GMO in food crops - is it desirable?

Based on my understanding on subject and possible impacts of the introduction of GMO in food crops on human health and ecology of the area, as well as plight of the farmers in this country, in particular, I am presenting below in brief my viewpoints for your kind consideration.

Issue	Advantages	Disadvantages	My remarks
Meeting hunger and malnutrition of millions	It is claimed to meet the hunger because of higher productivity, and have possibility to remove malnutrition through value addition, viz. ß- carotene in golden rice, etc.	It would increase cost of production since farmers will be forced to purchase GM seeds at prohibitive price each time instead of growing from saved seeds under his own custody from previous year. We have witnessed the disastrous impacts in case of GM cotton It will tend to reduce biodiversity and ecological balance. Apart from others there is always a danger of the very existence of the species under reduced diversity during adverse conditions.	Meeting hunger not for less productivity, but for poor purchasing power of the most and ill-managed PDS in vogue. Ability to meet malnutrition, produce vaccines, antibiotics etc, as claimed by some, without adverse health hazard not yet established Not conducive to farmers, particularly small and marginal, dominating in this country
Flow of genes and the DNA Recombinant technology	It would widen the scope for creating new crop species through flow of genes across plants, animals and microorganisms.	In the process it might also cross-pollinate other non-GM crops including weeds, and this is very likely to endanger the ecological balance. If this is to happen with GM foods containing vaccines, antibiotics, contraceptives etc. this might create human health nightmare. The technology for gene transfer though has the knowledge on identification of the gene(s) required to be transferred does not have the precise knowledge as to where exactly in the sequence the gene(s) should be inserted and, further has no control on the gene expression since genes do not work in isolation.	In nature or during traditional plant breeding process otherwise there are checks and balances to safeguard against ecological imbalance. Lack of precise knowledge on the place of insertion and/or about the expression might prove dangerous to human health in due course. It would be possibly impractical or even impossible to make a risk analysis or conduct such experiment to establish safe impact of the genetic modification on human health and on ecology in the long run.
Tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress	Tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress increases (at least temporarily)	Long term effects not yet tested especially for insect pest tolerance since insects etc have the habit to undergo mutation under natural process to acquire power to infect plants in due course GM plants might poison the insects over a long period in turn and the crop (say, Bt corn) might become ineffective to insecticides application A variety of insects may be at risk of being killed. These may be predatory insects that eat the harmful ones, or perhaps the attractive ones like butterflies. This created uproar in USA	There could be many eco-friendly processes otherwise to avoid plant damage against insect pest attacks, and allow cultivation under abiotic stress conditions.
Labeling the GM food	For knowledge of the consumers	There will be apprehension of the consumers for its use	The GM food or its byproducts must be labeled with details of its contents with statutory warning since the consumers have every right to have a knowledge of the potent of the danger

Conclusion: The impact of use of GM food crops should be assessed mainly from the points of view of its advantages of (i) higher productivity, (ii) higher tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress, (iii) value addition, and (iv) uniform ripening and longer storability, as against the disadvantages of (i) creating less of biodiversity, (ii) high uncertainty of the impact or risk on human health, (iii) uncertainty due to adverse impact on ecological balance, (iii) high expenditure of cultivation due to increased seed cost resulting in increasing dependence on multi-national seed companies based mainly in the developed countries ending up finally with the farmers in developing countries becoming bankrupt, and (iv) value addition particularly to remove malnutrition not yet tested widely and over a sufficient period of time for its impact on human health.

I am firmly of the view finally with due consideration to human health and ecological balance that the use of genetically modified food crops is highly unethical and therefore should not be allowed at all. There are eco-friendly means, scientific, social and political, to overcome the areas mainly targeted by the GM food crops. Meddling with the nature might prove extremely dangerous for its long term impact. To quote a small published example genetic engineering has resulted in 37 deaths and 1500 partially paralyzed people. In addition, this has led to 5000 additional people experiencing a temporary disability due to syndrome, known as Tryptophan, linked to genetically engineered bacteria. These are only few examples out of the reported data but certainly not exhaustive, while in many cases we are not even aware so far on the nature and intensity of impacts for the lack of our knowledge.

The scientific novelty in DNA Recombinant technology has been hijacked completely by the commercial organizations mainly in the developed countries for vested interest, and therefore should be looked at as a business proposition, at the cost of humanity and ecology which are much more important. There are growing controversies between the EU and USA on use of GM in food crops but India regardless of WTO obligations should take a clear line, and through legislation if possible and necessary completely prohibit its use at least for food crops for all time to come.