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Dr Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution, once said, “It’s better to die eating genetically modified (GM) food than dying of hunger.” On another occasion he said “We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted. There has been great progress, but hunger is common place, and famine appears, all too often.” He also laughed at suggestions about organic farming as an alternative to harmful fertilizers. “Do use organic farming wherever possible, but it is nonsense to think you could feed the world without the use of chemical fertilizers. Despite the tremendous rise in food production using the fertilizers, millions around the world still go to bed hungry. You need to double the food production by 2050 to feed every human being.” That tells all.

Environmentalists and other “so-called farmers” who oppose production of GM food, (currently Bt brinjal), perhaps, do not understand the pain of hunger. India’s population is projected to overtake even that of China by the year 2025. With one child norm compulsory for the couples, China is able to control the population growth significantly. India is just one-third of the size of China and agricultural productivity is much lower, not even one-fourth of China. Where do we end up by the year 2025 when we boast of being the largest populated country in the world? Even now at least one-third of our population has just one meal a day. President Pratibha Patil, in her Republic Day address to the nation, has called for a Second Green Revolution. But how? The area under cultivation is dwindling every year, productivity is coming down due to over-exploitation of land and increased use of fertilizers. Farmers are also facing the problem of shortage of water and electricity. The only way out is adoption of GM crops that will give higher productivity, hopefully, with less water and will be pest-resistant. The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has cleared Bt brinjal. Bt brinjal has the gene, Cry 1Ac, from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) which makes the plant resistant to brinjal fruit and shoot borer insects. If approved, Bt brinjal will be the first GM food crop to be commercially cultivated in India. This is also the world’s first Bt brinjal. Eminent scientists who had examined Bt brinjal had concluded that it was absolutely safe for human consumption and also for science and environment. Let us leave the issue to the scientists. There will always be some persons with a different view. They will always find something wrong. Countries like the US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and China have already approved the genetic crops. Besides Bt brinjal, Indian scientists are experimenting with 22 more crops like cabbage, cauliflower, okra (lady’s finger), potato and tomato under vegetables, groundnut, mustard under oil seeds, chickpea, pigeon pea under pulses and maize, sorghum and rice under cereals. If Bt brinjal, the first to pass the test by the scientists, is stopped the entire process of developing more GM crops like rice will have a setback. Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh is personally holding public meetings over the decision of the GEAC to allow commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal. He is under tremendous pressure from environmentalists and NGO activists who are raising concerns of human safety. Reacting to protests Ramesh said the expert body that certified Bt brinjal was not final and that it would be the government that would take the call on the crop since the issue involved human safety. “The panel may well be a statutory body, but when critical issues of human safety are involved, the government has every right and, in fact, the basic responsibility to take the final decision based on the panel’s decision,” Ramesh said. He is expected to make his decision known by February 10. But in all probability, he will leave the decision to the Prime Minister, since Bt brinjal has become a hot potato.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar disagrees. He says the scientists have cleared the crop and his ministry will go ahead with their recommendations. His deputy K V Thomas has dismissed all allegations against the safety of Bt brinjal as sheer “anti-MNC” propaganda. Bt brinjal has been developed by Maharashtra-based Mahyco, which is the Indian partner of US-based global seed giant Monsanto, in association with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore; and the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka; besides public research institutions in the Philippines and Bangladesh. The protestors, mostly the Left parties and the farmers organised by them, propagate that Bt brinjal is being imposed on India by the Americans, similar to the Anti-Nuclear Deal protests. Unfortunately, they see American hand everywhere!

It may be recalled that during the fifties and the sixties the country produced very little food and there was a “ship-to-mouth” existence for the poor. If the ship carrying the PL-480 wheat from America was delayed the rationing system would collapse and it was virtual starvation in rural India. Then came the Green Revolution under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, ably supported by Food and Agriculture Minister C Subramaniam. That changed for ever the economy of India and many other developing countries. What was this Green Revolution? It was the brainchild of Dr Norman Borlaug who developed it first in Mexico by manipulating a cross-breed of high-yielding varieties of wheat and then rice. Introduced in Punjab, the production went up manifold and the country not only produced enough for domestic use but also some surplus for exports. By eating the biologically manipulated wheat and rice nobody died in the country. Above all, India was not dependent on America for food since then. “When Norman Borlaug started working on high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice some 50 years ago, the spectre of famine and over-population was looming. Sadly enough, the challenges he faced then are still here today, with food security remaining the No 1 concern of most developing countries,” writes Ajay Shriram, president, International Fertilizer Association & CMD, DCM Shriram Consolidated.

Some people ask why Bt brinjal? Brinjal, also known as egg plant, is an important vegetable and is the second largest consumed vegetable in the country, along with tomato and onion. India is the second largest producer of brinjal in the world with 26% of the total 32 million produced in the world. China leads with almost 56%. This writer, however, agrees that it was a mistake to introduce Br brinjal first. The country produces enough brinjal, almost 1,000 varieties, and it is not in short supply. Incidentally, in Ayurveda brinjal is a banned item. Instead of brinjal, the scientists should have cleared rice varieties like the Golden Rice first. Rice being the staple food of most Indians, and in short supply at present, it would have met with less resistance.

Consumers expect safe, high-quality foods; they seem to doubt that GMO products can fulfill this requirement. Although important research findings and safety assessment summaries about GMOs are publicly available, they are written by and for experts and, therefore, tend to be poorly understood outside the scientific community. In the lay public, safety concerns evoke a much larger reaction than science-based explanations. Information about GMOs needs to be better adapted to consumers’ expectations, needs, interests, and knowledge.

According to Dr M S Swaminathan, brinjal is consumed throughout one’s life. It is a vegetable of very widespread consumption. However, the government should not be in a hurry to introduce Bt brinjal until fundamental issues were addressed. “We must analyse whether the risks are more or the benefits are more. There should be an authority to analyse the risks and benefits in a transparent way. Unfortunately we don’t have an authority like that,” says Dr Swaminathan.

The technology has delivered, for sure. The expert committee has given its approval. Now it is for the government to decide whether the country should go in for GM food. Jairam Ramesh doesn’t have to take a decision under gunpoint. He must allow the tempers to cool down and take a dispassionate decision in the larger interest of the country and the future generation. But remember what Borlaug has said, “Greater food availability in the low-income food deficit countries cannot be achieved with one silver bullet.” Food safety is of paramount importance. But the question again is whether all that we eat is safe? We hear that now even mother’s milk is not safe! It all depends on what she eats and drinks.

We may or may not require Bt brinjal, but we need GM foods like rice, wheat, pulses and oilseeds. People have the right to food and GM food is the only solution, even if it is poison. If we don't double our food production by 2025, India will witness food riots as in Africa.

Comments: What we must understand that people in India are dying of hunger not because of low food production, but because of faulty distribution mechanism. Hasn't the government pleaded guilty for the food rotting in our godowns? And just look at the choice of the food for genetic modification? What is the data on Brinjal supply in India? Except for swelling up the coffers of the multinationals, there seems to be no reason why we should say 'yes' to GM foods.

Comments: The author makes a funny argument that the protestors should not organize farmers. Wow so are we no longer living in a democratic country that the voices of the civil society and farmers are no longer important. BT-Brinjal is the first Genetically Modified food crop in the entire world meant for human consumption. It is being tried on Indians. Does that mean we should throw caution to the winds. Monsanto the company that brings this pipe dream has an excellent track record of ethics around the world including bribing scientists and officials.