Perils of mutant food
It is believed that, as of 2001, genetically engineered crops are grown on over 50,000,000 hectares of farmland. The fact that genetically engineered seeds offer substantial short-term economic advantages makes these seeds considerably more attractive than conventional seeds. Added to this is the lack of any definitive, transparent and firm evidence in the public domain that these seeds might have adverse impacts as well.
Till date, no country has a satisfactory system of assessing the risks associated with the release of genetically modified (gm) plants, microorganisms, animals and marine organisms into the environment. The might of the gm crops lobby makes the situation even more worrisome.
In an agriculture-based economy like India, marketing of gm crops by multinational corporations (mncs) might spell even greater doom. Where one per cent of all us citizens, and two to three per cent of Europeans, are engaged in agriculture or related activities, 70 per cent of Indians depend on agriculture for their livelihood. It is also an unrefutable fact that our farmers are, by and large, unaware of the nuances of new technologies. Seeds are bought on trust in this country. There are no laboratories where seeds can be quickly and cheaply tested. And testing there must be, for mncs are not the most ethical of organisations!
The Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton experiment is a case in point. Monsanto/Mahyco (in which Monsanto has a 26 per cent stake), in its trials of Bt cotton, permitted by the department of biotechnology (dbt), has not always obtained the informed consent of farmers.
Farmers were never told, for example, that after the first or second plantation, there could be a need to put in as much as 40 per cent of