Is The Nation of India Rearing To Kick Monsanto Out?

Is The Nation of India Rearing To Kick Monsanto Out?







Sayer Ji, Contributor
Activist Post

A report from the August 17 edition of the American Association for the Advance of Science's journal Science
titled, "Negative Report on GM Crops Shakes Government's Food Agenda,"
revealed that an Indian high-profile parliamentary panel, only a week
before, recommended that GM crop "field trails under any garb should be
discontinued forthwith," and that further GM agricultural research
should "only be done under strict containment."

Moreover, in a press conference after the report's release, the panel's
chair, Basudeb Acharia, said in no uncertain terms: "India should not go
in for GM food crops."

According to the [i]Science article's author, Pallava Bagla, the
panel's recommendation is being regarded by some "as the death knell of
the development of genetically modified food crops in India."
Dissenting interests, such as India's chief of crop research, Swapan
Dutta, a rice geneticist and deputy director at the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research, responded to the report by suggesting that if
implemented, the panel's recommendations would paralyze research and
threaten India's food security, and "hope for GM research in India is
lost."

The Indian government has been sending mixed signals
about its commitment to agricultural GM technology. For instance, in
2002 the government approved Bt-toxin carrying cotton as the first GM
commercial crop in India. Today, there are over 1100 Bt varieties of GM
cotton, accounting for 93% of all the cotton sown in India. The prime
minister of India himself, Manmohan Singh, voiced his support for GM
crops in a recent interview with Science (24 Feb, p. 907), stating: "In
due course of time," he said "we must make use of genetic engineering
technologies to increase the productivity of our agriculture."

But, as the Science article points out, Singh's own ministers are
not toeing the party line. For instance, in 2010, former environment
minister Jairam Ramesh imposed a moratorium on the commercialization of
Bt brinjal, a traditional Indian eggplant, even after the ministry's
scientific advisory panel had given the GM variety approval.

Moreover, GM crop researchers in India were already having problems
since 2011, because state governments refused to issue certificates that
allow GM crop field trials to commence. Also, in the June issue of
Science, environmental minister Jayanthi Natarajan was quoted as saying:
"genetically modified foods have no place in ensuring India's food
security."

While the primary justification within Indian government for supporting
GM agriculture is based on the fact that it has increased production of
economically important products such as cotton, which skyrocketed from
.02 million hectares in 2002 to 9.33 million hectares in 2011, the
latest panel's decision was influenced by the fact that all Bt cotton
grown commercially in India is derived from technology sold by the
multinational food giant Monsanto, who by owning and controlling the
seeds has seriously compromised India's food sovereignty and security.

It
has been estimated that 70% of India's 1.2 billion people are farmers
who have no alternative but to buy Bt cotton seed from Monsanto. Also,
Monsanto relationship to India farmers is already tenuous considering it
was accused of biopiracy earlier this year by India's National Biodiversity Authority.[ii]
The panel also stated "there is a connection between Bt cotton and
farmer's suicides," as thousands of indebted farmers in India's cotton
producing regions have committed suicide in a desperate attempt to rid
themselves and their families of debt.

The next step is for government ministries to digest the panel's report
and to decide if the report's recommendations, which carry political
weight but are not mandatory, will be implemented. The Science article concluded:
<blockquote class="tr_bq">If the government doesn't make a forceful case
for GM crops, Bhan says, there may be no alternative but to 'stop all
use of GM crop technology till it has been totally made in India.' And if Monsanto becomes 'a nuisance,' he added, 'it can be kicked out.' [emphasis added]

Source:-
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/10/is-nation-of-india-rearing-to-kick.html
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