{"id":219492,"date":"2022-12-22T19:34:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T14:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=219492"},"modified":"2022-12-22T19:34:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T14:04:22","slug":"stay-with-science-go-slow-on-gm-crops-transgenic-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/stay-with-science-go-slow-on-gm-crops-transgenic-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Stay with science, go slow on GM crops Transgenic technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on the article <\/span>\u201cStay with science, go slow on GM crops Transgenic technology\u201d <\/span><\/b>published in<\/span> The Indian Express <\/span><\/b>on <\/span>22nd December 2022<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/span><\/b>GS3- Science and Technology<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Relevance<\/span><\/b>: Recombinant technology.<\/span><\/p>\n

News<\/span><\/b>: The article explains the issues related to HT GM crops.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why precaution is required for the environmental release of GM crops?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Transgenic technology is <\/span>uncontrollable and irreversible<\/span><\/b> after environmental release. Genetically Modified Organisms propagate themselves and proliferate. This process cannot be reversed.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, any <\/span>deliberate environmental release<\/span><\/b> has to be only after a thorough,<\/span> independent, peer-reviewed assessment<\/span><\/b> of long-term implications.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the current status of GM crops across the world?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

More than 25 years after their introduction, GM crops are still globally grown in<\/span> just 29 out of 172 countries<\/span><\/b>. Moreover, 91% of GM crop area continues to be in just five countries named USA, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and India. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most countries in Europe and Japan, Israel, and Russia do not grow GM crops. In China, Bt cotton area has been declining and <\/span>non-GM hybrid technology<\/span><\/b> is used for rapeseed\/mustard.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Only two traits are present in over 85% of GM crops grown \u2014 <\/span>herbicide tolerance and insect resistance<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the issues with HT crops?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

HT crops result in not only <\/span>ecological damage<\/span><\/b>\u00a0but <\/span>human health impacts<\/span><\/b> for consumers. Like tobacco, the effects take a longer time to manifest. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to independent research on GM crops and associated herbicides, their impact on human health may be probable<\/span> carcinogenicity, neuro-toxicity, reproductive health problems, organ damage<\/span><\/b> etc.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ongoing litigations in the Supreme Court are about serious shortcomings in our <\/span>regulatory regime<\/span><\/b>. Minutes of meetings of the regulatory body <\/span>GEAC<\/span><\/b> and the <\/span>\u201cguidelines and protocols\u201d <\/span><\/b>on the regulator\u2019s website reflect an absence of regulatory protocols for HT crops.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>technical expert committee<\/span><\/b> appointed by the SC and the unanimous multi-party reports of <\/span>two parliamentary standing committees<\/span><\/b> have exposed serious lapses and inadequacies in <\/span>bio-safety testing<\/span><\/b> of HT crops.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the concerns associated with the approval of GM mustard?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

GM mustard\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0yield increase claims were based on a comparison with an old, non-hybrid variety. There were several <\/span>higher-yielding mustard hybrids <\/span><\/b>that should have been the comparators.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, it is claimed that DMH-11\u2019s <\/span>parental lines<\/span><\/b> will be very useful for breeding <\/span>better hybrids<\/span><\/b>. But, the countries with the highest yields in the world do not use this <\/span>GM HT technique<\/span><\/b>. The benefits claimed, hence, are therefore questionable.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No independent health expert participated in the committees that looked at GM mustard safety. To this day,<\/span> biosafety data<\/span><\/b> of GM mustard has not been posted on the regulator\u2019s website for i<\/span>ndependent scrutiny<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is claimed <\/span>GM mustard<\/span><\/b> is necessary to reduce India\u2019s <\/span>edible oil import bill<\/span><\/b>. Most of the edible oil we import is <\/span>cheap, non-GM, palm oil<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the way forward for yield improvement of mustard?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

For mustard yield improvement, <\/span>safe agro-ecological solutions<\/span><\/b> such as the <\/span>\u201csystem of mustard intensification\u201d <\/span><\/b>are showing significant yield increases. This technology should be promoted, not GM HT mustard of dubious yields and safety.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cStay with science, go slow on GM crops Transgenic technology\u201d published in The Indian Express on 22nd December 2022.\u00a0 Syllabus: GS3- Science and Technology\u00a0 Relevance: Recombinant technology. News: The article explains the issues related to HT GM crops.\u00a0 Why precaution is required for the environmental release of… Continue reading Stay with science, go slow on GM crops Transgenic technology<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10500],"class_list":["post-219492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700779027,"cached_date":1704856089},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}