The Case against loony liberal hijacking of Bt Brinjal

The following is a comment I wrote in what looks like a left liberal blog. The author had provoked me on twitter. I'm disappointed that the loony liberal fringe has hijacked an issue of life and death to the farmers, and is using it to further the failed ideals of socialism.

I see your interest in the subject is political rather than health or environment. your rant against the likes of walmart while discussing bt. brinjal, exposes your prejudices. not a good start.

do you have any objections to bt. brinjal on health grounds? i see you have mentioned none.

ethical reasons are not health reasons. the govts job is foremost to ensure that bt. brinjal doesn't harm people's health. labeling is not a health requirement. if the govt is not convinced of the safety of bt. brinjal, no labeling wud do. if its not safe on health grounds, it cannot be approved.

labeling is merely to offer a choice to people who oppose GM crops for political, ethical or environmental reasons. its like labels saying vegetarian or halal cut.

****

>> Once Bt Brinjal comes in, it will be quickly followed by corn, Jowar (Sorghum), rice, Okra and others.

so you have no case against brinjal? and are merely creating controversies to feed future political agendas?

>> Going by what the experts say, GM foods are not the only option at all to alleviate our food needs. In fact, the world can well do without them.

forget the world. european farmers aren't committing suicide by drinking pesticides. is your ideology more important than the lives of farmers? in anycase, major agricultural countries like US, Brazil, China are allowing GM crops as required.

>> If the Government was really serious about providing food why have they still not taken any major steps to aggressively push totally non-controversial

this is typical socialist rant. govt cannot solve all our problems. private sector, in this case Mahyco Seed has come up with a solution. that solution shud be analyzed on its merit, not based on some wacko political ideology.

>> And, does it mean that without GM foods, hunger and death are an inevitability for our people?

oh, blime. show me the great alternative scientific solution that you have hidden beneath your pillow. i assure you of all help to take that technology to the farm fields [after it passes health tests].

>> IF GM technology did not exist or if it was already proved to be harmful, what would the Government have done? Worse, if later on it is conclusively found that the GM foods are not desirable, what would we do?

1. GM technology exists.
2. it has not already been proven harmful.
3. if its not desirable (desirable from which perspective?) on health grounds, we'll ban it. your inability to prove something shud not stand in the way of offering a meaningful solution to the farmers.

i don't know how old your are. but I'm certain, ppl wud have protested against Norman Borlaug, Swaminathan et al when the golden wheat and IR rice varieties were introduced in the 60s. your ilk was was proved wrong then.

and I hope more farmers (who escaped suicide) and better nutritioned children wud live to tell the current tale.