Chronicling the Global Agri-Cartel’s Assault on Rural India
Colin Todhunter
Agrarian Imagination Under Siege: India’s Farmers Against the Global Agri-Cartel (2006) is now available to download for free at Zenodo.
The global news cycle is notoriously fleeting, often treating systemic shifts as fleeting moments of spectacle. When the historic farmers’ protests in India during 2020–21 reached their zenith, images of tractor convoys and mass encampments on the outskirts of Delhi dominated international headlines.
However, while the cameras have long since moved on to other crises, the struggle has not ended. The agrarian crisis has deepened and shifted into new, more complex territories, making the stakes for the future of food and rural life more urgent than they have ever been.
A new collection of 19 essays, written between 2015 and early 2026, offers an archive of this ongoing battle. Far from being a mere historical record of past grievances, this volume serves as a single, consolidated access point for understanding the systemic forces currently attempting to dismantle the foundations of rural India.
It conveniently brings together a selection of writing previously scattered across several books, print publications and digital platforms. By bringing together these essays, the collection provides a resource for those who are working to navigate the complexities of modern food systems or who are just interests in where there food comes from, how it is cultivated and who controls it.
However, this collection is far more than a chronicle of economic policy and resistance. It is a documentation of a war on life itself. It captures an existential struggle against the attempt to strip the soul from Indian agriculture and replace it with a mechanical, profit-driven logic.
Behind the technical language of memoranda of understanding and the implementation of digital control grids lies a move to alienate people from their own heritage. The book explores the corporate capture of food systems and the erosion of rural livelihoods, revealing how the sacred bond between the farmer and the land is being redesigned into a series of digital extraction points. It documents the refusal of millions to be reduced to mere data points, highlighting a massive, grassroots insistence on human dignity.
While the heart of this book is firmly rooted in the realities of India, the questions it raises transcend national boundaries and speak to a universal condition. Readers residing in any corner of the globe will recognise the same logics of commodification and control currently transforming landscapes from the Americas to Europe and beyond.
Whether it is the loss of local autonomy or the encroachment of high-tech surveillance on traditional farming practices, the forces reshaping India’s countryside are global in scope. This collection serves as a mirror for any society facing the encroachment of corporate power over the basic right to food, land and self-determination.
As we move through 2026, the situation in India remains the frontline of a global debate about what it means to be human in an age of total digital and corporate capture. This book is a sobering reminder that while the international headlines may have faded into the background, the resistance continues with renewed intensity. The struggle for the countryside—whether in India or elsewhere—is a struggle for the future of humanity’s connection to nature.
Colin Todhunter specialises in food, agriculture and development and is a research associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization in Montreal. His open access books on the global food system can be accessed via Figshare (no sign in or sign up required).
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What they are doing to agriculture is horrible. In my region, actually in most regions around the world, I am afraid, fields are fertilized with sewage sludge. Farmers get excited because they give it to them for practically free. And it’s not the shit that is the problem, It’s the heavy metals and toxic chemicals in sludge. Of course, the sludge is mostly used to fertilize GMO corn and soybeans, which are then fed to farm animals whose digestive tracts were not made to digest corn and soybeans, much less GMO corn and soybeans. But the government subsidizes growing GMO corn and soybeans. Thanks to Nixon’s fiendish Ag Sec, Earl Butz. Once they establish something, it never goes away. Look at heavy metal.
A farmer couldn’t grow some alternative if he wanted to. It’s too profitable to take the government subsidy. When I was growing up, I used to see regular farmers practicing what amount to organic methods, taught them by Roosevelt’s Soil Conservation Service. I remember memorizing the drill in 4th grade (they actually taught us things in 4th grade, who knows why): strip farming, crop rotation, contour plowing, treelines, alfalfa. All gone. All gone.
Good ideas get crushed. It’s like they troll around for an idea, axing themselves, “What is the shittiest idea we can come up with?” and then that’s what they do. Not even the second shittiest.
Gates just can’t keep his nose out of it, he’s now GMO-ing our livestock, if he’s not jagging Third World countries population with Christ knows what, or messing about with vaccines – he’s tampering with our foods.
