Monday, February 08, 2010

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.

12 comments:

Carmen said...

you are talking through your hat.
better go to the environment ministry website and other sites which give exhaustive information and get yourself acquainted with the issues first.

Balaji Chitra Ganesan said...

so u also have no case then? and can merely display liberal arrogance?

i have donated not less than 1000 bucks every month to Green peace for the past 4 years. but their stand on bt brinjal is a sham.

I run rightnews.in where I have a section on Green Conservatism.

and I'm a street level campaigner.

i find it disingenuous that someone posting anonymously and calling the other guy to read more, thinks he/she had made a point.

if you disagree with my stand, spell out why I'm wrong.

Carmen said...

the minister's report and other information which is freely available will tell you all that you need to know but havent bothered to find out.

ps i wouldnot be visiting this site sgain so dont bother to reply which will be on similar lines as the previous one.

r swami said...

interesting but ignorant viewpoint.

see
http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html

Balaji Chitra Ganesan said...

i can cite several links where biologists and physicians defend GM food. but considering you have linked to a rather questionable source (environmental medicine!), i don't think you'll be impressed.

China approved GM rice last week. Brazil, Argentina have mass cultivations of GM soybeans. GM food will soon be feeding billions of people.

sad that some people fall for scaremongering instead of analysis technologies on their merit.

dr. nandakumar said...

http://www.whale.to/b/gm_foods.html

dr. nandakumar said...

http://salem-news.com/articles/march012010/monsanto_as.php

http://ow.ly/1cZFf

dr. nandakumar said...

http://ow.ly/1cZFf

http://salem-news.com/articles/march012010/monsanto_as.php

Balaji Chitra Ganesan said...

well, you can read http://www.truthabouttrade.org/ which is again a farmer's group and supports GM crops.

and as your link proves 75% of processed food consumed in the US has Genetically modified ingredients. so the hue and cry raised by loony left about Indian being a test bed are all just a farce.

if people want to and can prove that GM food is injurious to health, then thats a very welcome contribution. i wud expect the govt to ban GM crops if they are proven to be a health hazard.

but as I mentioned in the post above, the opposition to Bt. Brinjal doesn't involve even an iota of evidence on health grounds. its sheer scare mongering coupled with socialist rhetoric.

dr.nandakumar said...

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article183353.ece

dr.n said...

TreeYourWorld: France blasts GM crop approvals by EU agency: Reuters: Europe's food safety agency has used partial evi... http://bit.ly/9aot1U #green #eco

Anonymous said...

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