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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Are GM crops safe? by Shanthu Shantharam

Are GM crops safe? by Shanthu Shantharam

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published Published on Oct 1, 2010   modified Modified on Oct 1, 2010


Finally, India’s science academies have broken their silence and said that GM crops should be an important part of technology mix, which is crucially needed to improve India’s agriculture. The report entitled Inter-Academy Report on GM Crops was submitted to the Union government earlier this week.

The combined wisdom of the six academies of sciences in the country was long time coming. It is this kind of scientific advice (voice) that was missing from the vexed GM debate in the country for too long. This report nails all the lies and scare propaganda of the anti-GM lobby.

The safety and utility of GM crops technology should not be a topic of endless discussions and debates any longer. It is hoped that the Supreme Court takes notice of this report and dismisses all the frivolous cases against GM crops and GEAC.

Now that the highest scientific bodies have had their say, it should be easy for the decision-makers, policymakers and administrators to take firm decisions, and not dither about GM crops. As far as the social and economic risks and benefits are concerned—the holy grail of NGOs—let the growers and consumers decide. It is only the market place that always decides the fate of goods and services provided by technology-driven industries.

The report makes it clear that there is nothing that is associated with GM crops that raises safety questions and urges the government to approve Bt brinjal and other GM crops based on scientific assessment. The report points out that India is not the centre of brinjal’s origin but is the secondary centre of its diversity.

It also makes it clear that with GM crops, there are no reasons to believe that they will affect biodiversity, another bogey of many opponents. It recommends that Bt brinjal be approved forthwith without waiting for the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India to come into effect, which might take a few more years.

Many of us who have supported the GM crops technology for decades always knew the scientific basis of our beliefs. In fact, there is not even a single respected and recognised scientific body in the world that has not endorsed GM crops. Yes, there are some fringe “scientific” groups, created by the anti-GM lobby just to oppose GM crops that try to pass themselves off as legitimate scientific bodies.

Such fringe groups are neither mainstream nor are recognised by any international scientific body. They just carry a veneer of being “professional” scientific bodies, but in fact, they are bogus scientific organisations created by the anti-GM lobbies around the world just to provide a veneer of scientific credibility.

Even in India, there are groups like the ‘Biosafety Committee’ of the GM-Free India campaign and a motley group of physicians of Indian systems of medicine who never existed until the anti-Bt brinjal movement created it out of thin air. If only the government had consulted the academies early on, and if only these scientific academies had come forth with their own advisory much earlier, the useless debates about GM crops would not have come to this pass.

The anti-GM lobby has already started discrediting this report on charges of baseless “plagiarism” as its wont and believes that the media sees through these machinations this time.

The author is executive director, Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises—Agriculture Group (ABLE-AG)


The Financial Express, 1 October, 2010, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Are-GM-crops-safe/690717/


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