It’s all about the brinjal

About a week before my departure to this wonderful country called India news started coming through about something called “BT Brinjal”. I did not understand what it meant, but as I daily receive all sorts of environmental updates via email, I soon discovered that the matter was regarding an approval of genetically modified aubergine. India sort of got in the way in my decision to pursue the facts deeper than that at the time. I had a cultural shock to cope with after all. But, as it is, I happen to have landed at an NGO who promotes sustainable, organic agriculture so the question of GM is something they of course take very seriously.

I have been looking into this matter for a couple of months now, and have written an article about it in Swedish. It still needs a lot of work, because every question I answer seems to awake two more. This is made more difficult with my constant attempts to understand rather than dismiss. I want to understand why something that to me seem so utterly outrageous is allowed. I do not believe in evil, in men in suits around a round table deciding the fate of the world. However the more I carry on with this attitude, the more I have succumbed to the fact that whilst there might not be evil, there is certainly greed.

I think it’s time to share some of the things I have learned so far.

When genetically modified cotton was introduced to India in 2002 (after several years’ pending in between trials) it was a matter of very little time before it had become the only available option for the vast majority of the country’s cotton farmers. The effect is disputed, there are plenty of people who would argue its’ success, but there are even more who would question it. Sadly the voice of the masses lack what the multinational seed companies have: money.

Perhaps now is an appropriate time to describe more about what GM actually is. Someone once described it to me as follows: “they are extracting genes from a cold water fish and inserting this into tomatoes to make them more resilient to cold”. Whether this particular instance is true I do not know, but I think it’s an extreme used as an example. It sounds so incredibly wrong described like that, why would anyone want to cross a tomato with a fish? Thoughts of enormous laboratories with crazy scientists surrounded by dogcats, parrotsbats and rats with butterfly wings enter my mind. It’s like made for a reprimand in the future, don’t mess with Mother Earth’s plan or she will deal with you herself.

The truth is of course less colourful and more frightening. Nature is indeed dealt with, but the price is not paid by the companies, it’s paid by the farmers who soon find themselves at a dead end.
The GMO cotton grown in India is referred to as BT Cotton. The cold water fish is in this case a bacteria called Bacillus Thuringesis, BT, commonly used in pesticide. The need for this bacteria is called for in an eternal battle against every cotton farmers’ worst enemy: the bollworm. With the pesticide incorporated in the crops’ stem cells, the argument is, the handling of the poisonous pesticide is eradicated and the crop therefore a “safer” option.

The truth begs to differ, however. Evidence is now trickling through that the bollworm appears to have developed resistance, and reports of harm to those who physically handle the crop are emerging: dead goats that have grazed the cotton leaves and farmers developing rash and burns on their skin. On top of this is the even darker side of all patented seeds.

All genetically modified crops come as a set; they require its’ custom made pesticide and its’ custom made fertilizer, all made and sold by the same company. It is not possible to save seeds from the crop, but new ones must be purchased for each and every harvest. This easily spirals into a bad circle and it takes no more than one failed crop for a farmer to find himself in such a debt that there is only one way out- the in India widespread epidemic of farmers’ suicides.

There is however one positive side of the rapid spread of BT cotton in the country. It’s population is armed with a repertoire of questions for anyone who proposes further ventures in the GM field.
But now I’m digressing and it’s time to return to GM brinjal.

On 14 October last year the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee approved the BT Brinjal, aubergine, for commercial cultivation. The company behind the seed, Maharastra Hybrid Seeds Co (M/S Mahyco), have with the support of Monsanto, been polishing the proposal and the seed since the first tests in 1998. Two years earlier the company had tried to have the seed approved by the committee, but the hoard of skeptics in the country led by a Pushpa Bhargava found the tests and the studies of the safety of BT Brinjal lacking in many places. The case was brought to the Supreme Court.

It is therefore without authority that the committee has now approved the crop, something that the environmental minister of India, Jairam Ramesh, has agreed to. He has now seized control of further testing and imposed a five month delay in the launch of the seed. This gives the protesters an essential time span during which they are mobilizing and jointly protesting against the crop.

The step between BT Cotton and BT Brinjal is bigger than it might seem. The latter is a food crop, and it endeavors very little or no processing before it is consumed. Centre for Sustainable Agriculture India are skeptic not only to the impact on the environment (GM cells contaminating local plants, for example) but also on peoples’ health. Studies performed in the Philippines have shown BT present in the intestines of those who have consumed BT Maize. All biotechnology is relatively young and the effect of extended exposure has simply not had the time to be recorded yet.

It is currently believed that aubergine was first domesticated in India about 4000 years ago. Fast forward four millennia and India became the cradle of the Green Revolution, the industrialization of agriculture worldwide. Refining of crops meant that almost anything could be grown anywhere, and thanks to enormous resources a previous luxury became everyday food in the country: the rice. Any change in agriculture in a country where half of its’ population toil the earth is of enormous importance. It is not strange that promises of higher yields entice the people behind decisions. India is not afraid of change, but should perhaps by now have learned that not all things are what they seem, and local traditional varieties appears to cope better with the very threats genetically modified crops promises to eradicate.

As a supporter of organic agriculture I am against GM per definition. I have tried to stay open minded, but have yet to be convinced otherwise. So far the stage of politics in this wonderful land appears to have a similar view. So. Far.