this.

There is now a substantial evidence indicating that GM /GE food is inherently hazardous. Whenever and wherever independent studies are carried out to test the effects of GM /GE foods on animals, scientists find increased illnesses, sterility or deaths; farmers and farm workers are also witnessing the same happening in the fields - this is conveniently ignored by the scientific community as Anti-science

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Rustle the Leaf - comic strip


Very good collection of comic strips focusing on Environmental messages. The wit, sketches and the messages are upto the standards of Calvin & Hobbes - Well done Ponce & Wright

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Two important Tech stuff

The first one is by Notion Ink's Adam Tablet www.notionink.in - in (a slate type touch screen computer) stepping up to Apple's iPad. Technical specs look sound, whether that translates into customer acceptance is to be seen - why I like this is due to its low power consumption ebook reading - paper saver, in addition to being a full computer - a laptop /PC replacer. Added to that unlike Apple, Adam runs on Linux! not any proprietary profit oriented software

The second is even more important is a clean energy company Bloom Energy unveiled their solid oxide fuel cell technology based distributed power generator www.bloomenergy.com which can produce electricity at the consumer's site - thus avoiding all electrical losses - induction loss, transmission loss, etc. Customers seem to be happy as the system does produce electricity as promised

Similarly at a rural level microbial fuel cell (fuel cells using simple gobar-cow dung) can revolutionise lighting with LED lighting. All you need is a liter or two of cowdung and you get lighting for about 2-3 hours nonstop in the night or recharge a mobile phone batteries... looks really promising.

Another one is a thin film solar technology - where one can stick the solar cell like a plastic sticker into any flat surface. There are many such technologies - which we seldom come to know of. Due to our inability to spend time for knowing such stuff or sheer ignorance.

Well some thought I'm against Tech, actually not - I'm one of the feeble voices of appropriate technology. Hopefully human beings don't destroy nature and we live long enough to witness all these technologies take shape and gets into our mainstream life.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

GMO - GM/GE Foods and the "Educated"

Its unfortunate that the so called educated community is divided in these issues. Many of them take the so called scientists and their fraudulent reports /media reports (PR) as true and defend their arguments without any basis and none seem to have any real-life experiences.

It is to be noted that a fully operational Microbiology /Genetics lab costs millions of Dollars to setup. In addition the cost of Gene sequencing, splicing and R-DNA (recombination DNA) research (?) costs millions to do... So it is easily evident that the MNC companies who claim to be seeds /bio-tech companies, spent millions to create these seeds, are they doing this for their own benefit or remove global poverty or poverty in India? - (this question itself is laughable as everybody knew the fact)

All these so called Agriculture companies are actually Chemical companies. Some are famous for making Chemical weapons - the so called WMDs. One is particularly famous for Agent Orange (a serious "human-cide") used in Vietnam war to kill thousands of Vietnamese, another one is yet to pay the damages for Bhopal disaster. They are now suddenly saviours, seed companies into promoting 'sustainable agriculture' (it is fashionable to use such terms as none understands the meaning) and reap huge profits from seed sales and herbicide sales. (the GM crop /plant is modified to be resistant to the patented herbicide sold by the GM Seed company - double profit - seed sales & herbicide sales)

Why a rush now when the pesticides and agricultural chemicals are selling well?. Protecting the future for the shareholders and investors. As Organic farming slowly spreading everywhere due to the consistent failures of chemical farming witnessed by everyone. More importantly eroding pesticide sales and profits as these pesticides are manufactured by everyone unlike the GM/GE herbicide resistant seeds and corresponding herbicides

One important point to be noted is that no GM crop can grow without Herbicide. Which is an equally dangerous chemical compound like pesticide and a proven Carcinogenic substance (cancer causing chemical). So it is all about selling some patented "cide" (chemical) and making money and not really about sustainable life-promoting agriculture. The following paragraph is taken from Cancer prevention society - gives you the highlights of herbicide

"The herbicide atrazine, extensively used in the U.S. on cornfields and lawns, while banned in most European nations, is the most common pollutant in rainwater, snow runoff, ground water and drinking water. A series of epidemiological studies over the last decade have incriminated atrazine as a cause of non-Hodgkin's and Hodgkin's lymphoma, prostate and ovarian cancer, while atrazine has also been shown to induce breast cancer in rodents, and endocrine disruptive effects (27). Against this background of NCI's silence is the April, 2002 headline news following publication of evidence that atrazine induces multiple sex organ abnormalities in frogs at levels in water as low as 0.1 parts per billion"
- From: Cancer Prevention Council, US National Cancer Institute http://www.preventcancer.com/losing/nci/nci_epidemiological.htm

