Asia Times: Cyclone victims are guinea pigs for mutant food


	June 13, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Cyclone victims are guinea pigs for mutant food
By Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI - Millions of poor peasants affected by the super-cyclone which hit India's eastern coastal Orissa state last year, are being used as guinea pigs for testing genetically modified (GM) food made by the US biotech industry and rejected by Western consumers, say food security activists.

More than half of the $7.5 million given by the United States as relief for the victims of last October's cyclone, was in the form of food aid. The US Agency for International Aid (USaid) announced in November 1999 that corn-soya blend, vegetable oil and wheat worth $4.15 million was being sent to the 15 million cyclone victims.

But some of this was genetically engineered, claims Vandana Shiva, a well-known global campaigner against GM foods. Shiva says she got conclusive proof of this after she sent samples of the food for testing to a leading US laboratory, Genetic ID.

''Significant levels of genetically modified DNA detected but not possible to quantify due to partial inhibition of PCR or partial degradation of DNA,'' the laboratory noted in its report. Copies of the main findings were given to reporters by Shiva at a press conference here last week. ''The tests prove that the US has been using the Orissa victims as guinea pigs for GM products which have been rejected by consumers in the North, especially Europe,'' she adds.

The ready-mix blend which is fed to the victims every morning requires no cooking according to workers of Shiva's Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE).

Genetic engineering involves transfer of genes horizontally between unrelated species that would never interbreed in nature. New genes and gene products introduced by genetic engineers into food are often borrowed from bacteria, viruses and other non-food species and the dangers to human health arising from these are well documented.

In 1989, a trace contaminant from a genetically engineered batch of tryptophan, a food supplement produced by a Japanese company, was supected to have caused the death of 37 people and made another 1,500 people fall ill.

A major allergen was found in dangerously high levels in genetically engineered soya produced by US agribusiness giant Monsanto. Transgenic soya is believed to contain high levels of phytoestrogens that can cause endocrinal disorders.

According to Shiva, existing regulatory frameworks for genetic engineering are inadequate not only in India but around the world. She has urged the US government to immediately stop ''using money meant for relief to the poor for susbsidizing the biotech industry and helping it to use emergencies to create market access and market entry for GM products.''

''We call on the government of India and the (state) government of Orissa to immediately withdraw the corn-soya blend from distribution in Orissa and introduce mandatory segregation and labelling of all food imports for GM constituents,'' she says.

Another leading food security expert, Devinder Sharma says this would not be the first time that the US biotech industry has taken advantage of aid programs to foist GM soya on unsuspecting Indians. ''Indian children have been fed with GM soya produced by Monsanto as part of a free mid-day meal scheme introduced by the government in 1995 to encourage enrollment, retention and attendance in primary schools,'' says Sharma.

According to Shalini Bhutani, legal and gender adviser to the RFSTE, the despatch of the GM food to Orissa was in violation of the US government's international obligations under the Biosafety Protocol to label all foods for the presence of GM constituents.

Popular opposition to such food crops has been growing in India with activist groups like the Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha (Karnataka State Peasants Organization) having uprooted Bt-cotton promoted by Monsanto. Monsanto has acquired controlling interests in MAHYCO, a major Indian seed company which conducted trials of Bt-cotton, genetically modified for pest resistance at 40 locations in nine states in India. The Indian company has declared that it would not be deterred from its plan to popularize Bt-cotton among Indian farmers. India exports $6 billion worth of cotton and cotton garments every year. Apart from the dangers of genetic contamination of other crops through Bt-cotton pollen, Indian farmers who extract oil from cotton seeds for cooking and use the plant itself as cattle fodder, are also said to be at risk.

Well-known opponents of GM crops include Britain's Prince Charles who, in an article published in the Daily Telegraph in 1988, said tranferring genetic material from one species of plant, bacteria, virus, animal or fish raises crucial ethical and practical considerations.

(Inter Press Service)

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