GM mustard is ‘safe and effective’, says its inventor

India’s biotech regulator, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, approved genetically modified mustard developed by Pental and his team at Delhi University for commercial cultivation

Deepak Pental, 71, the man behind genetically modified (GM) mustard, India’s first transgenic food crop to be granted approval, said on Wednesday that the technology behind GM mustard was “safe and effective”.

Deepak Pental said that the genes used in GM mustard have been deregulated in countries such as Canada, US and Australia, which are all big producers of honey. (HT Photo)

India’s biotech regulator, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), approved genetically modified (GM) mustard developed by Pental and his team at Delhi University for commercial cultivation in a decision on October 18, it was revealed on Wednesday.

Sounding robust, despite running a fever, Pental told HT in an interview: “There is need to cut through the haze (on transgenic technologies) and take a tough stand. You can either take a hard decision or kill something by taking no action.”

The professor and biotechnologist called the approval a “big leap for the country” in view of India’s dependence on costly edible oil imports of up to 60% of domestic demand.

The Ukraine war and global supply-chain disruptions pushed edible oil prices to a decade’s high earlier this year.

Genetic-technology backers have hailed GM mustard as proof of home-grown scientific prowess. However, activists opposing transgenic technologies alleged that GM mustard was cleared by overlooking “big concerns over environmental safety”. A concern is that little is known about how it may impact honey bees, said the Coalition for a GM-Free India, a body of anti-GM outfits.

“The genes used in GM mustard have been deregulated in countries such as Canada, US and Australia, which are all big producers of honey. No study anywhere has shown any adverse impact of GM crops on pollinators,” Pental said.

Bees are life-sustaining pollinators. There are concerns that GM crops can impact bees in many ways. One of them is by changing their eating and foraging patterns. GM technologies that give crops the ability to resist and kill pests can potentially do the same to bees, anti-GM advocates say.

“There is concern that genetically modified plants might induce adverse effects on pollinators either directly or indirectly via reduced food availability,” states a 2021 paper “Biosafety of bee pollinators in genetically modified agro-ecosystems: Current approach and further development in the EU” by researchers at Italy’s ENEA Research Centre of Trisaia.

The biotech regulator has ordered field studies on impact on bees from GM mustard but only during commercial cultivation of GM mustard over the course next two years.