Monday, February 1, 2010

Historic decision awaited on BT Brinjal


By Pandurang Hegde
30 Jan 2010


Youth opposing introduction of Bt Brinjal in India

The public consultations on Bt Brinjal have brought to the fore strong resentment among people against increasing corporate influence over government policy making.

The debate on introduction of Bt brinjal has reached its crescendo in the corridors of power. The Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and the Minister for State for Science and Technology, Prithviraj Chouhan, have expressed their support for introduction of Genetically Modified (GM) food in India, adhering to the approval given by the GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee). In contrast to this, the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, has adopted a cautious approach. Responding to Agriculture Minister's open support of GM food, he sent him a letter stating, "We have to take decisions that have far-reaching consequences with the greatest degree of caution, and transparency and after ensuring that all stakeholders have been heard to their satisfaction."

In order to hear the stakeholders, the Environment Minister is holding consultations in few cities, and has sought opinion of governments of states having large acreage of brinjal. This participatory process might look too elitist, but it is definitely going to build the transparent process towards the final decision. In these consultations across the country, overwhelmingly the response has been against the introduction of GM food crops. Following Kerala, several state governments have either out rightly opposed or expressed concerns about introduction of GM food crops.

Much to the chagrin of GM food supporters, Karnataka, the state at the forefront of IT and BT technology, has also come out with a report against introducing bt brinjal in the state.

This overwhelming negative response from all the quarters has alarmed the corporate interests lobbying for the introduction of GM technology in agriculture and food. Now they are making their last-ditch efforts to 'influence' the central government to get approval for the first GM food crop in India. With huge financial backing, these lobbyists have the capacity and experience to manipulate policy making process for safeguarding the interests of agri-corporates. Earlier they succeeded in securing approval for bt cotton despite stiff opposition from the scientists and farmers. Though cotton is not a food crop, but the central government ignored the fact that the cottonseeds are an important input for cattle feed in India, paving way for GM contamination in the food chain among millions of people.


Having by-passed all the obligatory long-term studies to assess bt cotton's impact on health, the seed companies are reaping the windfall by monopolizing the cotton seeds market, in many cases with the explicit subsidy support of state governments! The never-ending farmers' suicides in bt cotton growing states has had little impact on the policy makers to stop the onslaught of GM industry. Having found a foothold in Indian soil through bt cotton and observed the reluctance of policy makers to act decisively against culpable MNCs, GM interests are now readying themselves to test the first GM food crop through bt brinjal.

However, their objective is not limited to the vegetable crop of brinjal, in fact it is a litmus test before opening the flood gates for other GM food crops. Having earned thousands of crores from the sale of bt cotton seeds over last few years, the multinational seed monopolies are aiming to control the huge market of staple crops of rice and wheat.

Will the Environment Minister be able to take a decision to safeguard the health and environment of the nation? His endeavors to consult the states, and the public hearings in different cities, seem to be a genuine attempt to elicit opinions from diverse stakeholders. Nevertheless, it will be expecting too much from him to act against the powerful agri-corporates. In an administrative set up, where jettisoning the national interests in favor of parochial short term gains is fast becoming a norm, the GM lobby will find an entry, from front or backdoor, sooner or later. If blocked, these seed corporations would not hesitate to release bt brinjal illegally, as they did with bt cotton in Gujarat, forcing the government to reconsider its decision. Even contamination of the food crops is feared.

Thus, the final decision regarding bt brinjal has historical importance as it will eventually take away the farmers' control over their seeds and their independence to grow what they want. This will lead to monopoly control with political and economic leverage over millions of farmers. Eventually, both the growers and the consumers will bear the brunt of health, environmental and economic impacts of GM seeds.

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