Genetic engineering is what’s going on right now, under your very nose, in your own backyard. But first, a word about why you should be worried about any of this in the first place.

What’s wrong with Genetically Engineered food?

Genetically Engineered (GE) food crops are created by injecting foreign genes into plants to create ‘new’ life forms that are designed to perform certain specific functions. GE can have unexpected and unintended effects because the process is imprecise and random. GE crops threaten food safety because gene disruption or instability may lead to new toxins being produced; and the new protein produced by the foreign gene may cause allergies or toxicity.

For instance, CSIRO scientists in Australia have just announced they’ve pulled the plug, all fingers badly burnt, on research on GE peas because the stuff is causing bizarre allergies in mice.

Why can’t GE be contained?

  Now that you know this, it should interest you to know that not all this ‘research’ is conducted in controlled test conditions. Sooner or later, it all gets out in the open.

Field trials are open-air experiments of GE crops conducted in fields. They pose a risk to the environment and health because these untested GE seeds could cross-pollinate and therefore contaminate neighbouring crops. Since a GE crop cannot be differentiated from a regular food crop, there is high risk that untested GE seeds or crops may get mixed up with other seeds and grains and enter the food chain.

Scared? You should be. Now here’s the really frightening part.

As you read this, there are 21 food crops – including rice, cabbage, brinjal, and banana – being tested right now in 16 locations across India. There are as many as 68 separate GE experiments being carried out on these crops. 18 different public (and 3 private) research institutes are involved, as well as 3 foundations and 2 international agriculture institutes.

GE brinjal, it is believed, is just months away from your plate.

A map so explosive, they’ll wish it didn’t exist.

Greenpeace campaigners discovered that there was no information available about the extent of GE research on food crops being carried out in the country. We painstakingly began putting the bits and pieces of information together from a multitude of sources. We carried out sneak previews into government laboratories and field trials to learn what’s being done to our food, and to expose what the public-private partnership of scientists has been reluctant to share with us for the longest time. In some cases, faced with smoke and mirrors, we had to invoke the Right To Information Act.

What emerges is a murky picture of beguile. The GE Hotspots Map of India  (right click to enlarge) brings out the extent of how far ahead the government has gone. It says one thing, and does the other. As a signatory to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the government is bound to uphold the precautionary principle. The reality on the map clearly shows it really doesn’t care.

Revealing not just the extent of GE research in the country, but also the advanced stage that many of these experiments are in, this map has everything you wanted to know about genetic contamination of your food, but didn’t know where to look.

Where does it all go from here?

The current dispensation seems to suggest that corporate greed, not independent scientists, should decide what is safe to eat.

Now, while it’s completely expected that profiteering companies will show disdain for people’s health, why are our elected leaders, custodians of public health and safety, behaving irresponsibly?

This is not acceptable. Greenpeace maintains that GE food is unsafe to eat and has campaigned hard to ensure that India remains GE-free. The Indian Council for Medical Research echoes our concerns in a report it published in April 2004.

Just recently, illegal GE rice in China from similar field trials found its way into the market and the food chain. It was enough for the chastened Chinese government to review its position and get sober.

The Indian government, on the other hand, is displaying all the signs of a stark raving blind drunk.

It’s clear that we’re now sitting on a ticking GE time bomb. Given the scale of GE field trials evident in the GE Hotspots Map, it’s no longer a case of if but when.

Click here to see the GE Hotpots Map
View the GE FAQ
View the related Press Release