When the going gets tough, the losers panic. And the desperation grows.
Well, this is the story of the duo — Dr Ron Herring (from Cornell) and Dr Shantu Shantaram — doing the rounds across the country on behalf of the GM industry. After the New Delhi panel discussion organised by the Institute of Economic Growth on Dec 3, the duo went to Ahmedabad and from there to Thiruvanthapuram in Kerala.
You have probably read about the New Delhi meet, and the FAQs that come up again and again, on this blog earlier. Just in case you missed it, here is the link: http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/2009/12/gm-denial-industry-cornell-university.html
My colleague Sreedevi Lakshmi Kutty was in Thiruvanthapuram early this week and did manage to attend for sometime the two-day conference where both Ron Herring and Shantu Shantaram were present. She sends me this report.
I was in Kerala on a vacation last week and during that time came across this workshop on “Modern biotechnology in Indian Agriculture” (on Dec 13-14). This was organised under the banner of AICBA Delhi and FBAE Bangalore. This was a pro-GM industry conference, where Monsanto also made a presentation.
Interestingly, when the GM industry organises a conference, no one (and that includes the scientists and the media) ever question the need for the other perspective to be heard so that a balanced view can be evolved. But when the civil society holds a conference on the relevance of GM foods/crops, the first question asked is that why is the industry not represented. Double standards, isn’t it?
Anyway, much of what transpired at the conference was pro-GM propaganda. Such was the extent of the bias that any difficult question from the audience invited the wrath of the speakers whose effort was to silence the questioner in a quelling and patronizing manner. Still I sat through the proceeding, and interestingly was a witness to the presentation by Dr Shantaram, who was full of vitriol and venom, and this happens only when you lack substance.
Dr Shantaram’s presentation was on “The desperate saga of anti-GM activism in India”. By the end of his talk, Dr Shantaram’s desperation was at its peak. Speaking before an audience which was predominantly comprising bio-tech students from various colleges in Kerala and college teachers from various science/biotech and related departments, he had no reasons to feel so panicky.
He began his tirade listing the various segments of society who are against GM crops (NGOs, INGOs, environmentalists, particularly urban environmentalists whom he called the “environmental taliban”, farmer groups, leftists, socialists, disgruntled scientists, journalists, mediocre science professors, literauteurs, film stars, religious heads and so on – he had a very sarcastic expression on his face when he listed these groups). It was quite amusing to know from Dr Shantaram that almost the entire society was opposed to GM technology.
He talked about “organikers — agriculture fundamentalists” with a lot of scorn, and said that throughout the world they were creating a lot of problems for the introduction of GM crops. In the US, because of the “organikers,” the government had stopped allowing GM content in labeled organic foods.
Dev Sharma Blogspot for more