GM hitches and hits

As the clock ticks to the July 9 deadline, US negotiators are turning up the heat, urging India to open its agriculture market to genetically modified (GM) crops.

- Ashok Gulati Ritika Juneja

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has declared agriculture and dairy as sacrosanct "red lines," warning that accepting GM imports could jeopardize both farmers' livelihoods and food safety. Meanwhile, global GM crop adoption has skyrocketed since 1996. As of 2023, over 200 million hectares (ha) of GM soya bean, maize, canola, and more are in cultivation across 76 countries. India's refusal to budge can become a major challenge in sealing the trade deal.

The only GM crop in India is cotton. Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government in 2002 took this bold decision. Today, more than 90% of India's cotton area is under Bt cotton, and its seed is fed to cattle. The cotton seed oil is consumed by humans, although some scientists suggest that the oil does not carry the protein that the seed has. Sometime earlier, even poultry feed (like soya and corn, imported) was GM. Clearly, it would be wrong to claim that GM food has not been in our food chain.