The recent furore over BT Brinjal has once again brought the issue of genetically modified foods into public debate. The issue first cropped when there was an attempt to introduce BT cotton into the Indian market.
For the uninitiated, BT stands for Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium which produces insecticidal proteins. BT insecticides have been in use for a long time, and have been quite popular because they’re seen as environmentally friendly, devoid of potential toxicity to humans or danger of getting into the food chain.
In the mid-eighties, with the advent of genetic engineering, a Danish company came up with a tobacco plant which had been inserted with genes from BT (source), allowing it to produce the insecticidal proteins, and therefore making it pest resistant. In the mid-nineties, attempts to introduce BT-modified cotton started in India. This study is similar to many other white papers written in other countries (You could google and find studies from Argentina, China, etc) on the prospects of BT cotton. Their main argument was that increased resistance to pests would increase yield as well as reduce chemical pesticide use.
However, there were several valid concerns regarding the adoption. The most important in my opinion was that BT cotton is sterile. Which means, seeds produced by BT-cotton plants cannot be reused by farmers for replanting the next year; the farmers will have to buy expensive seeds every year from MAHYCO (the company which produces them. Incidentally, Mosanto bought 26% stake in Mahyco in 1998). But it does not stop at that. It is very much possible that cross-pollination with BT cotton will make other varieties of cotton sterile, thereby contaminating the genetic pool permanently – a recipe for irreversible disaster, besides creating a permanent dependence on the company. This ‘fear’ was ‘addressed’ by various studies like this one (‘Facts Allay Fear’), which confidently and happily beat around the bush without providing a definitive answer. Reminds me of the Academy of Tobacco Studies.
There were other fears too, such as the ballworms (the main pest targeted) developing a resistance to the BT cotton and other species of insects such as bees (which help pollination) being affected. There are also reports (this one andthis one too)of other pests immune to BT replacing the ballworm as primary pests. These issues, when coupled with the contamination of the gene pool are serious concerns.
This important issue, however, has been totally absent in the current public debate over the introduction of BT Brinjal. BT is just one of many GM foods/crops under field trials in India, some of them illegal. The government should institute stronger controls on what GM foods are introduced into the market, and create a stronger framework for controlled field trails before any decision is made. This is crucial for protecting India’s self-sufficiency in agricultural production and interests of agro-based industries in the long run.
Recommended reading-
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/Bt.cotton.China.ssl.html
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1714218,00.html
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/illegal-bt-cotton-seeds-still-circulate-among-farmers/151323/
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