GM Food, Difficult to digest

"Faced with the problem of dwindling productivity, scientists now fly a new banner to replace the moth eaten flag of the Green Revolution. They are boasting the colours of generic revolution. They promise to obtain by genetic modification fifteen tons of wheat or rice per hectare and 200 tons of maize. We are entitled to doubt this promise because soils by loosing their organic matter and biological activity are becoming the most limiting factor of plant production " from the book " Regenerating the Soil "   

Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman of the Farmers Commission, has himself observed that 40% of the farmers are willing to quit farming if an alternative is available. The father of the green Revolution ought to know that this is a direct consequence of the green Revolution which was introduced basically to benefit the corporate sector without any concern either for the farmers or their soil. The technology of feeding the crops with chemical fertilizers and protecting them with poisonous pesticides has failed all over the world. Now the agribusiness is offering us bumper crops with the introduction of GM foods. It is obvious that the biotech companies have a genuine concern for the infringement of their patents and must get reasonable returns on their large investments. Therefore, Dr. Swaminathan recommends that the governments must fund the public sector for GM research.

Following is an example of public sector research.

When Bt cotton started showing promising results, the scientists at the Central Cotton Research Institute at Nagpur, noticed that all companies were introducing hybrid varieties so that their customers would come to them every year, They worked on straight varieties and introduced the Bt gene in them so that the farmers could keep their own seed for next year's sowing. They marketed it at one tenth the price of commercial seed but even after Bt cotton occupying a 80 to 90% area, the farmers are yet to get this CICR developed Bt seed. This story of public sector research is likely to be repeated in case of other crops.

While narrating the benefits of GM foods, Dr. Swaminathan mentions Pest resistance, disease resistance, cold/heat tolerance, draught and salinity tolerance, nutrition enhancement and reduction in heavy metal pollution. Let us examine how far it goes.

The root cause of pests and diseases is monoculture. There are numerous pests and diseases of every crop and if one gene offers protection against a particular pest or disease, there is no guarantee that the other pest or disease will not destroy the crop. We have experienced that when synthetic parathrides were introduced to control bollworm in cotton, the minor pest whitefly became a major pest though bollworm was controlled, and destroyed the cotton crop. Dr. Swaminathan does not expect different genes to be introduced in the same seed to cover all pests or diseases. These two benefits of creating pest resistance and disease resistance are of doubtful value in the long run.

With our poor capacity to predict draught or floods the cold/heat tolerance as well as draught or salinity tolerance is also uncertain. The failure of Golden Rice to improve nutrition is well known. Similarly, heavy metal pollution can not be controlled if chemical fertilizers are to be used. In short, all the benefits claimed for GM food are at best imaginary. There are much better and cheaper methods of getting similar relief. To give an example, the brinjal pest can be controlled by altering the time of transplantation to September to be in tune with the natural period of growing brinjals.

The green revolution technology has only benefited the corporate sector such as manufacturers of fertilizers, pesticides and seeds. The technology has ruined the farmers and their soils besides causing enormous pollution of food, drinking water and air. On this degraded soil, how GM seed can help improve productivity is beyond my comprehension. As far as I know productivity depends on living soil, seed and sowing time, temperature and moisture at critical time, plant nutrients in balanced quantities, management of pests and diseases, weed control, protection from wild animals as well as birds and overall management of the farm. Seed plays a very limited role.

Let us now examine what Dr. Swaminathan has to say about the opposition to GM foods. As per him, there is no scientific proof to support their objections. Here the question is what is scientific? The example of use of synthetic parathrides on cotton and development of a minor pest into major pest is experienced by thousands of farmers over lacs of acres of the crop in Vidarbha but there is no reliable data available because this does not happen on lab scale or green house experiments. Is it then unscientific? It can not be denied that the apprehensions of environmental hazards, human health risks, unintentional harm to other crops, reduced effectiveness of pesticides, gene transfer to non target species and economic concerns are genuine and need long term trials. Dr. Swaminathan admits that regulatory mechanism must exist and is assuring us that it will be done but he forgets that Bt cotton is already approved and has reached human and animal foods during last 4 years. A short period of trials is certainly dangerous. Reports of death of goat/sheep eating leaves of Bt cotton in Andhra Pradesh and of cows eating of Bt Maize in Europe need to be investigated and not put under the carpet,

GM Soya was introduced in Argentina some 10 years ago and the data of benefits to farmers is now available. Out of the increased value of improved production 83% went to the company who supplied seed and weedicide while the benefit to farmers was a mere 17%. This is as far as economic benefits are concerned.

Dr. Swaminathan has always been a man of the corporate sector. He must repay what he has gained by supporting them at this crucial stage and therefore he has offered this 'Food for thought' which I find very difficult to digest.

Manohar Parchur, 258, Ramnagar Nagpur 440033
The writer has been a crusader for organic farming for two decades and is a member of the Expert Committee on Organic Farming appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture GOI.