Commercially motivated dishonest reporting of the so called scientists employed by MNC giants can't be termed as research and particularly we the concerned consumer shouldn't fall for this ploy as well as has the right to know

Thus it is our basic duty to look at all claims of corporates, scientists and also consultants with a fresh view without any prejudice. Thus we can easily understand that Genetic Modification /Genetic Engineering or Bio Technology (what ever be the glorifying name used for this technology) essentially violates not just the core chambers of a life-form (physically crossing nuclear membranes) but the conscious-choice principle that is part of living nature's essence and also the right of every life-form (we certainly don't have any right in this regard)

We fail to recognize that Seeds and food systems are primarily the property of the communities for thousands of years, they are the custodians of it. None has the right to interfere in this tradition which has been preserved for several years and in which humanity depends on. Yet the rulers the so called protectors are least interested in defending our food sovereignty, food safety and food security.

Though the Environment minister has issued a moratorium on one GM Crop (Bt-Brinjal), Government is planning to bring out a more draconian act (BRAI Act 2010) through which anyone who questions GM/GE technology, food safety can be silenced /jailed - our government is so fast with respect to catching concerned social workers, civil societies but not terrorists or anti-nationals

It is now left to us to defend and protect our rights for safe food and environment. Lets us draw inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi to fight the new breed of oppressors.

What I wrote in 2009 on Swine-flu in another blog...

I was living in Hong Kong during SARS epidemy in 2003 and witnessed the entire sequence of events during the spread and mutation of the SARS virus and the entire epidemy. (SARS is actually a strain of Pneumonia and not Influenza - which is a more severe form of respiratory disease). At that time mostly Chinese got infected and not Indians - an Indian doctor working in Prince of Wales hospital in Sha Tin, Hong Kong confirmed the same. (This was the hospital from where the SARS spread out for the first time and many doctors got killed due to infection and also in some cases of side-effects of medication). SARS originated in a Pig /Swine Farm (factory farm).

In a similar note H1N1 or Swine Flu also spread out from a Swine Farm where the swines or pigs were injected with heavy doses of antibiotics and given unhealthy animal feeds (GM and/or grown with heavy pesticides, herbicides).

The main differences between the pandemic of SARS and H1N1 are
1. Travel warnings were issued by almost all countries to Hong Kong /China during SARS epidemic. - No such travel warning were issued against travel to Mexico /Southern US particularly by India due to the fear of US economic might. US is where the pandemic spread widely and over thousands of people are infected and hundreds of deaths have occurred already. (This particular epidemy spread from the pig farm of the US pork giant Smithfield Foods factory in Mexico)

2. WHO announced that Ribavirin (a medicine believed to help treat SARS infection) is not so much effective for preventing the infection but the pharmaceutical company owned the copyright of Ribavirin was relatively small (less than US $ 1 billion revenue). Similarly Tamiflu is also ineffective against prevention of the infection; However Governments all over the world bought and stock piled billions of doses of Tamiflu.

The company owned Tamiflu is multi-billion dollar giant 'Roche' and Roche made sure that they sold billions of tablets and made a lot of money - their share prices have been going up steadly ever since H5N1 (Bird Flu epidemic). Roche in the past have known to bend rules in many countries. Recently Philippines and UK governments have accused Roche of monopolizing Tamiflu production and creating an artificial scarcity. In India 1 strip (10 tablets) of Tamiflu casts around Rs. 1800 - Rs. 3000 in black market.

3. There are several warnings against administering Tamiflu to children between age group 1-14 due to the adverse reactions and severe Hepetitic & Neurological side effects.

4. In the case of SARS some people died even without getting admitted to hospitals. But in the case of Swine flu nobody is reported to be dead outside the hospital. This made me think why many people die only in hospitals ? Was it due to the severity of doses and the side effects?? or due to the disease ? - there seem to be not much public information available from credible sources in terms of the virus mutation, how it progresses inside a human body and how it affects various organs and at what stage. Can death be prevented at an advanced stage if so at what stage and what type treatment to be given, etc.

