Bt brinjal put on hold - but for how long?

Today, GM, or "Bt" cotton makes up at least 80 per cent of India's total cotton production. But eight years after its introduction, the Indian public is adamant about keeping GM food off the menus.

Bt is "proteins that act as an insect repellent," says Christoph Tebbe, an agricultural expert from Germany. "They are produced mainly by soil bacteria. Genetic engineering has taken the genes that produce this insecticide protein (the so-called Bt toxin) from the bacteria and transferred them to plants, allowing the plants to produce the insecticide proteins themselves."

Bt - friend or foe?

Using Bt means using less chemical insecticides. The US agricultural giant Monsanto has played a role in India's Bt crops. On their website they say that farmers will soon have to double output in order to feed the world's growing population. Advocates say GM technology will have to be used for this.

But many disagree, like Jaikrishna Ranganathan from Greenpeace India, "it's not true that GM crops can increase yields, so Monsanto's dreams of feeding the world, it is just not possible. The real technology is sitting in organic and ecological techniques. India's crisis right now is because of over-use of fertilizers and fertility losses of the soil, which is serious, and GM crops are not addressing it."

Critics also argue that Indian farmers are forced further into debt, as they buy expensive GM seeds and technologies. But the director of Monsanto India, Dr. Gyanendra Shukla disagrees.

"If you go through the country, more than 5 million farmers are using this technology," he says. "No farmer would continue to adopt this kind of technology if they are not economically benefited. From the farmer's perspective it means cost saving, peace of mind, and higher productivity that translates to higher income."

GM in use today

Dr Shukla also says Bt corn and oil from Bt cotton seed are already used for direct consumption and that there is a growing trend, "it is a progression of the technology. The technology started first in the US then it went to cotton. Recently China has approved Bt rice. So, it's just a question of time. This technology is now in existence for thirteen, fourteen years, so I guess slowly it is coming into other crops."

Hans-Jörg Buhk from Germany's Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Consumer Safety says in addition to the largest GM crops, corn and soy, there are already many types of genetically modified food, for example in the US, which are not yet welcomed everywhere. Buhk also points out that "there is an area that consumers seem to pay little attention to: enzymes. Many enzymes we come across every day are used for example in fruit juice purification, in baked goods, in the cheese making process, detergents. All these things are made using genetically modified microorganisms. No one criticizes this, but it creates great savings in energy and raw materials."

The people will decide

Buhk says that while the creation of Bt crops is not tampering too greatly with the genetic code, fears that this technology could be taken further and lead to unknown problems is understandable. Many experts are convinced that GM science can help feed the world's growing population. But in the end, consumer acceptance will be crucial - and that precisely is the reason why India has put Bt brinjal on hold for the time being.

Author: Sarah Berning
Editor: Thomas Baerthlein