January 27, 2003	Monday	Ziqa’ad 23,1423

Fearing genetic contamination through cross-pollination, farmers in Karnataka (India) during 2001 had torched fields in which the Bt cotton trials were carried out secretly.

However, following this event the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) had persuaded the government to take steps to ensure that cotton, much of which had been sold, was quarantined and the seed destroyed.

In Pakistan too, according to the consumer protection network, Islamabad, the American business giant (Monsanto) is aggressively lobbing the Pakistani government to get clearance for its controversial Bt cotton for large scale cultivation and marketing, claiming that the transgenic variety was environmentally safe and economically lucrative for farmers. It would be proper to mention that like other parts of the world, environmentalists and consumer right groups in Pakistan have mounted protest against the introduction of transgenic crop varieties into farmland, fearing such crop would severely impact the environment and the human health, besides genetic contamination through cross-pollination.

According to reports, the government research had shown that the GM crops, being grown in Britain, were likely to have cross-contaminated with the ordinary crops and weeds. As per research, genetically modified oilseed rape readily cross-pollinated and it was unlikely that the GM crops could be grown in Britain without contaminating other oilseed varieties.

The National Institute for Agriculture Botany at Cambridge (UK) says that the current safety margins of 50 meters between the GM crops and the normal crops were not acceptable. Any normal crops being grown for seed or to be labelled organic would be rendered unfit for market because of the contamination, and the research evidence shows that the cross-pollination over large distance was possible. Researches have further revealed that up to 48 per cent of the wild turnip weed growing in the GM crops had swapped genes with its cultivated relative, making it resistant to weed killer (herbicides). Besides, seed splits at the time of harvest, the new GM plants grow in the next crops leading to further the danger of cross-pollination.

According to the Green Peace Pakistan laboratory studies, the North America’s grain belt in 1999 raised alarm when the caterpillars of monarch butterflies died after being forced-fed on leaves dusted with the pollen of maize, engineered to produce the Bt insecticide. The new studies are the first to show damaging ecological effects in and close to real corn field.

Diane Stanley-Horn of the University of Guelph, Ontario, found that the monarch caterpillars were damaged by typical levels of pollen falling on the leaves of milkweed plants, their favourite food, within corn field. They exhibited 60 per cent lower survival rate and 42 per cent less weight-gain compared to those exposed to leaves from outside the field.

In this respect it would be relevant to recall this writer’s apprehension of possible illegal entry of the Bt cotton seed from neighbouring India through smuggling and suggesting strict quarantine measures with the help of the Federal Plant Protection Department. But unfortunately during the Kharif 2002, cultivation of the Bt cotton was undertaken illegally over an area of about 70 acres in Khairpur and Sukkur districts, according to a private survey, and over thousands of acres in districts Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Sanghar and Nawabshah according to the Green Peace Pakistan (APRAC-Hyderabad).

Inspite of the fact that cultivation of the Bt cotton was illegal no government agencies responsible for monitoring the spread of illegal GM crops took appropriate and visible notice to this effect. Apathy of the concerned government agencies, particularly the National Biosafety Committee under the ministry of environment could be gauged from the fact that as per US Environmental Protection Agency, two seed companies have been fined about $10,000 each for mishandling the experimental biotech crop in Hawai, according to a report. The action came a week after the US Agriculture Department fined a Texas biotech company for allegedly contaminating soybeans with new corn plant engineered to produce medicine. The US consumer advocates, environmentalists and food group have urged the government to toughen its biotech regulation to ensure no unapproved crop seeps into the food supply.

The Pioneer Hi-Bred International and the Dow Agri Science are the first seed companies to be charged by the FPA for violating the regulations imposed to keep unapproved biotech crop from seeping into the nearby US farmland. What a pity? On the one hand the current safety margins of even 50 meters (165ft) between the GM crops and normal crops are not acceptable to the NIAB at Cambridge.