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control in US), Tamiflu may not be able to treat Flu type A strains. Swine-flu strains include Type A as well as Type C, so administering Tamiflu for H1N1 Type A is ineffective. Information on which type of Swine-flu is prevalent and where each type is prevalent, such data are not being published regularly by Health departments.

Note there are a lot of preventive methods as well as alternative health-care methods (including the one published by Times of India recently) are available for Swine-flu

Data-centers, what we don't know...

Recently opened (2009) Microsoft's data-center in Chicago was build with 2,400 tonnes of copper, 3,400 tonnes of steel, 26,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 190 miles of conduit (water ways/pipes)- housing over 2000 servers in first phase. Keeping everything cool is made possible with 7.5 miles of chilled water piping. Even with all its power saving techniques, the first phase of the data-center can scale to 30 megawatts of critical power requirement and millions of gallons of fresh water everyday.

Businesses and investors place a huge premium on where the facilities are located, picking locations close to supplies of power, water and other key ingredients. About 70 per cent of a facility's economics and running costs are determined before even one breaks ground.

Despite the high costs of labor, real-estate, etc. can you guess why the data-center was setup in Chicago?. Simple... any data-center needs enormous amounts of fresh water to cool and sustain operations at less than 12 degree Celsius, that too data-center needs a lot more due to the energy inefficient, bulky (but fast) PC based servers. The location (Chicago) being near to the five lakes ensures continuous water availability in addition to sub-zero temperatures in winter. Even though labor costs are high in US, Chicago in particular, no where else such a 'business-friendly-government' (read 'business-controlled-government') exist other than US to protect the interests of Businesses. Businesses can easily shift its operations to any place in the world where resources are plenty... whereas a farmer can't even dream such a thing.

If one data-center needs so much water and electricity to run - then you can imagine how much water and energy is required to run 1000s - California houses 1000s of data centers - no wonder US West coast is a desert - Reminds me of Fritz Schumacher's "Small is beautiful"

May be its time to stop blowing the trumpet whenever there is a so called "technological advancement" - every bit of so called "growth" has also its negative side - which we are either not aware of or choose to ignore. Again reminded me of "Appropriate technology" from "Small is beautiful". Including me many hailed the advancements in Bio-technology a decade back now the same is cleverly used by businesses to control world's food, clothing and medicine supplies.

All these Data centers are used by us the bloggers and surfers. Thus it is our duty to be prudent users of information exchange. There is already information overload everywhere for which again we are the ones responsible. We keep forwarding unnecessary mails and forwards to anyone and everyone increases unnecessary traffic across the globe.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

30 Indian documentaries

Again on Ecology, Agriculture, Education, Environment, Life, etc.

#1. Leap Of Faith (about 3 families in Home schooling, Organic farming and Natural healing)
2. Poison on a Platter (on GM food and the health /environmental impacts)
3. Bt Cotton: A three-year Fraud (about GM Cotton failures in Andra)
4. "I Want My Father Back" (highlights the crisis in small farmer's families in India)
#5. The shape of water (water and culture in various societies in India and Africa)
6. The Seedkeepers (about how dalit women helps in sustainable agri and eco movement in Andra)
7. Mere Desh Ki Dharti (in the name of food security - food safety is compromised)
#8. Seeds of Life (2005 best agri film awarded) by Vandana Shiva
9. A Disaster in Search of Success: Bt Cotton in Global South (by Deccan Development Society)
10. Pedalling To Freedom (about life in one TN village)
#11. Eco-Dharma (about Bishnoi community - ecology as their religion)
12. Apna Aloo Bazaar Becha (about a village caught in globalisation)
#13. True Love In Pure Gold (about how relationships are entirely based on money)
14. The Technological Encroachment (how real life is increasingly becoming virtual)
#15. Shores of Silence (a landmark film for wildlife conservation globally)
#16. Black Pamphlets (global consumerist attitudes and Indian youth)
#17. Health Matters (important film on how corporatisation of healthcare is affecting India)
18. Accounts and Accountability (how a village people used RTI act against corruption)
#19. Dharma Dollies (about the stress and anxiety amongst the younger generation in urban India)
#20. What About The Children (about TV Ads exposed to children)
#21. Temples Of Water (water harvesting in Rajastan)
#22. Gharat (about water and sustainable energy in small scale and sustainable living)
#23. Urumaatram (on agri-land sold to a plastic factory in TN and happenings within the family which sold the land)
#24. Seeds of Plenty, Seeds of Sorrow (on the effects of Green Revolution in India)
#25. Tingya (about a small boy and his bull - life in a dry village)
#26. Gaabhricha Paus (The Damned Rain - on farmer suicides)
#27. Goshta Choti Dongraevadhi (life in a village and how situations force farmers to suicide)
#28. Holy Water 2007 (farmers protesting against Coca-Cola, decreasing water levels)
29. Autumn In The Himalayas (on Buddhist nuns and preserving the Eco system)
#30. The Slow Poisoning of India (on how pesticides gets into almost everything that we consume)

