The editorial, "A Nobel endorsement" (July 7) says there is hardly any negative impact of genetically modified (GM) products, but the Indian experience shows otherwise.
The failure of Bt Cotton crop accounts for a large number of farmer suicides in India. Not only has Bt Cotton failed to control its target pest bollworm - it has developed resistance to toxins in the crop - but it is also creating new, non-target pests such as whitefly, aphids and jassids, apart from harming pollinators such as bees and beneficial soil microorganisms and cattle, which graze on these stalks.
The toxicity of Bt Cotton seeds degrades the quality of oil cake, commonly given to cows as a nutritious feed to increase their milk yield. The quality of ayurvedic medicines, which use cotton seeds, roots, flowers and oil to treat various ailments, get hampered, too.
A study by Keshav Kranthi, director of Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, revealed that against a 70 per cent jump in non-Bt Cotton yields during the 2000-2005 period, there was only a two per cent increase in yield during the Bt cotton period of 2005-12. Another study, by environmentalist Vandana Shiva's foundation, Navdanya, shows that pesticide use has increased 13 per cent since Bt Cotton was introduced even as yields from organic cotton have doubled, earning farmers 10 times more income.
Attempts are being made to introduce GM food crops such as Golden Rice, Bt Brinjal and Bt Mustard in the name of increasing productivity and reducing imports. Golden Rice contains only 30 micrograms of Vitamin A per 100 grams of rice, while greens such as amaranth and coriander contain 500 times more Vitamin A.
GM food crops are derived from harmful genes and engineered to be resistant to herbicides, which when sprayed in the fields kill all other intercrops and allow superweeds to emerge. The herbicide Roundup is shown to deprive plants of their manganese uptake. Children can suffer from autism by eating such mineral-deficient crops. Such crops also impair the shikimate pathway (necessary for making amino acids) in both plants and humans (gut bacteria).
Instead of promoting ecologically sustainable farming, based on 100 per cent organic inputs that allows the small farmer to remain self-sufficient and free of debts, the government and agriculture-cum-biotech research institutes are playing with the lives of people by pushing for non-renewable, patented and dangerous seeds based on a "terminator technology" that is antithetical to the very concept of life.
C V Krishna Manoj, Hyderabad
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