Dawn Newspaper

THE controversy over how safe the consumption or use of genetically modified foods, seeds and products are to human health is now 15-years old.

The opposition is most intense in Europe and Japan although GM is considered undesirable in most of the world for its long-term side-effects to soil and human health. The United_States is the leading protagonist, preacher and also consumer of the modified stuff.

It is amazing to see how some Americans can turn fanatic in their advocacy of GM products. The US ambassador in Paris, according to a WikiLeaks cable released last week, advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European country which opposes genetically modified crops. His advice was in response to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in 2007. The ambassador, Craig Stapleton, asked Washington to penalise the EU and particularly the countries which did not support the use of GM crops.

He suggested “a target retaliation list” for action that causes some pain across the EU and also focuses in part on the worst culprits. Moving to retaliation will make clear that “the opposition to GM has real costs to EU interests” and that the move could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices. Other newly released cables reveal that US diplomats were found “pushing” GM crops around the world as a strategic government and commercial imperative.

Since many Catholic bishops in developing countries have been vehemently opposed to the controversial crops, the US applied particular pressure to the pope’s advisers. The US State Department special adviser on biotechnology as well as government biotech advisers based in Kenya lobbied Vatican insiders to persuade the pope to declare his backing. Cables show that some US diplomats were working directly for GM companies such as Monsanto.

Meanwhile, three pro-farmer NGOs have expressed fears that some multinationals were providing GM seeds to farmers in Pakistan’s flood-affected areas. They observed that rehabilitation of millions of flood-affected farmers in Sindh, south Punjab and Balochistan has provided a rare opportunity to agibusiness multinationals to market their GM seeds and foodstuff in the country.

The Roots for Equity, Pesticide Action Network Asia and Pacific (PAN AP), and GRAIN have warned that “a big threat” looms in the way the government is rebuilding agriculture, “in partnership with big agribusiness companies”, in the flood-stricken areas of Pakistan.

Roots for Equity is a Karachi-based NGO that works with landless peasants in the flooded areas, has pointed out that “a torrent of corporate hybrid seeds, and possibly GM seeds, as some suspect, packaged with fertiliser, farm implements and production credit is streaming into the affected provinces in the name of agricultural reconstruction.”

Under a scheme launched by the government to provide wheat seeds to farmers who own 25 acres of land, certified and good quality seeds were provided in an area covering 150,000 acres. Besides, the US has provided about $62 million to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for an agriculture recovery programme in Balochistan. The programme includes provision of seed and fertiliser to the affected farmers to help them salvage the winter planting seasons. In October, a consignment of 2,000 bags of wheat seeds was dispatched to flood-hit farmers by the Imran Khan Flood Relief Fund (IKRF). All these seeds can be GM stuff.

The problem is that there is little information about what the seeds are and where they have come from. They are being distributed in small white plastic bags with the monogram of World Food Programme. Since no independent body is monitoring the inflow of seeds to Pakistan, there is every possibility that these are GM seeds. With Bayer, BASF, Monsanto, Du Pont, Dow Chemical and Cargill, among the long list of donors to Pakistan’s rehabilitation programme, the suspicion is high that these companies can use the situation to get their GM seeds on the ground and distribute them widely and, thus, create a market for their products which they have otherwise failed to do in normal times.

Sindh government plans to rehabilitate more than seven million people and efforts are being made to give cash of Rs100,000 as well as seeds and fertilisers to each survivor family free of cost. But not all of this is free, as the seeds are being tied to micro-finance packages where fertilisers and services are only provided to small farmers through loans.

In Sindh, sunflower seeds have been distributed with their source of origin unknown. Some farmers are worried that seeds of GM canola may outcross their local mustard varieties. Canola and mustard, are from the same Brassica family, which also includes cabbage as distant relative. The possibility of GM contamination cannot be ruled out.

Meanwhile, some Indian companies are trying to obtain permission from their government to export genetically modified Bt cottonseeds to Pakistan to meet the latter’s need for cotton in the wake of crop losses in July floods. This can be seen as an alternate compensatory arrangement or an apologetic gesture after Indian exporters in November refused to comply with orders of about a million tones of bales to Pakistani importers on baseless pretexts. But many Pakistani cotton traders have warned the government against signing an agreement with Monsanto for supply of hybrid Bt cotton seed, saying it would spell a disaster for national seed companies.

It is worth noting that the Seed Association of Pakistan chairman Shahzad Ali Malik is not opposed to GM cotton, he is opposed to Monsanto’s role. He says, “the country’s future lies in biotechnology as long as it helps farmers and brings in investments. But the grant of exclusive rights to any company that doesn’t meet the criteria amounts to waste of precious resources. We will resist such an action at all costs.”

A similar view was recently expressed by Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh last year. He came out with a non-orthodox concept about GM. The minister put a moratorium on the introduction of a variety of GM brinjal (eggplant) containing Monsanto’s patented Bt gene, after a storm of protest, by saying: “Yes, we want GM seeds, but we want our public institutions to be involved in their development to safeguard the national interest.” But can “public” research afford to be in company with corporate interests? For small farmers there is really no difference between a national GM crop and a transnational one.