# - must see (as per reviews and comments - not my opinion)

Top 50 Documentary films - Foreign

On Ecology, Agriculture, Nature, Lifestyle...

#1. Story of Stuff (20 minutes animated on Consumerism) - www.storyofstuff.com
2. 'Food Production and Population Growth' -by- Daniel Quinn & Alan D. Thornhill (about Food)
#3. World according to Monsanto (GMO & Biz tactics of Monsanto to bypass regulations for profits)
#4. Future of Food (GMO in our foods)
5. King Corn (about GM)
6. Hidden Dangers in Kids' Meals: Genetically Engineered Foods -by- Jeffrey M. Smith
7. Pig Business - UK (on livestock farming in US)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkd8uPFjZfo
8. A Forest Garden Year (a documentary on Agro-Forestry based garden /farming - UK)
#9. Food Inc. (about corporatization of Food & Food manufacturing)
10. Fast food nation (about Food and health)
11. Meatrix (about Industrial livestock farming)
12. Super size me (about Food and health)
#13. Flow (about Water - the most important natural resource and how it is abused /controlled)
14. Earth Days (about Environment)
#15. Living with Renewable Energy (on Renewable energy for families)
16. Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-Energize America (on largescale Renewable energy)
17. A Delicate Balance - The Truth (is on the effects of diet on health and the environment)
#18. The Man Who Planeted Trees (Animated documentary based on the famous story of Jean Giono)
19. The 11th Hour (on global warming)
20. What A Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire (about USA and their lifestyle - which we copy)
#21. No Impact Man (one family's journey in reducing carbon footprint - living in New York city)
22. Zeitgeist Addendum (about how Money is created - Fractional banking and controlling the world)
23. The Corporation (about how Businesses controling everything that we all touch)
24. Who killed the electric car (about how oil lobby killed alternative energy transportation)
25. The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (on economic collapse and recovery of Cuba)
26. Crude - The real price of oil (on destruction of Amazon rain forests for oil by Chevron/Taxaco)
27. Up The Yangtze (about how mindless Industrialization spoiled Yangtze river)
28. Manufactured Landscapes (about urbanisation and its problems)
29. Fahrenheit 9/11 (about how 9/11 used to wage wars)
30. Sicko (about Health care system in US - India is following the footsteps of US)
31. Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (For Adults)
#32. The Secret life of plants (Film on the same popular book of Tom Hopkins)
#33. Home - (Full featured film on the mother of all earth - with no copyrights-free)
34. The Insider (a feature film on the Tobacco industry's illegal means of business)
#35. Addicted to Plastic (the names says it all)
36. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - (NatGeo educational documentary)
#37. The Age of Stupid
38. Silent Storm (about the deadly poison, Strontium-90 byproduct of nuclear testing in Australia)
39. Earth (2007 film)
40. The Cove (about killing of over 2500 dolphins in Japan)
#41. FernGully: The Last Rain­-forest (1992) (Educational film for children)
42. What Would Jesus Buy (on affluenza, over-consumption, addictive shopping etc.)
#43. All Jacked Up (about foods and food habits of teenagers)
44. Capitalism: A Love Story
45. The Yes Men 2003 & The Yes Men - fix the world (2 films) (about politics-business nexus)
46. Religulous (How organised religion breeds fanaticism & stupidity - comedy)
47. We Buy, Who Pays? (on consumerism, affluenza)
#48. Diverseeds (a documentary on the importance of Bio-diversity in agriculture & life)
49. An Inconvenient Truth (about Global warming)
#50. Life Running Out of Control (about GE /GM on plants /animals and its effects on environment)
#51. Coconut revolution
#52. WE FEED THE WORLD (about food and globalisation and how much is wasted)

# - Must see (as per reviews and comments - not my opinion)

Did I say only 50?!, well 52 are given...