GM Crops a 'Go' in China, a 'No' in India

A policy document reveals that China is planning to go forward with widespread planting of GM crops, according to SciDevNet. The country already widely grows Bt cotton (or cotton genetically engineered to produce a protein that is poisonous to certain insects), and plans are afoot for industrial-scale production of Bt rice and GM phytase maize, which is fed to poultry and pigs.

On the other hand, India has declined to plant its first GM vegetable seed, Bt eggplant, until scientists can say for sure it's safe and the public can feel confident about eating it. The government plans to set up an independent regulatory authority to conduct safety testing — which sounds like a model the U.S. could afford to emulate.

Millions of Indians live in poverty, yet they are not embracing genetically engineered crops as the magic bullet solution the industry promises. They're probably right, according to researcher Dominic Glover. Glover argues that GM technology is not at this point a "pro-poor" innovation. "For any farming technology to benefit poor and marginal farmers, their requirements, capacities, priorities and constraints must be incorporated into the technology's design and performance," he writes. "Before GM crops can help small-scale poor farmers, many other technical, agro-ecological, economic and institutional factors must also be in place." Even in the industrialized countries GM seeds are designed for, farmers can find themselves on a hamster wheel of increasing chemical inputs and increasing seed prices.

Photo: kevindooley via Flickr