Do you remember how citizens collectively ensured that GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) like Bt brinjal, which are unneeded, unwanted and unsafe, do not enter our food plates or our farms back in 2010? Back then, the government said it was placing the GMO on an indefinite moratorium being “responsive to society and responsible to science”. Further, 15 years of Bt cotton cultivation in India exposed the hype and lies around this GMO too – the insect for which Bt cotton has been created has developed resistance, and farmers are using more pesticides than ever before on cotton crop in the country.
Now, in 2016, there is another GM food crop which is being pushed for commercial cultivation approval. An application for the release of mustard, that ubiquitous crop that all of us are familiar with – is in an advanced stage of processing by the Indian regulators. The application, with a biosafety dossier that claims to have completed all required tests and studies to assess the impacts of this GMO as per the Indian regulatory guidelines, has been submitted to the apex regulatory body called Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), constituted under the Environment Protection Act’s 1989 Rules in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India. And seems like the GEAC might just go ahead with the commercial cultivation of GM Mustard.
It is said that more than 100 crores of taxpayers’ funds have been spent to develop and test these GMOs, with funding to Centre for Genetic Manipulation Crop Plants from National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science & Technology (Reference). Ironically, the NDDB has wound up its edible oil business related to Dhara brand and has stopped its funding to the project now, while citizens have been kept in the dark about taxpayers’ funds being used for thrusting a GM food crop onto them.
Source: www.https://media.giphy.com
Still finding reasons to say no to GMO? We give you a few here -
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Transgenic technology is unsafe: Genetic Engineering is an unnatural and imprecise breeding technology with living organisms, and there is enough evidence that it is an unstable, unpredictable, irreversible and uncontrollable technology being deployed in our food and farming systems. This then has implications for our health and environment. Further, increased riskiness in agriculture, lack of choices for farmers and consumers, market rejection are all consequences of the environmental release of GMOs.
Source: https://media.giphy.com
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GM Hybrid Technology (HT) crops cause numerous adverse impacts, for farmers, agri-workers and consumers: Herbicide Tolerant GM crops like the current GM mustard result in numerous adverse impacts. These include health impacts including from the use of chemical herbicides. For instance, glyphosate, a widely used herbicide whose use has increased manifold after glyphosate-tolerant GM crops have been introduced on a large scale in countries like US, Canada, Brazil etc., was classified as a probable human carcinogen by WHO in early 2015, after decades of claims by promoters that it is a safe product. Rapid emergence of “Super-Weeds” (weeds that cannot be killed by herbicides anymore) has been well documented. Impacts on non-target organisms and also on soil health are well-documented. In countries like India where the largest number of female workers in the economy earn their livelihood mainly by manual de-weeding of “weeds”, use of herbicides and HT crops will displace women from their existing livelihood opportunities without proper alternatives.
Source: http://www.picgifs.com/
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GM mustard yield increase claims are wrong and unverified: There is ample evidence already put out in the public domain that the testing of GM mustard was deliberately designed to create favorable results for DMH-11, to the point of violating decisions taken by regulators in their meetings, and violating conditions imposed in the permission letter for trials. Convenient protocols were adopted by the applicants to compare GM mustard with very old low yielding varieties, instead of comparing it with other hybrids. They could consequently show that GM mustard yields up to 28 per cent higher than what it has been compared with. It is now well established that wrong “Checks” were used to make GM mustard look good. Its yield increase claims can thus be described as rigged and wrong.
Source: https://media.giphy.com
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This GM mustard is a Trojan Horse for other GMOs: This GM mustard is being pushed by GM lobbyists as a public sector GMO to create an aura of acceptability. It is as though when it comes to biosafety, public sector GMOs will automatically become safer than private sector GMOs! Public sector GMOs are in fact as unsafe as private sector GMOs. Moreover, the developers can eventually assign the patents to anyone, including profiteering MNCs. Given huge public opposition to GMOs in our food and farming, it is apparent that corporations like Monsanto which were far ahead in the regulatory pipeline with their products like GM maize have withheld their applications to allow this GM mustard to be approved first on this “public sector” sentiment, so that there is easier entry for all other GMOs in the pipeline.
Source: https://media.giphy.com
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India is a Centre of Diversity for Mustard: As was seen in the case of Brinjal, India happens to be a Centre of Diversity for Mustard. There are scientists who argue that India is the Centre of Origin too. Starting from the 2004 report of an Agriculture Ministry’s Task Force led by Dr Swaminathan, to the 2013 report of a Supreme Court Technical Expert Committee, there are clear recommendations against genetically modifying those crops for which we are the Centre of Origin/Diversity. This was one of the main reasons for the government’s moratorium on Bt brinjal. GM contamination can destroy the rich genetic heritage of India’s mustard diversity and bring in disastrous monocultures.
Source: https://media.giphy.com
Indians are not made lab rats in an irresponsible and irreversible experiment unleashed on them. Time has come to let your voice be heard clear and loud. Say #NoGMMustard
Shivani Shah is a Campaigner with Greenpeace India.