BT Brinjal – Can we BeaT it?

Over the last few days, there has been much of a fuss about the newly designed Genetically-Modified BT Brinjal, which was given an approval by Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of India, declaring it fit for human-consumption and hence open for Farmers to start planting it. So, here am I, writing my bit on this topic.

What is the BT Brinjal? What are the Advantages? Actually the word Bt stands for “Bacillus thuringiensis”, which is a soil bacteria, and hence the BT Brinjal is actually the normal Brinjal, with an additional gene from the Bt bacteria, which produces Bt protein. This new Brinjal was researched on by Mahyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company) and is promoted by University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharwad, and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore.

Actually, India is the “heart-place” for the Brinjals, and the egg-plant has been cultivated since last 4000-odd years. Though there are many local varieties and hybrids of this plant, Brinjal is highly prone to pest attacks. According to a recent survey, it is estimated that the damage caused by the Shoot & Fruit Borer in brinjal ranges from 50 to 70% and in economic terms, it is estimated to be around $221 millions. It is to lend tolerance to this pest primarily that the Bt Brinjal has been developed. The Bt protein is supposed to make the Brinjal plant resistant to a lot of known parasites of the plant and hence increase the yield of the produce. Moreover, this will also ensure that the farmers will need to use lesser insecticides, which will not only result in less poison spraying, but will also be cost-effective to the farmers. Also, the Mahyco plans to price the seed in a cost-recovery model and hence it will be affordable to all farmers.


The Alarming Facts
Though the benefits and the promises look wonderful on paper, the current safety assessments are not sufficient to verify whether the Genetically-Modified are completely safe. There was an assessment done by a bunch of NGOs including “Green Peace” and others, which did not deem the Bt Brinjal as wonderful a reality as is portrayed. Some of those points, are as follows:

• Rats fed Bt brinjal had diarrhoea, increased water consumption; decrease in liver weight, and liver to body weight.
• Cattle showed increased weight gain, intake of more dry roughage matter and milk production up by 10-14 percent as if they were treated by a hormone.
• When fed to animals, effects were observed on blood chemistry. Also there was a visible impact on blood clotting time (prothrombin), total bilirubin (liver health), and alkaline phosphate in goats and rabbits.
• Also, the Bt Brinjal tests did not include the impact on other species like butterflies/moths which depend on flowers.

Moreover, there are concerns regarding how will we be able to manage the cross-pollination which happens in Bt Brinjal and it’s other varients. Also, if all the farmers move to this one brand, wouldn’t we be losing the “Bio-diversity” and the “Gene-Pool” which has developed in the different varieties of Brinjal in the different parts of the world.

Other GM-related Precedents

Farmers reported massive loss in soil fertility after growing Bt Cotton for a few years. Disease incidence on Bt Cotton is also seen to be higher than on non-Bt Cotton. Also, there are alarming reports now that lot of animals died after feeding on plants of Bt Cotton farms, adding to the concerns that many farmers developed different allergies due to Bt cotton production.

A study from Phillippines shows that people living next to Bt Corn crop fields had developed many mysterious symptoms, especially during pollination time.

Worldwide, it is generally accepted that more studies are needed to understand the impact of Bt toxin on soil ecology. Natural Bt toxins have never been authorized for mammalian consumption and are known to be harmful to health.


The Harsh Reality

Nevertheless, since GEAC approved the Bt Brinjal, it was almost set to some into the Indian Supermarkets. If allowed, Bt Brinjal, would be the first food crop in the world with the Bt gene inserted into it that is to be directly consumed by human beings. Hence, the results not too certain and yet, Indians are subject to be made “guinea pigs” due to the approval of the GEAC.

The shimmer of hope lies in the fact that the product needs to have a final approval from the environment ministry. In October 2009, when the issue came up, there was wide-spread protest from informed consumers, NGOs and farmers-alike to stop this product from coming. This led to a Press Release where Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh said that he will have a series of consultations with all the stake holders in January and February 2010 before finalizing his views.

There is one more problem, in India, there is no proper labelling, which tells the consumer whether the product he is buying is “Genetically-Modified” or not. Hence the consumer is never in a position to choose whether he wants to try the new product or not.


Final Say

I am not the one, who is against Change, but I tend to be pessimistic (if you may), when the stakes are too high and when I don’t have faith in the analysis of the problem at hand. I am not against Bio-Technology and amazing potential it can bring forth, but until we are truly sure of our capacities and have all the issues/variables sorted out, I prefer to remain with what Mother-Nature has given to us. More specifically, when it comes to Brinjal, there are known to be other safer alternatives than Bt Brinjal, or even better practices, which kind of weed-out the need of Bt Brinjal, and so, honestly I wouldn’t want this product to hit the stands. If really the Bt Brinjal is sanctioned, I'll probably stop taking brinjal in my food (I don't like it much anyways). But what will we do if all the crops/vegetables follow the same suit?

Last but not the least True to his word, Jairamji in now on a Country-wide tour, asking and meeting people for their opinion. There are going to be rallies for the same in different parts of the country on different days. Great if we can get ourselves heard physically, but with the advent of technology, ifcannot be physically present, the least we can do is take a minute from our busy schedule and Fill this Form and show our Protest virtually. (It opens a page from the Green-Peace NGO in a new window)