New Delhi: The BJP, in its election manifesto, had said: “GM foods will not be allowed without full scientific evaluation on the long-term effects on soil, production and biological impact on consumers.”
The SJM-BKS delegation that met the enviroment minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said that the “food security of the nation is attached to this issue”.
An SJM statement said: “In India, as in many other parts of the world, a few multinational corporations, principally Monsanto, have a virtual monopoly on GM technology. If a country’s food production becomes overly dependent on seeds and other inputs from a handful of such companies, will it not compromise its food security?”
The minister was also told that “it is not advisable to allow GM crops without proper scientific evaluation about the probable long-term impact on human health and soil, as the technology, which involves introducing a ‘foreign’ gene, is dangerous because once introduced, it is irreversible”.
It was also pointed out that “environmental costs might outweigh any benefits that the introduction of such a technology brings”.