GMO MEAT? Bill Gates now spending tens of millions to genetically modify livestock – NaturalNews.com
Computer science and selling is extremely boring. Thats why he is clumpsy around in mother nature like a jumping jack. Long long way from office and screens.
Yeah Gates like several billionaires is now buying up huge chunks of farm lands – especially lands with access to water (aquifers) they’ll control huge swathes of land and just as if not more importantly water .
The Reason Bill Gates Buys Farmland Across America
Fearporn farmer the deranged ranger.
Let me guess? get quality scientific clean meat from natural news government approved shop and this is fighting the power of bee;s.
Bill gates 😱
Jabs to mess up genes and immunity started at least in 2012 with farmed animals. All profit and glory to almighty globocap.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/gene-based-rna-vaccines-used-food-supply-since-2012/5912442
Trump and Rf k jr’s concern for food have scared the deep state.
BREAKING: Elon Musk stuns the World by going to Davos to speak.
This is going to be EPIC
The Deep State will NOT be happy
Forced EV to everybody. To save the environment and the world.
Stuns the world? With words of wisdom?
Fuck India!
You sure am ambitious. You sure you can get it up ?
Your wife is still moaning…what do you think?
The privatization parasites want the NHS, and they want it now!
https://realleft.substack.com/p/the-great-health-and-social-care
Better get your marching boots on Folks. Sparks will fly.
The NHS takeover is another foot in the door:
https://davidthunder.substack.com/p/government-controlled-digital-id
The Covid Vaccine has significant and detrimental effect on fertility.
Association between the COVID-19 vaccination campaign and fertility trends: a population-level time series analysis for 22 countries | BMJ Public Health
Study finds correlation between COVID-19 vaccines and plummeting birth rates in Europe, Australia and Asia – NaturalNews.com
Alright. Somebody talking about the only real issue, besides politicians fucking little girls, of course, and I am not joking. People get bored with the same old story. And yet, they should have it rammed down their throats. Covid. Pedophile Politicians. Covid. Pedophile Politicians. All the livelong day till they get hep and do something about it.
If you like that you’re gonna love this as well.
conspiracybot (@conspiracyb0t): “Pediatricians collect $200–$600 per fully vaccinated patient, with some making more than $1 million a year. Definitely no conflict of interest there!” | nitter.poast.org
UK sold NHS data on patients about a decade ago to some outfit like Google. For AI training or research or public benefit.
Off topic.
This will tickle your funny bones.
aUStralian of the year is a Spacegirl!
No kidding:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-25/australian-of-the-year-awards-2026/106267536
It is just SO cool to be an Aussie.
“Frank Mitchell, a proud Whadjuk-Yued Noongar man, is the Local Hero of 2026 for his work kicking Indigenous people in their fat ass’s to access employment. ?
As far as I know, the indigenous people of aUStralia don’t have a specific word for work. Which proves they are far, far, wiser than us.
Work is an invention of the parasitic ruling class. They have never worked.
You and the other socialists here dont have a clue about what work is.
Work is when you get sweaty and tired, and sleep deep and heavily at night. This is work, and thats why you socialists dont like it.
You’re stuck in the 50s Erik.
Sad that.
Rocket Man and Major Tom have dipped out Down Under.
No matter, it’s just another distraction for the somnambulists.
“Bureaucracy is Procedure; without procedure, no bureaucracy” … (anon) …
Big tech Palantir put automated procedure (algorithm) to lethal effect in The
Killing Fields of Gaza…
“Down with the Dictatorship of Procedure !
Down with the Dictatorship of Algoritgms !” … (anon) …
Thank you Colin! Your subject matter is a fractal of the bigger picture of internal colonization of humanity by the world’s 1%. Their incremental technique, executed since WW2, has been able to continuously capture humanity away from halting a shift from the physical reality of Earth’s complete and natural whole ecosystem, to a representational, digital, artificial reality where human and biological proxies, atomized and distributed everywhere at once, are remotely controlled in a Matrix world of technical slavery. Somehow, they envision themselves as remotely controlling agriculture away from human stewardship, driven by artificial substitutes of every social component: chemistry, GE, sensors, drone-bot IoT, satellites, AI and … digital money. This script seems to apply to all sectors, flora, fauna, and human.
