India will decide tomorrow whether to approve its first genetically modified (GM) food crop. It is a move that supporters argue will help to avert a global food crisis but which critics say is being rushed through recklessly.
The new vegetable, an aubergine — or brinjal in Hindi — contains a toxic gene that poisons insect pests and will boost yields while reducing dependence on pesticides, its champions say. It would also open up the world’s second most-populous nation to at least 56 other GM crops that are in the final stages of development.
Scientists have warned that not enough is known about the effects of the new variety on human beings and the environment. Long-term toxicity and the risk of dangerous mutations have not been ruled out, they say.
The country’s rural masses, about 800 million of whom depend on the land for a living, are angry at the prospect of relying on overseas suppliers for expensive new seeds.
The new aubergine was created by inserting the gene Cry1Ac, from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringenesis, or Bt. The resulting variety, called Bt brinjal, contains a toxic protein that will kill the fruit and shoot borer, a big pest, according to its creator, Mahyco, an Indian partner of the American GM giant Monsanto.
Mahyco claims that Bt brinjal is safe for human beings because the toxin is broken down during cooking and, even if it is eaten raw, the poison is deactivated by acid in the gut. Scientists say that key safety tests have not been conducted, including screening for toxicity that may build up after Bt brinjal is eaten over a long period, and for dangerous mutations.
“This is potentially very dangerous,” said Pushpa Bhargava, of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), India’s GM regulator. “Once you release a GM crop, you can’t recall it.” He told The Times that the safety data on Bt brinjal presented to the GEAC was “unacceptable and incomplete” — partly because most of it was supplied by Mahyco.
He was outvoted when the committee, which included several scientists with ties to Mahyco, approved the new crop in October.
Jairam Ramesh, the Environment and Forests Minister, who will make the final decision on whether to approve Bt brinjal, has admitted that whichever course he chooses will be controversial. Over the past few weeks he has travelled the country, canvassing public opinion at meetings that have often been disrupted by protests.
GM companies argue that, without their techniques, the world has no chance of doubling agricultural output by 2050, as many experts believe that it must. Such concerns are high in the minds of politicians in India: after the weakest monsoon rains in nearly four decades the cost of staple foods has soared by nearly 20 per cent in the past year, hitting the poor hardest.
With population growth outpacing agricultural output, experts say that food security will remain elusive unless India achieves a second “green revolution” — the advance in agricultural methods that allowed it to banish famine in the 1960s and 1970s through the introduction of new rice varieties, pesticides and fertilisers. Around the world there are concerns that food prices have remained stubbornly high after a sharp increase in 2008.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the combined effects of high food prices and the global economic meltdown have pushed more than 100 million people into poverty and hunger. Although international prices have fallen from their record highs in 2008, they have yet to drop to their levels before the food crisis. Average food prices last May were about 24 per cent higher than they were in 2006, according to the FAO.
After the first green revolution left vast swaths of land barren through overuse of fertilisers, Indian farmers are sceptical that GM crops hold the solution. Balbir Singh Billing, a farmers’ union leader, said: “By controlling the seeds these [GM companies] will control Indian agriculture and the entire food system.
“These are the same companies that introduced fertilisers and pesticides, suggesting that we could not do without them. Now, because of the consequent ill effects, the same companies want to introduce GM foods.”
Kishor Tiwani, an activist, alleges that the introduction of GM cotton — the only GM crop permitted in India — has let farmers down. He claims that more than three million hectares of GM cotton failed in the western state of Maharashtra last year, contributing to scores of farmer suicides.
Seeds of change
4,000 years of aubergine cultivation in India
500,000 hectares of land under aubergine cultivation
80% potential reduction in pesticide use with genetically modified crops
258 tonnes of Indian aubergines imported a year by Britain
25% damage to crops from pests each year worldwide
84% of India’s cotton is GM
Source: Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, India
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7019867.ece