GM crops awareness

Public awareness about GM crops low in India, says The LEAF Initiative

The LEAF Initiative, a citizens’ initiative aimed at spreading awareness on important issues relating to livelihood, the environment, agriculture and food (LEAF), has been tracking information on genetically-modified (GM) crops, as the technology could have major implications on all the four areas. They have found that public awareness about this important subject is still very low in India – where Parliament has introduced the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill – and is often mired in claims and counter-claims unsubstantiated by facts.

The Center for Sustainable Agriculture prepared a booklet on GM crops, titled, ‘Genetically-modified foods and crops – Some facts that everyone should know’. The LEAF Initiative believes this is a useful compilation of information. A detailed publication, titled 'GMO myths and truths' – authored by three international scientists – was also released. The Coalition for a GM-Free India recently compiled the abstracts of over 400 scientific peer-reviewed studies on the adverse impact of GM crops.

Genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) have been defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as, “Organisms is which the genetic material, DNA, has been altered in such a way that it does not occur naturally.” GM technology has been called “the first irreversible technology in human history.” Adoption worldwide has been slow, as most countries probably consider it unpredictable, imprecise and hazardous to human health, environment and farm livelihoods. 

National seed diversity and sovereignty is seen as being subordinated to vested corporate interests. Independent researchers find that negative impacts are now emerging. For instance, an estimated 60 million acre of land in the United States is now infested with super weeds as a result of herbicide-tolerant GM seeds and their related glyphosate-based herbicides. The use of herbicides in the United States has increased by 527 million lb since the introduction of GM seeds in 1996.

Regulatory control is failing. India has a history of such regulatory failures, which have been documented by the joint parliamentary committee on agriculture. In April 2013, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that unapproved GM wheat (roundup-resistant) was found on an Oregon farmer’s field, even though field trials were stopped many years ago, and the trial GM wheat was supposed to have been destroyed.

The resultant cancellation of import tenders by importers could cause wheat-growers to incur losses worth millions of dollars. A similar contamination in 2006 by unauthorised GM rice caused contracts of over $1 billion to be cancelled. Yield claims are also being refuted. A recent peer-reviewed study showed that farming centered around GM, as practiced in the US, lags behind non-GM based farming practiced in Europe. 

The study finds GMOs are “lowering yields and increasing pesticide use” in North American farming compared to mostly non-GM farming in Western Europe. In countries that adopt GM crops at a fast rate, farmers find that their seed choices are restricted to a few GM varieties, as the best-performing non-GM seeds are withdrawn. This process has been documented in the United States (with maize and soy) and Brazil (with soy). A study published in Environmental Science Europe confirmed these observations.
Facts about GM foods and crops Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, president, the United Nations' General Assembly, said the essential purpose of food, which is to nourish people, has been subordinated to the economic aims of a handful of multi-national corporations that monopolise all aspects of food production, from seeds to major distribution chains, and added that they have been the prime beneficiaries of the world crisis.

According to the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture's 2013 booklet, titled, 'Genetically-modified foods and crops – Some facts that everyone should know', there are a number of GM crops awaiting approval in India. These include rice, wheat, sorghum (jowar), groundnut, corn, potato, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, okra, brinjal, mustard, watermelon, papaya and sugarcane.

Field trials and commercial release of GM foods and crops
In its report – titled, “Cultivation of Genetically-modified Food Crops, Prospects and Effects” – the    Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture (whose members, cutting across political parties were unanimous) stated, “Considering the flaws and the shortcomings noticed by the committee in the functioning of the regulatory mechanism meant for the purpose, the lack of preparedness of various agencies who should ideally be involved in various oversight and both pre- and post-commercialisation surveillance responsibilities in the context of transgenic crops, the still unclear ramifications of transgenic crops on bio-diversity, environment, human and livestock health and sustainability, the committee desires, in consonance with their recommendation in a previous chapter, that for the time being all research and development activities on transgenic crops should be carried out only in containment, the ongoing field trials in all states should be discontinued forthwith.”

The technical expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court, in its interim report, had also recommended a ten-year moratorium on field trials of Bt food crops, a moratorium on field trials of herbicide-tolerant crops (till independent assessment of impact and suitability) and ban on field trials of GM crops for which India is the centre of origin and/or diversity.

Why did they make these recommendations? Field trials are conducted before establishing biosafety. GM contamination from field trials may be detected after years, and is irreversible. India is the centre of origin and diversity for most of the proposed GM crops. Extreme caution has rightly been recommended to avoid serious ecological, economic, health and seed sovereignty concerns.

GM in agriculture
Genetic modification (GM) is also called genetic engineering (GE), transgenic technology or recombinant DNA technology. It involves genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) or living modified organisms (LMOs), such as plants, animals, insects, etc.

It is one of many forms of biotechnology. GM is the most controversial agricultural technology in the world. WHO defines GMOs as, “Organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.”

