Once released into soil, BT Brinjal gene will contaminate natural crop,says former Mansanto managing director T V Jagadishan
Once released into soil, BT Brinjal gene will contaminate natural crop,says former Mansanto managing director T V Jagadishan
T V Jagadishan, former Managing Director (India) of Monsanto, the company which proposes to introduce BT Brinjal, has, in a turn around, voiced his opposition to its introduction.
He said that Monsanto was into the habit of controlling the market and making money. Jagadishan and his team quit in protest against certain company decisions in 2009.
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Talking straight: T V Jagadishan, former managing director (India) of Monsanto, voiced his opposition to the introduction of BT Brinjal. His team quit in protest against the company's policies in 2009
Excerpts:
Do you think BT Brinjal should be introduced at all? What are the ill effects it could cause?
Not at all. I oppose the introduction of BT Brinjal. Once the gene is released into the environment, even God cannot stop it.
You have been very vocal about Monsanto. You once held a top position in that very company. Could you tell us what ill will are you nurturing against them?
I have no ill will against the company. When I was the managing director, there was a plan to set up a butachlor plant in collaboration with the Government of India.
However, despite all the work undertaken by my team and me, Monsanto walked out of the project. This was a set back for me. We resigned in protest.
Coming back to the subject, could you take us through the ill-effects of introducing BT Brinjal?
We grow 8 million tonnes of natural brinjal in our country. In fact, in various parts of North India there is excess brinjal and sometimes a lot of it is fed to the cows.
Once BT Brinjal is introduced and the gene is released, it is bound to contaminate the natural brinjal.
Our native brinjal has medicinal value and once it is contaminated, the medicinal value in the natural brinjal will automatically be lost. Not only brinjal, but it will affect a lot of other plants which contain medicinal value and hence the effect will be nothing but disastrous.
What interest does Monsanto have? Why are they pushing for BT Brinjal so aggressively?
There is a lot to gain for Monsanto. They have 2.8 lakh shares in the Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco).
Mahyco on its part will be marketing the seed and with so much investment by Monsanto, they are bound to push hard for this to be introduced. It is all about the economics.
Is the issue as big as its being made out to be?
Yes, of course it is. Monsanto is looking for control and with the introduction of Bt Brinjal the control enters the bio-diversity of India.
Once the gene is released it would surely destroy the 2,400 different varieties of natural brinjal that the Indian farmer grows.
Is the government ready to take such a big risk? Don't you think that the decision to even debate this issue must have been taken after some trial or research?
That is the primary issue. Such things are not tested on humans and hence we really don't know what the ill-effects on us could be. In this case, I could say with confidence that not much research has been carried out and no long term trials have been
conducted.
You say that natural brinjals will be wiped out. How is that?
The fruit and shoot borer will affect natural brinjal since it becomes a toxin once the gene is introduced. Once this starts to happen, then the plant is naturally affected and gradually it is eradicated.
The problem here is that these issues are to be looked into by the genetic engineering approval committee.
In this case the committee is completely bogged down by Monsanto.
If there are so many problems, on what basis has the government even thought of introducing BT Brinjal?
The sad part is that the government has depended largely on Company Generated Data. When a company decides to introduce a new product, it is the government labs which should conduct a trial and produce believable results.
Here, the government has not bothered and have depended only on data given by Monsanto. The government committee has approved this based on the data given by the company
What do you think the decision of Jairam Ramesh would be?
I have a feeling that Ramesh is drawing a thin line in this case between strong public opinion and the strength
of America.
We don't have the strength to withstand pressure from America and hence it would be a hard decision for him. Although I pray and hope he decides against its introduction, I feel that he may try and maintain status quo for sometime on this issue.
What do you think will happen if the government decides to go ahead with the introduction of BT Brinjal?
First and foremost we will lose all the natural brinjal. Secondly, the government will have to face countrywide agitations on this issue. Let me tell you that they will not be able to contain the protests because I think they will be fierce.
Why won't the farmers protest? They are losing their bread and butter after all.
What are the long term benefits of the company in this case?
I pointed out earlier that they have invested a lot in Mahyco. Once the government decides to introduce this, then every seed will have to be purchased from Monsanto for Mahyco since they will patent the seed.
Then there is this issue of the gene contaminating the natural brinjal. This would only ensure that they would have complete dominance in the market.
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