On Monday, environment minister Jairam Ramesh had said that he would bear in mind the interests of consumers and producers, the protection of bio-diversity and limiting the use of pesticides before he took a decision on whether to allow the commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal in India. On Tuesday, he announced a moratorium on the introduction of Bt brinjal, citing reluctant public sentiment as one of the reasons behind his decision to say no. But he didn?t give a clean chit to science either by stating that more studies need to be carried out to determine how Bt brinjal affects the long-term health of humans. Unfortunately, the minister?s grounds for refusing permission to Bt brinjal are highly questionable. On the matter of health, there is no study that shows any adverse effect of the consumption of GM vegetables on humans?in the US where standards are most stringent, humans consume GM corn and GM soya on a massive scale with no side effects. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that shows the harmful effects of consuming the amount of pesticides that end up being used in the cultivation of regular brinjal. So the minister seems to have given short shrift to the matter of pesticides in human consumption.
Public sentiment is, of course, difficult to quantify one way or the other. On evidence, the minister seems to have heard the voices that were the loudest rather than the ones that were most reasonable. Sundry NGOs, left-wing activists and the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch had taken aggressive public postures against Bt brinjal for a variety of reasons. At least ten state governments, led by all sorts of political parties, including the Congress, had decided to ban Bt brinjal even before the Centre had made a decision. In the final analysis, these voices prevailed. Those who, it seems, went unheard were the brinjal farmers who lose more than half their crop to pests every year, and this is in spite of pesticide use. The average consumer who demands plenty and cheap food also went unnoticed?GM crops are an important way to increase yield and reduce crop losses, both of which would benefit the consumer as well as the farmer. The minister seemed not to have bio-diversity at the top of his mind on Tuesday. Instead of doing justice to all the interests he had said he would look after, Jairam Ramesh succeeded in overturning the entire institutional structure that has been set in place to clear GM technology. And it was a good structure. Now, the GEAC has been made irrelevant?if the decision has to be political in the end, then science it seems can be ignored. That is most unfortunate.
