Europeans like their meat, but they haven?t been producing enough feed for their cattle and pigs. So, they have been importing meals from countries like the US, which has been a GM leader and today accounts for nearly half of the world?s biotech area. Given the EU?s agricultural politics?where nothing GM has been approved since a Monsanto maize in 1998?border agents have been blocking US shipments with even minute GM traces. This was an unsustainable situation. By approving the commercial growing of a GM potato, the European Commission has initiated movement towards level ground. This marks a historical shift, and one that can?t leave India unmoved.
Our environment minister has overruled the GEAC?s recommendation for Bt brinjal. He has asked, what?s the hurry? While saying that the GEAC studies about the impact on health and environment need to be ?independently verified?, he has mooted a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority. It?s unclear how the new institution will uphold the independence allegedly lacking in the GEAC, but here are reasons why we must hurry.
Philippines is in a hurry. It was the first Asian country to approve a GM crop. It has decided to use the GEAC?s biosafety dossier to fast-track approval for Bt brinjal. China is in a hurry. It already has GM papaya, tomato and bell peppers headed for the dining table. In a big decision, it has given GM varieties of maize and rice the green light as well. Maize is the world?s main animal feed and rice the main human feed. The world is also in a hurry, so the use of GM technology increased by about 7% in 2009. Burkina
Faso and Pakistan have come on board. In India, food prices went up 18% last year while our Bt cotton triumphs have reshaped the global GM story?Monsanto now sells more GM cotton here than in the US. Still, why hurry?
In 2007-08, world food prices saw their sharpest rise in 30 years, sparking riots across nearly 40 countries. The financial crisis overshadowed all that. But the structural factors behind the price spike remain firmly in place?rising demand for food and biofuels, declining yield growth in cereals. Prices have already begun to rebound. Breakfast commodities?like tea and sugar, about which Sushma Swaraj so emotively addressed the Parliament?have returned to peak levels.
For India?s Bt brinjal procrastinators, Europe?s turnaround holds potent lessons. For 12 years, the leadership defied its own scientists? GM call. While it slouched, the US leapfrogged ahead as did the emerging markets that now comprise 20 of the 25 countries sowing GM seeds. But the ripple effects of Europe?s resistance were significant. India is just the latest to cite it to resist policy changes. The Africans?with respectable exceptions like South Africa?did exactly the same. Africa is reversing gears now. As Paul Collier, the author of The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it, has argued, Africa has been in thrall to Europe and Europe has been in thrall to populism. That nearly half of Indian states declared they were against Bt brinjal explains Jairam Ramesh?s moratorium. But instead of basing policy on opinion polls, he should be socialising opinion in favour of what the country needs and what its scientists have declared they can deliver.
In retrospect, we know that even India?s first Green Revolution could have been delivered with better environmental safeguards. What?s less well-remembered is that activists said it would cause everything from ulcers to impotence, not to mention destroy indigenous flavours. Activist organisations simply haven?t kept pace with science. In a world whose problems are growing more complex by the day, policymakers do the citizenry great injury by aligning with such inflexibility.
The Amflora potato cleared for cultivation in the EU will be used mostly by industrial customers. And yes, Indians don?t eat Bt cotton. We are seeing symbolic battles that will pave the substantive way for the future. Policymakers? vision will play a key role. The European Commission president is taking a lot of heat for reversing his constituency?s traditional position. He has also transferred the relevant portfolio from the environment directorate to those overseeing health and consumer affairs, where GM crops have been cleared year after year. Over these years, science has really charged ahead.
The first generation of GM seeds was designed for rich countries. The next generation will deliver to the developing countries? farmers, who comprise 90% of those growing GM crops today. The next generation will be better ?stacked?, delivering to consumer demands such as soybean with omega-3 (hitherto harvested from fish). Some estimate that by reducing pesticide spraying over the past decade, GM crops have already had a substantive emissions impact. Going forward, drought-resistant products are in a three-year pipeline. Sure, governments will have to work on better safeguard mechanisms. But countries that drag their feet today will have cause to grieve tomorrow.
renuka.bisht@expressindia.com
