Golden fears

Golden fears

Is this where our gastronomic future lies? In daffodils and bacteria spicing up the decidedly colourful platter of rice on our tables? In a development which is bound to once again animate the extremely hostile pro- and anti-biotech camps, India has agreed to participate in a research project aimed at developing a genetically modified variety of rice for plantation in the subcontinent. Developed by Swiss scientist Ingo Potrykus, golden rice -- with genes from daffodils and bacteria spliced in to augment it with beta-carotene -- is already being hailed as a wondergrain that will consign vitamin A deficiency to the history books and save millions around the world from perils like blindness and worse. (It is the beta-carotene which gives the grains a yellowish tinge.) Potrykus's strain is however conducive only to temperate climates. In India, scientists propose to apply this technology, which has been offered gratis to developing countries, to tropical varieties of rice.

The stakes in perfecting and then applying this technology in the fields are obvious. In India, where vitamin deficiencies pose a grave health risk and where an estimated 12 million people suffer from just vitamin A disorders, availability of golden rice and other nutritionally fortified foodgrains could make a tremendous improvement in the quality of human life. A clarification is in order here. Golden rice is the first GM crop that offers advantages to the consumer; other transgenic plants developed thus far lend advantages to the farmer, with promises that they will reduce his investment on pesticides and fertilisers, save him from rapacious weeds, or give him ever more abundant yields. Yet, the hostility to golden rice in India is likely to be no different from the shrill opposition to field trials of GM cotton that have been witnessed recently. And while the hysterical demand that all research and field trials be aborted -- made once again at the prospect of golden rice being replicated in India --is downright silly, the government must address some very serious concerns about transgenic crops.

There are three main apprehensions. One, since new genes are introduced in GM seed and since genes carry instructions for making proteins, it is feared that some proteins could cause allergic reactions in consumers, with tragic consequences. Two, there is the spectre of genetic pollution. For instance, field trials must establish that there is no danger of pollen drift, of promiscuous jumping genes conferring a new hardiness to weedy relatives. It is important, therefore, that research conducted in temperate habitats be supplemented with meticulous field trials in tropical environments to assess the possible impact on biodiversity and ecological balance. Three, there are worries about the Indian farmer being enslaved to agribusinesses. Biotechnology is no doubt an expensive pursuit, and companies would like to recover R&D costs by ensuring that the herbicide their seeds are resistant to is produced by them alone, by exploring ways to verify that the farmer buys fresh seeds every season. The Indian governmentsays it has formulated a thorough appraisal routine taking into account these fears; now it must see to it that it is strictly enforced.