This last stage, would have been impossible without the vast accumulation of, discretionary and virtual/fiat money.since the 1971. As each day goes by in this 21st C, commoners have been/are being incrementally stripped of assets, income, and agency to the point of bare existence. They want us to take one step further into a controllable proxy reality. Whether agriculture/food, labor, housing, transportation or society itself, it will all be an abstract proxy of reality, with greater validity than any human plant or animal. Imminent termination for everyone and everything outside the top 5% which will be required to keep the 1% alive in their luxury dystopia.
It won’t work. But them continuing to attempt this will cause extreme misery to humanity as long as infinite trillion$ keep rolling into their goblin treasuries and we comply. Y’all know what to do.
Whatever happened to Gaza. The youknowwhats are still killing Palestinians hand over fist. This, I hate to tell you, is wrong. And they should be stopped. With extreme
Good article, I know Indian’s love their cattle, but the West doesn’t – the cow fating myth is just another angle to control the amount of meat we eat – meat contains a plethora of minerals the body needs – I suppose they want you a veggie, so that you become weaker and rely on more medication.
“This is part two of a two part discussion with Christof Plothe DO on the issue of Bovaer. Bovaer is a drug marketed as a methane-reducing feed additive for cattle, with claims of reducing methane emissions by 30% in dairy cows and 45% in beef cattle. Its mechanism of action is rooted in disrupting natural biological processes. The long-term effects remain entirely unknown, raising serious concerns about the safety and ethics of deploying this unproven chemical experiment on a global scale.”
The Dangers of Bovaer and Its Implications for Public Health – Science, Public Health Policy and the Law
Been a vegan for fifteen years.
No ailments, no drugs, no problems.
Which is the opposite of almost all the omnivores I know.
I’ll never see 70 again.
Do some research.
“No ailments, no drugs, no problems.”
You must be the exception rather than the rule – very few folk 70+ have no problems
Greetings and Thank you very much for your comment:))
I’m 67, have been vegan for 34 years, so has my husband.
Just like you, no ailments, no drugs, no problem.
In fact, my health improved once I started on a vegan diet, and especially when I dropped dairy. We eat fresh, varied, mostly home cooked, and organic food when possible.
I started when I was presented with the abhorrent situation of animals on our planet – all caused by us – humans.
Leo Tolstoy, who in his last years of his life (I think) became a vegetarian, said that as long as there will be slaughterhouses, there will be wars.
Well done Beata.
We became vegan when our vegetarian daughter met a vegan bloke, and we were persuaded by her and his logical and ethical arguments. That, and lots of research, opened our minds.
The minerals and vitamins obtained through meat is derived vicariously. Minerals and vitamins come from plants grown in soil and exposed to sunshine. The only vitamin we humans can generate ourselves is vitamin D when exposed to the sun.
Crocs, cats, some birds and a few other animals are obligate carnivores, humans are not.
In fact, Dan Buttner studied longevity in human cultures across the world and wrote some books about the “blue zones” where people lived the longest and found that in those regions people ate mostly vegetarian foods, if not vegan. Check it out – here an article:
Blue Zones: Lessons From the World’s Longest Lived
Dan Buettner, BA, and Sam Skemp, BA
Good onya Veri Tas.
Some Folks are unreachable.
Tell that to the mammoths and other instinct creatures that we hunted for meat , that we made extinct – humans are omnivorous – we desire meat only certain religious sects (manmade) and media brainwashing pushes the don’t eat meat nonsense – man’s been eating meat since time immemorial.
Doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
Besides the fact that modern meat–and dairy–is pumped full of all sorts of disgusting hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals.
“Besides the fact that modern meat–and dairy–is pumped full of all sorts of disgusting hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals.”
It wasn’t always that way, it was good natural fare – before governments allowed big corporations to mess about with it.
Old habits die hard.
