The Hindu Business Line : GM foods

The editorial "plant with caution'' and the article "GM mustard: Playing havoc with food chain" (Business Line, November 12) deserve the serious attention of the government. They are timely in the context of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) deferring a decision on allowing genetically modified mustard hybrids into the country.

As stated in the editorial, the use of genetically modified hybrids "raises issues of health and bio-safety'' and "the long-term implications of tampering with natural systems''. It is important to note that the genetic arrangement determines the characteristics and behavioural pattern of living beings including plants, and disturbing the same artificially could alter these qualities. There can be no better technologist than nature and the genetic arrangement in plants and living creatures, including the humans, is the outcome of the evolutionary processes that have been taking place in the past. It is important to scientifically establish that the modification of the genetic arrangement in any seed or plant grown from it does not cause destabilisation of the genetic arrangement causing unintended transfer of genes to other plant varieties. It is also necessary to establish that consumption of genetically-modified food items such as GM mustard does not cause problems to the future generations. The toxic effect of the poisonous gas inhaled by the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 had resulted in malformation of foetus in pregnant women even after passage of time.

Mustard is a food item consumed almost daily as seeds (and laves when the crop is grown) by millions of people and if GM varieties are introduced, the short- and long-term effects of such seeds should be ascertained by experiments before its introduction. Also, the unintended and likely contamination of other crops due to any possible gene transfer should be studied.

If GM mustard is introduced, after a number of generations, mustard of the original natural genetic arrangement might become non-existent.

T. R. Anandan

Coimbatore

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail
Comment on this article to BLFeedback@thehindu.co.in

Stories in this Section
A case for a cut

The economy before Budget

Information and communications technology sectors — Revisiting the promise

Tinkering with tax reforms

Does talent fetch the bid it merits?

Nedungadi fiasco

GM foods