This is usually done by inserting genes of related or unrelated species into an organism's DNA in an attempt to transfer, or stop expression of, a specific trait.

For instance, a gene from a bacterium has been inserted in a plant and even a fish gene was once inserted into a tomato variety. GM technology is presently crude, imprecise and unpredictable.

Currently 99 per cent of GM crops have only two GM traits – pesticide production within the plant [e.g. plants engineered with the gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)] and herbicide
tolerance (HT), enabling the engineered plant to withstand high doses of a particular herbicide spray. Usually the herbicide is patented by the same company which produces the HT GM seed.

Companies promoting GM technologies claim benefits like higher yields, lower pesticide use and other beneficial traits. However, many governments, independent scientists, consumer groups, farmers' unions and citizens, say that these benefits are more hype than truth and that the risks far outweigh the benefits, if any.

The National Farmers' Union of Canada said, “It would be too generous even to call GM crops a solution in search of a problem. These crops have failed to provide significant solutions, and their use is creating problems – agronomic, environmental, economic, social, and (potentially) human health problems.”

Should Indian adopt GM crops?
Seventeen years after its introduction, only 3.4 per cent of the world's agricultural land is sown with GM seed, and 62 per cent of this is in the United States and Brazil. Only four crops – soy, corn, cotton and canola – account for 99 per cent of the GM crops worldwide. Yet, in India, 17 GM crops are presently awaiting approval and many more are in the pipeline. Is this either necessary or beneficial?

Only five countries, including India, account for almost 90 per cent of the 3.4 per cent total agricultural land under GM.

As GM faces increasing resistance from consumers and farmers throughout the world, most other countries have either rejected or strictly regulated GM crops. China recently placed restrictions on GM rice in response to public concern about its health impacts. It has also sacked officials for undertaking unapproved experimentation with GM rice and has proposed a grain law to impose restrictions on GM research, field trials and commercialization of major grains.

Globally the percentage of agricultural land under GM increased by less than 0.5 per cent between 2011 and 2012. India's huge seed market is extremely attractive to GM seed companies, especially since their expansion faces opposition in other countries. 

GM seed companies and their sponsored lobbying groups, assert that GM represents the most recent innovations and cutting edge technology in agriculture which India cannot afford to forego. In fact, the proposition that scientific advances in agriculture are best done by large corporations is questionable.

A peer-reviewed report, titled, “Late Lessons from Early Warnings”, was released by the European Environmental Agency. It pointed out that top down technologies like GM crops fail to address food security issues whereas bottom-up agro-ecological approaches can do so.

It also found out, as do other reports, that technology based on corporate investments leading to patent based intellectual property rights (IPR) often closes down, rather than develops, the innovation potential of farmers.

To reap the benefits of the huge amounts spent on developing GM seeds, companies try to recover their investments by 'market capture' i.e. promoting a narrow range of crops and varieties (hybrids) and eliminating competing or traditional seed varieties. In contrast, many farmers practicing ecological farming are more efficient because of their deep understanding of ecological processes, which modern agriculture neglects. 

They can obtain sustainably high yields and devise valuable agricultural innovations, which they share with others. In India, it is small farmers who have obtained record yields for several crops, through sustainable agro-ecological and non-GM methods.

Another promised benefit of GM crops, insect resistance, attracts farmers greatly as it immediately reduces pesticide use, but this gain is short lived. Over time, the target pest develops resistance and secondary pests often increase. An example is that of Bt cotton, where the pink bollworm developed resistance in less than a decade and where sucking pests have increased dramatically.

At the time of release it was mandated that a certain refuge area around a GM crop should be maintained to delay resistance. This has been blatantly violated in the case of Bt cotton in India and it has been impossible for the government to take any measures to correct this.

Studies from the United States and China also show that resistance has developed in targeted insects, in spite of refuge areas being maintained.

Many other risks exist according to numerous studies. GM contamination is a very serious risk for farmers and the nation. 

According to a survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in ASSOCHAM, the demand for organic food in India is estimated to be growing annually at 40 per cent. 

Moreover, India is also ideally placed to meet the growing global demand for organic produce. Already India is the largest producer of organic cotton. GM contamination is unacceptable to many countries. 

The discovery in May 2013 of GM wheat growing in US farms, years after field trials ended, has deeply worried wheat farmers. They recall the huge losses to US rice farmers and exporters when GM
contamination of US long grain rice was detected in Europe in 2006. 

Protracted litigation forced Bayer CropScience to pay $ 750 million compensation. Bt contamination of Indian organic cotton has been detected in Europe.13 Indian farmers do not have the financial capacity to litigate against large corporations.

Liabilities for unwanted contamination
How will penalties be enforced and on whom? Till safety from contamination can be effectively ensured, use of GM seeds is clearly a violation of the 'Right of Choice' of farmers and consumers
who wish to remain GM-free.

According to Bill Christison, president, US National Family Farm Coalition, “The promise was that you could use less chemicals and produce a greater yield. But let me tell you none of this is true.”