2023-10-22

GMO shills work tirelessly

The op-ed pages of business newspapers are a favourite target for GMO industry shills.

The following excerpt is from The Hindu BusinessLine.

Why India needs GM mustard

… Ironically, the anti-GM lobby which for long has been protesting that GM seeds developed by the multinational agri-biotech giants are not suitable for countries like India, now seem to be opposing even more when Bt brinjal varieties and GM mustard hybrids are developed by India’s public sector institutions.

Why not GM technology which also aims to enhance our agricultural productivity and farm income especially in a scenario when climate change which is expected to make much of the world’s arable land more difficult to farm? How can the country ensure food security to its people and higher income to farmers if brakes are applied on GM technology? …

False statement: Man has been exploiting biotechnology for millennia

Fermenting does not involve transplanting DNA from one species to another.

False statement: Anti-GM lobby do not even trust GM varieties created by India’s public sector institutions

The label ‘anti-GM lobby’ creates the illusion of a coalition of evil and greedy corporations when in fact it is a grassroots movement of farmers, scientists and enlightened citizens who are genuinely concerned about food security and preservation of traditional plant varieties.

Initially, GMOs were promoted by biotech MNCs. Then, they co-opted academia and regulatory bodies. Thankfully, their efforts were stalled by the Supreme Court (SC). Now, India’s public sector institutions are spearheading the push for GMO because there is considerable prodding from Western governments, lending institutions and biotech firms. It would be naive to assume otherwise. All the supposedly altruistic GMO scientists and researchers working in these public sector institutions will update their résumés and apply for work in private sector GMO institutions once the SC lifts its moratorium. Do not assume them to be idiots.

False statement: GMO can stop the rising cost of cultivation

Farmers have to buy new seeds for every planting. Farmers cannot save seeds from a previous harvest. Doing so will exponentially increase the amount of low-quality seeds in each generation. This is the trick that GMO companies play on farmers to force them to buy the seeds. This is the main reason farmers oppose it. Farmers also need to buy proprietary weed killers, which in developing nations are sprayed without protective gear. In Western countries, large plastic barriers have to be erected to prevent the pesticides from drifting in the wind. Even then, the pesticides have caused cancer and other problems. Monsanto was ordered to pay billions of dollars in compensation to farmers.

False statement: Anti-GM lobby making false claims

Use of GMO cotton has caused the bollworms to mutuate and build resistance. Farmers commit suicide when they cannot pay back loans taken buy the GMO seeds and proprietary pesticides. In the US, proprietary pesticides has created the problem of superweeds. These are not just allegations. Journalists all over the world have reported on these real problems. Are all of them working for the ‘anti-GM lobby’?

False statement: GMO are needed for food security

Even with the SC moratorium, the exemption to GM cotton represents a threat to humans. The Bt cottonseed is blended with oil cake used to feed cows and buffaloes. Unlike traditional cotton, every cell in the cottonseed has the poison-producing gene sequence from a soil bacterium. What kind of food security is this GMO providing when humans unwittingly drink the milk from these cattle?

The GMO industry portrays itself as a pro-science movement and its opponents as anti-science. This is exasperating. Everything that uses science cannot without be harm. Would you jump from the top of a building? Don't you like gravity? Would you stop a speeding bullet with your bare body? Don't you like deceleration? The reason why the so-called anti-GM lobby exists is because they understand the science and/or afraid of the practical consequences.

GMO advocates want to exploit farmers and consumers. What they seem to ignore is they are also exposing themselves to GMO poisons and are slowly killing themselves. Like the Romans who poisoned themselves with lead, we are digging our own graves with GMO.