Bring on brinjal

This week activists will seek to warn the nation about the perils of consuming genetically modified brinjal. GM brinjal is at the semi-final stages of obtaining official clearance. Supreme Court-mandated multi-location trials are on. The genetic engineering approval committee GEAC will most likely take a final decision by year-end. Anti-GM protesters are right that if GEAC gives its nod, India may become one of the very few countries in the world that okays an edible GM crop for commercial sale. They are wrong that this signals the beginning of some dreadful trend. But nonetheless, anti-GM activists deserve a thank you. India8217;s regulatory capacity is uneven, especially in food safety categories. Vigorous anti-GM campaign helped strengthen regulation. The informed scrutiny it engendered has given India one of the more thorough checks and balances systems in GM crops. Notably, GM brinjal is a private-public research effort.

This of course means that as long as GEAC8217;s clearance system is deemed credible, anti-GM agitation should no longer hold up policy. It also means that the government should be smart and anticipate some other activist arguments, the most prominent being the issue of labelling. India8217;s largely informal vegetable marketing system, it is argued, cannot handle the issue of labelling GM crops. This is a defeatist argument of course, and variations of that can be used to block any change. The government8217;s answer should be to coordinate its GM policy with the setting up of the new food standards authority. There was some bureaucratic squabble about which ministry will boss the new authority. The health ministry has won the round. As long as Shah Rukh Khan is not seen consuming GM brinjal on screen, hopefully Anbumani Ramadoss will view the issue dispassionately. The new standards authority should work towards a labelling system for all GM crops.

That would be necessary even without activist protest because the potential for GM farming in India is huge. It is among the most exciting solutions to increasing farm output. Bt cotton, to remind everyone, has already shown what can be achieved.