21.09.2012 | permalink
Last month, Basudev Acharia, CPM Leader in Lok Sabha and chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, submitted a 500-page report to Parliament supporting an outright ban on field trials of genetically-modified food crops in India. [...] Where does the anti-technology argument lead to - will those opposing GM food crops propose next that modern irrigation be banned and tractors not be used because they are also not ”natural”? What has been equally disconcerting has been the near-total silence of the scientific community on Acharia's one-sided report that reads like a Communist propaganda document, not a reasoned analysis that offers balanced solutions to the incredibly important issues at stake. Though the final policy decisions shall be taken by the Union government, the Committee's output is an important influencer of public opinion on the issue. To that extent, it is very important that its arguments and recommendations should be dissected and analyzed.