Comment on "The False Fear of GM Foods"

I have a comment (critical) on one of the opinion post of Livemint.com. I recommend the reader, please go thought the post on livemint before going ahead with reading my comment on it. Click here for the link on livemint.

The concern of the green brigade is about the potentially irreversible and disastrous effects of the inadequate scientific experiments. ‘We should encourage the scientific experiments, but we should be very cautious in commercially exploiting them’ which is the lesson, we got to learn from the recent experience of ‘Mad-cow disease’ in Europe. I totally agree with the authors cost calculations, but I would like to remind the author with the Andhra farmers experience with BT-Cotton (Their cost of production has not come down significantly due to the increasing effect of the secondary pest.).

As a student of Economics, I do understand that the solution for the high food prices (caused by supply side factors) obviously lies in the reduction of cost of production and increase in output. I also like to remind the author that the high food prices (current issue) resulted from the delayed monsoons and increased emphasis of the farmers on commercial crops. Again I do agree with the author’s intention to encourage the technological progress, but one should not adapt the solution that may potentially cause some other problems which are seemed to be irreversible.

Given the well accepted corrupt practices of the Indian Bureaucracy, I strongly disagree with the author’s claim on the approval of Ministry of Environment on BT-Brinjal. Approval from any ministry of GOI, doesn’t require scientific proof, but the financial clout, which is being effectively used by the vested interests for their commercial benefits. Given the above mentioned facts, I strongly demand for the independent and adequate experiments before commercially exploiting the Genetically Modified products.

I encourage comments on my take on the post.