Hazards of GM Crops

In an extremely unfortunate, biased and costly decision, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), India’s biotech regulator, has decided to approve GM (genetically modified) mustard. Hence, India has come one step closer to the possibility of commercial cultivation of GM food crops. This move has been widely resisted by farmers’ organisations, and health and social activists supported by several scientists.

An eminent group of scientists from various countries who constitute the Independent Science Panel has concluded after examining all aspects of GM crops that “GM crops have failed to deliver the promised benefits and are posing escalating problems on the farm. Transgenic contamination is now widely acknowledged to be unavoidable, and hence there can be no co-existence of GM and non-GM agriculture. Most important of all, GM crops have not been proven safe. On the contrary, sufficient evidence has emerged to raise serious safety concerns, that if ignored could result in irreversible damage to health and the environment. GM crops should be firmly rejected now.”