Q. Can GM crops undo Green Revolution’s damage?
Suman Sahai: Unlikely, since all the major crops will continue to use pesticides. Even Bt alone will not be able to cope with the heavy pest attacks seen in the tropics. We need integrated pest management. Old agro-chem companies in the garb of life science corporations are still selling pesticides by GM-tailoring plants so that only their pesticides can be used. Great monopoly strategy!
Gail Omvedt: Indian agriculture needs technological development for the prosperity of those who work in it—farmers and labourers. For all its faults, the Green Revolution (GR) freed India from dependence on food imports. GM can help overcome the GR’s dependence on chemicals.
Q. Will they threaten India’s biodiversity?
Sahai: Greater productivity and a longer shelf life for products can be a boon only if the GM variety is safe for the environment. GM will reduce bio-diversity if farmers grow only that one variety and push out the others. This is exactly what happened during the Green Revolution when agro-diversity was reduced drastically.
Omvedt: There is nothing inherently homogenising in GM. Diversity can increase if we adapt the plants to diverse environments and tastes. If GM products are less tasty and costly, then nobody will buy and nobody need oppose....
Q. Is all this a natural process?
Sahai: Genetic Modification of crops is not natural evolution. Its use can be ethical or unethical. GM crops targeted to end hunger are ethical. Using the technology to make designer babies is not. GM vaccines to prevent disease are ethical. Techno-eugenics is not just unethical, it’s reprehensible.
Omvedt: Unlike the moral questions about cloning, GM foods seem relatively harmless. Farmers are innovative and eager to get new technologies, but they do need information. GM’s opponents don’t lack resources, but they have a difficulty in selling their ideas to farmers.
Q. Should we take positions on GM on a case-to-case basis?
Sahai: GM must be evaluated for each crop and each characteristic. Salt tolerance and nitrogen-fixation are useful traits for us, but herbicide-resistance is not. We cannot risk contaminating our genetic wealth with strange, unknown genes. We should not grow Bt rice since we have a great diversity of rice. Like Mexico, that banned GM corn.
Omvedt: Yes. And the public must ensure that the technology is developed with safeguards and that it reaches the farmers. The government should promote the development of GM technology with a focus on basic needs for food and clothing. The tendency to oppose GM foods usually ties into a deep neo-Luddite suspicion of technology.