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ShareBangalore: With the entry of BT-brinjal a reality soon, the customer is being served a sorry deal. The genetically modified variety will look similar to the regular one, so you as a customer will not have a choice between the two. Whoever said customer is king ...
Concerned individuals in the city are taking it upon themselves to raise awareness on GM foods. The brinjal festival on April 5 is being organised to display the bio-diversity that exists.
Krishna Prasad of Sahaja Samrudha, an NGO working with organic farmers, says, "Once the BT gene is introduced in the native variety, it cannot be segregated through physical appearance."
Labelling, a concept followed in the West, isn't available to customers in India. There are several reasons. "Our supply chain system is way too haphazard to follow the label system," says Sejal Pariekh, a volunteer, Association of India Development (AID). "It is successful in the West because there are not too many varieties of vegetables available," says Prasad, adding, "India, on the other hand, has enormous diversity.In the market, one can find at least 10 to 15 varieties of a vegetable. So, labelling is not a feasible option."
Says Sejal: "If a farmer is growing a Bt crop there should be a distance of 200 metres he needs to maintain from other farms." This also is a preventive measure only as she adds, "Natural pollutenators like wind, bees, birds may bring Bt seeds into an organic farm.
This will contaminate the produce and then the labelling doesn't help."
Sheela Krishnaswamy, nutritionist and dietician says she won't advise people to go for GM foods. "With no labelling system, one may not know if they are consuming GM products already."
