By Sayer Ji

A report from the August 17 edition of the American Association for the Advance of Science’s journal Science titled, “Negative Report on GM Crops Shakes Government’s Food Agenda,” revealed that an Indian high-profile parliamentary panel, only a week before, recommended that GM crop “field trials under any garb should be discontinued forthwith,” and that further GM agricultural research should “only be done under strict containment.”[1]

Moreover, in a press conference after the report’s release, the panel’s chair, Basudeb Acharia, said in no uncertain terms: “India should not go in for GM food crops.”

While the primary justification within Indian government for supporting GM agriculture is based on the fact that it has increased production of economically important products such as cotton, which skyrocketed from .02 million hectares in 2002 to 9.33 million hectares in 2011, the latest panel’s decision was influenced by the fact that all Bt cotton grown commercially in India is derived from technology sold by the multinational food giant Monsanto, who by owning and controlling the seeds has seriously compromised India’s food sovereignty and security.