Vitamin Green

I have to admit that brinjals (or aubergines or egg plant) have never been my favourite food – so I’m a little biased . But a recent development has given me even more reason to distrust them. The clearance of these genetically modified brinjal (Bt Brinjal) for consumption (supposedly no health risks) seems premature and ambiguous.

Why should we care?

Because this is the first GM ‘food crop’ that has been allowed in India, and there’s much more where it came from. GM is being pushed by ‘agro companies’ aggressively, but there is enough evidence that its not the best choice for farmers.

Specifically 3 MAJOR concerns that we need to be very wary about:

Is it healthy? The jury is out on that, with various views on the subject. But Europe seems to have done the smart thing and has a wait and watch policy. We need to study them longer to judge the health impact well.

Can we choose? Will sellers of these vegetables and food processing companies that use them be required to label them clearly, so we as consumers can make a choice? That’s critical. Also, will these ‘infect’ other indigenous varieties and reduce the diversity available to us?

What about liability? Will GM producers be legally liable if their produce or processed food using it, is found to have an adverse health impact? This is critical too.

Indian’s have traditionally had a pretty healthy diet (in most parts of the country). But rapid urbanisations, expansion of organised retail and a new hyper-convenience culture are changing this very fast.

Since many of us – especially those of us that are younger – are adopting big international convenience food brands very rapidly – its good to be aware of what their food is doing to us.

See this for a detailed analysis.

Via NGF

What we eat is very important to us — or should be. Which is why there is such a raging debate about Genetically Modified (GM) foods in India and across the world. The key issues of concern for us are broadly…

• Should GM foods be allowed at all? Are they safe for us to consume?
• Have the foods been tested, and what were the ‘objective’ findings?
• Should food products legally specify that they are using GM? So that we can choose to avoid them?
• What should the legal liability of GM food growers/users be, in case of adverse effects?

If you’ve decided to avoid GM food, Greenpeace is making the task much simpler with what they call India’s first safe food guide on Genetically Modified ingredients.

The guide is available as a printable PDF that is downloadable from here.

via Greenpeace