Every 30 min­utes a farmer in India com­mits sui­cide. That means in the 2 decades since large seed cor­po­ra­tions have plant­ed them­selves in India, almost a quar­ter mil­lion farm­ers have killed them­selves, leav­ing behind fam­i­lies in impos­si­ble debt, loss and despair. Export focused, non-food mono-cul­tur­al crops, forced use of ter­mi­na­tor seeds, pes­ti­cides and fer­til­iz­ers requir­ing recur­ring loans cre­ate stag­ger­ing finan­cial bur­dens, rob peo­ple of their capac­i­ty to pro­vide for their fam­i­lies. But don’t think this is Indi­a’s prob­lem alone. The rate of farmer sui­cide in the U.S. is more than dou­ble that of any oth­er occupation.