Food for thought, Food for death

Dt: 26.03.09

Bhubaneswar: Mahesh Bhatt adds a new dimension to the growing rage against GM food amongst consumers all over the world. In the film, “Poison on the Platter”, directed by Ajay Kanchan, Mahesh Bhatt puts across the message that consumers in India deserve better than mere verbal assurances by a handful of industry backed scientists and bureaucrats that GM food is safe. He himself prefers to be on the side of science.

One of the first statements that the film states is that it is based on hard facts, upon peer reviewed scientific studies.

What could be worse than a nuclear attack, the huge tragedy of 9/11, floods, cyclones and the world wars? Bhatt says the health hazards of genetically modified would dwarf all such catastrophes. It is bioterrorism, he emphasizes, and it has the potential to wipe out life from the planet, in its entirety. After all, he argues, everyone needs food and if that is poisoned, what could be more devastating?

Bhatt is not alone in the film. Dr Pushpa Mittra Bhargava, Dr Shiv Chopra, Dr Devinder Sharma, Jeffrey Smith, Kavitha Kuruganti, Aruna Rodrigues, activists, farmers, students all join the chorus. Dr Pushpa Bhargava, founder director Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology and Supreme Court nominee to the GEAC, minces no words as he demands a moratorium on all GM foods till there are irrefutable science based impartial evidence to prove it is safe.

“The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is a rubber stamp and is sold to the industry,” states Dr Devinder Sharma, food security analyst, “If there is a single clause inserted that says that the Chairman of the GEAC should be imprisoned if GM foods cause health damage, there would be no GM food in India.”

No less a person than Sri Sri Ravishankar exhorts the biotech lobby to refrain from promoting GM food till it is found scientifically safe. Swami Ramdev is no less severe in criticism. The emerging voice of a new era of health and well being clearly does not want to have anything to do with such highly unnatural food.

Harm from GM food is not a myth, says Bhatt as he portrays the havoc wrought by the genetically modified food supplement L-Tryptophan on American Citizen. Jeffrey Smith, author of the highly acclaimed book Genetic Roulette, recounts it led to scores of deaths and thousands were taken ill by the time the source of the problem was discovered.

Mr Smith raises another very pertinent point, “Are Indians GM free?” The audience is horrified as he heads to a supermarket in India and points out food packets containing imported corn and soya, imported from the USA. More than 70% of these crops are genetically modified in the USA, he points out. He also talks about Canola and food imported from other countries where GM food has been allowed.

Mahesh Bhatt succeeds in retaining the interest of the audience in this short and yet hard hitting film. The visuals are magnificent, the editing terse and the comments come from some very serious people who are extremely worried about the emerging scenario around the vital issue of food safety and sovereignty. If Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth opened the eyes of the world to a catastrophe that has already been set in motion, Mahesh Bhatt warns consumers about a disaster that can still be averted.

The film provides food for thought. It points to a grim future. It informs that our daily need, food, can now lead to our death, a fact that the common man interviewed in the film simply refuses to believe. It is sad, laments Kavitha Kuruganti of Kheti Virasat Mission, that regulatory authorities who are supposed to protect the citizen are exposing them to the sordid motives of multinationals.

The film evoked strong feelings amongst the audience. Sri Saroj Mohanty, a farmer leader from Sambalpur, explained that the entire issue of introducing genetically modified seeds is an effort by multinationals to take the control of agriculture by ending the self reliance of farmers. The process of deskilling and displacing farmers has been started by the Green Revolution and the Gene Revolution seeks to totally eliminate the role of the individual farmer and hand over agriculture on a platter to corporates. They started off with contract farming, the new agriculture policy, and now in the name of increasing productivity, are introducing GM seeds that will make the farmers totally dependant upon select multinationals. Does this technology address the inherent problems of agriculture? Does it seek to solve the problems created by the Green Revolution that has destroyed the fertility of the soil and played havoc with the ecology? Or is it simply about patenting seeds and taking control over the entire food chain? asks Sri Mohanty.

Sri Simanchal Nahak and Sri D Narayan, organic farmers from Ganjam, detailed how moving forward to sustainable and eco friendly methods was benefiting them. They narrated that farmers are enchanted by the advances in organic farming and are taking to it in large numbers. They expressed surprise that the government is turning a blind eye to such positive developments and instead promoting controversial genetically modified crops like Bt Cotton which has resulted in loss of soil fertility, decreased yield and, contrary to claims that such crops would control pests, has resulted in increased pest attacks.

Activists narrated the plight of farmers who had been goaded into taking up the illegal cultivation of Bt Cotton in the cotton growing districts of Orissa. They hoped that after seeing the film the policy makers of the state would think twice about playing with the lives and health of the consumers and the livelihoods of the small and marginal farmers who are the majority in the state of Orissa. They decried attempts to introduce the first GM food crop, Bt Brinjal into the state paying scant regard to biosafety and health concerns.

The film launch has been jointly organised by UNCAGE, Orissa, Coalition for a GM Free India and Hamara Beej Abhiyan.

You should watch this film if you value the safety of your food, your health and your life. You cannot afford to ignore the clear and present danger Mahesh Bhatt warns about in this film.

Do not miss it. Do not let the poison get into your platter.

Yours faithfully,
UNCAGE