Gordon Conway in Biotechnology and Hunger invites us to take seriously the possibility that GM crops might be the answer to world hunger. He writes with the best of intentions, and what he says may have a (genetically modified) grain of truth. But we in India have good reason to be sceptical. We remember the golden rice hoax, in which the attempt was made to sell GM rice to us as an answer to poverty, hunger and blindness due to Vitamin-A deficiency. We at the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology showed that greens, fruits and vegetables could be grown in every backyard, providing hundreds of times more Vitamin-A than golden rice.
Another such hoax is now upon us that of the protein potato, proposed as part of an anti-hunger plan formulated in collaboration with government institutes, scientists, industry and charities. The potato is claimed to contain a third more protein than normal, including essential high-quality nutrients, and has been created by adding a gene from the protein-rich amaranth plant.
However the claims of the developers of GM potato are laced with lies and are suspected of being in violation of the bio-safety regulations in force in India.
According to a BBC report, Manju Sharma, head of Indias Department of Biotechnology (DBT), has said that the GM potato will reduce the problem of malnutrition in the country. She plans to incorporate it into the governments free midday meal programme in schools.
However, inserting genetically engineered genes for proteins from amaranth into potatoes, and promoting potato as a staple for midday meals for children, is not just a decision to promote GM potatoes. It is a decision not to promote amaranth and pulses (the most important sources of protein in the Indian diet). Amaranth contains 14.7 grammes (gm) of protein per 100 gm of grain, compared to 6.8 gm/100gm in milled rice and 11 gm/100gm in wheatflour and 1.6 gm/100 gm in potato.
When compared with grains like amaranth, genetically-engineered potatoes will in fact create malnutrition, by denying vulnerable children the other nutrients that are available in grain amaranth but not in potato. The table below gives the comparative nutrition from amaranth and potatoes.
Comparative nutrition from amaranth & potatoes:
Iron: Amaranth ( 11mg/ 100gm )
Potatoes ( 0.7mg/ 100gm )
Nutrition in GM Potatoes with Amaranth protein genes compared to amaranth ( 10.3 mg/100gm )
Calcium: Amaranth ( 510mg/ 100gm )
Potatoes ( 10mg/ 100gm )
Nutrition in GM Potatoes with Amaranth protein genes compared to amaranth ( 500mg/100gm )
Protein: Amaranth ( 14.7gm/ 100gm )
Potatoes ( 1.6gm/100gm )
Nutrition in GM Potatoes with Amaranth protein genes compared to amaranth ( Assume same )
Thus the genetically-engineered potato will in fact spread iron deficiency and calcium deficiency in children. The ancient people of the Andes treated amaranth as sacred. In India it is called ramdana (Gods own grain). The root word amara in Sanskrit means eternal or deathless as does the ancient Greek amarantos, from which the name of the plant derives. A much smarter option is to spread the cultivation and use of that amazing grain.
In any case, amaranth is not the only source of protein in Indias rich biodiversity and cuisine. Our dal, pulses, legumes that are staples with rice (as dal-chawal) and with wheat (as dal-roti) are also very rich in protein. The consumption of dal and pulses would provide a much higher level of proteins than GM potatoes. Traditional cuisine survives for a reason namely that it helps people to survive. As Roger Scruton points out in his article on openDemocracy, Eating the World, inherited food cultures embody wisdom, and inherited wisdom is worth more than junk science.
Pulses protein per 100 gm
Bengal gram (whole) 17.1 gm
Horse gram 22.0 gm
Bengal gram roasted 22.5 gm
Lentil 25.1 gm
Black gram 24.0 gm
Moth bean 23.6 gm
Cow pea 24.1 gm
Peas dry 19.7 gm
Field Bean 24.9 gm
Rajma 22.9 gm
Green gram dal 24.5 gm
Redgram 22.3 gm
Slippery politics
The GM potato hoax is serious for another and more political reason. According to the BBC report the GM potato could be cleared for commercial cultivation in the next six months. The BBC also reported that for Manju Sharma, the potato is in its final stages of regulatory approval, which she was very confident of getting. However our phone call to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) elicited the response that it has not received any request for large-scale field trials of GM potato from DBT or from the developers of the crop. It is under the jurisdiction of GEAC to clear large-scale commercial trials of GM crops.
In India potato is a winter crop and the winter season starts around November. Since there is no application into the GEAC, it is likely that DBT and the developers of the GM potato have bypassed the GEAC for regulatory trials and aim to go straight for clearance for commercial planting. In that case DBT, through its agency the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) would repeat the blunder committed in the case of Bt. cotton when it cleared large scale open field trials, so usurping the jurisdiction of GEAC, in violation of the bio-safety regulation and the EPA Rules of 1989 on GMOs. In that instance we at the RFTSE went to the Supreme Court of India against RCGM and DBT as well as other regulatory agencies.
So far India has not cleared any GM food. Early this year India sent back a consignment of two shiploads of 10,000 tons of GM corn soya blend imported by CARE-India and the Catholic Relief Services. This was made possible because of a major mobilisation of womens groups against the GM import, organised as the National Alliance of Women for Food Rights under the movement of Diverse Women for Diversity.
Just as two charity organisations tried to force-feed the GM corn soya blend to poor Indian children in the name of hunger relief, the Head of the DBT and the developers of the GM potato plan to force-feed poor schoolchildren with GM potato, thereby subsidising the biotech industry and treating poor Indian children as guinea pigs.
GM and monoculture
There is another aspect to this as there is to all GM interventions namely the move towards unsustainable monoculture. This year several potato growers of Uttar Pradesh and other parts of country committed suicide because of over-production and lack of buyers. While the farmers are spending 255 rupees per quintal on production, potatoes are being sold for 40 rupees per quintal, leaving farmers at a loss of 200 rupees for every quintal produced. Per hectare (ha), the costs of production are between 55,000 rupees to 65,000 rupees, of which 40,000 rupees is the cost of seed alone.
The crisis for potato growers, like the crisis for producers of tomatoes, cotton and oil seeds and other crops is directly related to World Bank and WTO-driven trade liberalisation policies, of which the new agricultural policy is a direct outcome. Globalisation and trade liberalisation have created a potato crisis, in particular, because of the shift from the diversity and multi-functionality of traditional agriculture to monoculture. This monoculture requires standardisation, chemical and capital intensification of production, and deregulation of the input sector especially seeds leading to rising costs of production.
Furthermore the new agriculture policy has promoted a shift from food grains to vegetables and perishable commodities. While grains can be stored and consumed locally, potatoes and tomatoes must be sold immediately. A vegetable-centred policy thus decreases food security and increases farmers vulnerability to the market.
The genetic uniformity and monoculture of potato through the introduction of the GM potato would therefore be disastrous for Indian farmers and could lead to more suicides. The protein solution for Indias poor lies not in GM crops and dangerous monoculture; it lies in rejuvenating our rich biodiversity and food culture. India is nutritionally better-off without the pseudo-solution to hunger offered by Manju Sharma and the developers of the GM potato.
