GMO Rice from India Withdrawn in EU

In News

• Recently, candy giant Mars Wrigley carried out a mass recall of several batches of its Crispy M&Ms across Europe.
  • It was due to the use of Genetically Modified rice flour that allegedly originated in India, according to the European Commission’s rapid alert system.

India’s Response

• The Commerce Ministry pointed out that GM rice is not grown commercially in India, let alone export.
  • India also promised a thorough enquiry by its agricultural exports authority.
  • The Ministry alleged that the case was a “futile conspiracy to malign the image of India as a reliable food security provider”.
  • India suspected that the GM ingredient may have been added in Europe to cut costs, not in India where commercial GM cultivation is banned.
    • The reason behind such suspicion is the quantity involved is too big.
    • Such high quantities can not come from the leaked output from controlled trial cultivation.

GM Food

• GM Food is food with modified genes for certain traits.
  • Their properties are altered in order 
    • To enhance their pest resistance like in BT Cotton, DMH-11 Mustard.
    • To enhance nutritional values like Golden Rice.
• Commercially in India, only BT Cotton can be grown.
  • Worried farmers groups and environmental activists, however, noted that multiple GM rice varieties have been approved for confined field trials.
  • They have warned that any cross-contamination could dampen the country’s agricultural export ambitions.
• The approval and regulation for GM crops in India is done by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC).
• In August 2020, FSSAI had also issued the order that 24 food crops the country imports would need a ‘non-GM-origin-cum-GM-free certificate’.

Indian Export of Rice

• India’s annual rice exports amount to 18 million tonnes worth ?65,000 crores and reach more than 75 countries.
• According to the European Commission’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, 500 tonnes of broken rice was imported from India.
  • It was converted into rice flour by a French company named Westhove and was flagged during a regular check.
• On June 21, France issued a notification for unauthorised genetically modified rice flour, identifying India as the point of origin.
  • It also alerted Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States as the possible destination of products made with flour.
• Since 2007, India’s rice trade has increased from just ?7,000 crores to more than ?63,000 crores. 
  • At the end of the day, it is Indian farmers and exporters who have much to lose.

Farmers’ Groups Apprehensions and Steps

• Farmers groups have highlighted the issue of cross-contamination from field trials.
• The issue with GM field trials is that once they take place, they can contaminate crops long after the actual trials either directly or through seed leakages.
  • E.g. 2006 case, where a Bayer food trial contaminated rice and seeds in the U.S., leading to a plunge in exports from that country.
• Back in 2007, there was widespread concern about GM rice trials and the possibility of cross-contamination.
  • The All India Rice Exporters Association took up the issue with the Department of Biotechnology and the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee. 
  • A policy decision was taken that field trials would not be allowed in the basmati belt, because of worries that the export crop could be affected.
• Further, the farmer groups have highlighted the issue of unauthorised HtBt Cotton and Bt Brinjal being grown commercially.
  • Taking no action against such brazen violations creates the image of a country that is not serious about health or its food supply chain.
  • It is not good for exports.
• Hence they are demanding
  •  a ban on field trials, 
  • slapping liability for illegal release of GMOs into the environment on developers, and 
  • a probe to identify the source of the GM rice contamination among other steps to deal with the problem.

Conclusion and Way Ahead

• India must pay heed to farmers’ apprehensions and ensure the quality check on food items exported.
• GEAC, FSSAI and APEDA, etc must train all the stakeholders to ensure that GM crops can not even accidentally creep into the food chain.

Source: TH, DTE