Organic activists warn against GM mustard

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, February 9

Several organisations promoting organic and natural farming have warned the authorities concerned against approving genetically modified (GM) mustard in the larger interest of society and nation.

They have also demanded transparency in the functioning of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the apex body authorised to approve the use of genetically modified crops or organisms in the country.

“We have demanded that the past practice of putting the proceedings or decisions of the GEAC meetings in public domain be revived so that the decisions taken by the committee are open to critical evaluation by independent scientists,” said Dr Rajinder Chaudhary, advisor, Kudarti Kheti Abhiyan, Haryana, while talking to The Tribune here today.

A conglomerate comprising representatives of several national and state-level organisations like GM-Free India, Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) and Kudarti Kheti Abhiyan launched a ‘mustard-satyagrah’ during a meeting of the GEAC in New Delhi recently.

Journalist-cum-social activist and ASHA convener Kavitha Kuruganti submitted a memorandum signed by 41,000 residents across the country in this regard to the Union Environment Minister.

Dr Chaudhary said even the minister expressed surprise over the fact that the practice to upload the minutes of the GEAC meetings on their website had been discontinued.

He stressed that genetically modified crops were banned in most of the European countries and other developed nations owing to serious doubts about their impact on health.

“The experiments regarding the cultivation of BT cotton and BT brinjal have eventually proved disastrous for the farmers. In the given circumstances, grant of approval to GM mustard is laden with multifarious health-risks, especially in view of the fact that initiating the cultivation of genetically modified crops is an irreversible process,” he observed.

The organic-farming promoter pointed out that there had been very limited field-trials of the GM mustard in the country and the bio-safety data regarding it was not yet available.

He further maintained that the second-phase field-trials of the GM mustard in Rajasthan had been aborted, while no such trials had taken place in Haryana, another mustard-growing state.