The connection between meat consumption and diseases in humans is irrefutable.
Look up the ‘China Study.’
Meat – lean cuts such as beef, chicken and pork are high in protein – and are rich in essential minerals. No report can deny that.
You just refuse to read and respond to what people actually say, don’t you. Is it a form of dyslexia or what?
Your the one who appears to have a problem – a problem with my comments on meat – and how humans have been consuming it for hundreds of thousands of years.
Lets agree to disagree on this one.
Can’t find the research right now but it is a myth that ancient hunter-gatherers ever – and not even today amongst the still natural indigenous groups on earth – successfully hunted sufficient large animals to feed the tribe. Most food was collected (by women, btw), including eggs and small animals caught by them.
Amongst the Inuit, subsisting on a mostly meat and fish diet, thought to have lived long healthy lives, the research actually shows, they were more or less good til their mid 40s, after which their health declined sharply and they died early. They suffered from anything between low bone density to high mercury levels and atherosclerosis (heart disease – despite their high intake of omega3). Go figure.
The healthiest people are hands-down those who live on a mostly plant-based diet. Of course there are other factor too.
Not too far fetched. A few plants, a few eggs from the chickens, a few fish from the rivers, and we’re done for the day. All needs supplied.
who then needs the male hunter killing the rival local tribe for more. What was he trying to prove anyway?
Hard for the Inuit and others in the far north to get fresh veg.
I’m sorry but I have to disagree – not only did our ancestors hunt large prey, they revered them as well – painting them in caves such as the ones at Lascaux – or are the cave paintings a myth too?
The limited archaeological and paleoanthropological evidence makes is difficult to reconstruct the potential subsistence strategies of early hominins in tropical grasslands and their methods for acquiring resources.
Meat eating and hunting is most prevalent amongst those humans living in harsher conditions(dry savannah, or colder temperate and boreal climes), whereas those existing in more favourable ‘Garden of Eden’ biomes – such as along the Mediterranean and in the Near-East – were mostly plant-based; for example, isotopic analyses confirm 80% of the diet of the the Iberomaurusians of Morocco (~15,000 BC) was a combination of wild nuts, tubers, cereals, and pulses (Moubtahij et al., 2024).
…
Hunting is exceptionally difficult and risky, and we avoided it where we could, unless technology and social organisation made it easier, else environmental conditions demanded it. But we’ve always hunted, else foraged, for animal products, in some form or other, even when plants made up the overwhelming majority of our diets – but that ought not to be an argument for nor against any contemporary ethical decision.
There is no hard evidence that ancient humans were persistence hunters. … Henry Bunn, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has said more than once that a person would have to be “incredibly naïve” to believe the persistence hunting theory. Bunn had spent time with the Hadza, a modern-day group of people in the Great Rift Valley (East Africa) who are thought to live much like their ancient ancestors did. The only time Bunn ever knew the Hadza to run was when they were fleeing pelting rain, angry bees, or marauding elephants — and maybe occasionally to scavenge.
“Using the Hadza (hunter-gatherers, Tanzania) rates as the example, even the best hunter usually fails to score.” (Hawkes, 2000, p. 72).
Definition of Vicariously:
“in a way that is experienced in the imagination”
Enough said.
We have no control over the psychos in power. Methane from cattle, their sewage etc. is only an issue in industrial (“scientific”) farming. What do you expect when you feed the cattle grains, GMO soya and various surplus from food factories, and pump them with biocides (“antibiotics”) and agro-chemical residues including glyphosate? What cattle need is fresh grass or straw.
Agreed.
Typo in the year? s.b.2026
‘Same procedure as every year James‘.
Money doesn’t grow on trees.
Unless _ _ _ _ _
Everybody can do it.
How to grow money on trees: https://youtu.be/oJw0pc_GugM .
Unless, you own all the trees, plants, fertilizer and water.
Bill Gates owns the most land in US. Maybe also elsewhere. The bleeding heart only wants to save the land. Major US businesses bought about 43% of all Ukraine land around the start of the war that you-know-who had tried hard to instigate.
Bill, our hero, opening the Gates to hell.