Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with the spice box

Cluedo

Cluedo is a detective board game where players have to correctly guess three things in order to win : who did the murder, in which room and with what murder weapon.

It could go something like this,

"I accuse Mrs.Peacock (suspect) of committing the crime in the Library (room) with the candlestick (weapon)!"

It was all very thrilling when I played this game as a kid. There'd always be a tussle over who gets to play which character in the game (names coincided with the colours of the playing pieces : Ms.Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Mrs.White, Reverend Green, Mrs.Peacock and Professor Plum. No one ever wanted to be Mrs.White).

With the current nod to approve GM mustard in our country, it would do good for game developers making the Indian edition to include the spice box as well, as one of the murder weapons.

Why the vehemence to change a classic game you ask?

If you aren't aware already, GM mustard is all set to enter our farming fields and supermarkets the way some of us were given a driver's licence and allowed on the road, without proper testing and an 'understanding' with the person in charge.

What is GM mustard and why all the fuss?

Before that,

What is mustard?

Apart from being one of the toppings we can ask for at a Subway restaurant, mustard is one of the most consistent ingredients in Indian cooking, second only to '2 tbsp oil'. Almost every Indian kitchen has a spice box with one of the cups having the mandatory mustard seeds filled in it.

So what is GM mustard?

GM mustard is a genetically modified variety of mustard, created by scientists of Delhi University with the good intention of increasing the yield of mustard cultivation. This should technically mean that farmers planting GM mustard should get a higher yield than if they planted the non-GM mustard.

Technically.

The GM mustard though comes with a ton of issues which even therapy cannot help.

GM mustard is engineered as a herbicide resistant crop. Herbicides are applied on fields to kill weeds (plants other than the main crop growing in the field) without killing the crop. So with a herbicide resistant crop, you can spray your fields till the sun comes down and your GM mustard crop will still be standing while everything else dies.

The problem with herbicides, along with pesticides and fertilizers, is that they are harmful. It's as simple as that. For those who defend these biocides, talking about their benefits and flashing one's agricultural credentials in everyone's face, I double dare them to swallow a handful of herbicide*. Too strong? How about we dilute it with some groundwater from the field it was sprayed on?

:)

Nobody would dream of doing such a thing, yet it's somehow acceptable to tell farmers to use these poisons to grow the food we eat.  Allowing GM mustard to enter the market would mean even more herbicides being used with reckless abandon.

Then there's the honey bees.

No thorough study has been done to check the effect the herbicide (Glufosinate) to be used with GM mustard is going to have on honey bees. Given the worldwide attention to the effects herbicides have on honey bees in reducing their numbers, our country finds itself completely fine approving a crop which comes with bottomless herbicide use.

The major honey produced in our country is mustard honey. Beekeeper associations and farmers from different States like Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan who produce mustard honey, are dead against GM mustard, fearing a reduction in bee numbers. Lower bee numbers also mean lower number of crops being pollinated and thus a fall in yield.

You'd think farmers themselves saying no to GM mustard would mean something. Their concerns however are brushed aside, explaining how and why most people in our country are clueless when it comes to consent.

The GM mustard has another dirty card up its sleeve and it's that it is made with seed-terminator technology. What this means is that mustard seeds can't be saved from the harvested crop because they are engineered to turn out sterile. Meaning you can't use those seeds to grow another batch of mustard.

This is to ensure that farmers are forced to keep buying seeds from the company that owns the patent to GM mustard, every season, every time they want to grow mustard. This is a slap in the face for traditional seed saving farmers who will be forced to buy seeds from these companies. Worse, farmers can end up getting criminalized for using seeds not directly bought from the GM mustard patent owner or registered seller.

The best part? The same company which sells the herbicide for GM mustard, holds the patent for the gene used in GM mustard which causes the plant to become herbicide resistant. Win-win for the big guy!

And here's a tiny detail most people forget to think about. Rural women are responsible for removing the weeds by hand in farms. In our own land, Mani and I were helped by Mani's aunt Tamilarasi from the village who makes a living weeding fields with other women. Most of these women are widows and in a society which dumps them, this is their only source of self-respecting income. Take this away from them and they are forced to migrate to the cities where the kind of jobs they get will have no relation to the work they know how to do. Seeing as they are 'women', they are usually landed with cleaner and aayah jobs.

The effects of decisions made by agricultural scientists, government agencies and companies, with the mindful ignorance of the public, affects the farming community and their livelihoods drastically.

I understand, it isn't something we're conditioned to think about, which is why it's really hard to find a personal connection to issues such as GM mustard and give a damn.

But give a damn we must. GM mustard and GM food affects us all as consumers and we have a right to know what we're paying for (farmer suicides and poisoned environments).

A letter has been sent to the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) detailing the facts which clearly show the harm in approving GM mustard. Please do read it and share it with others to get more people aware about the situation of GM mustard in India. You can read the letter and the resources which explain their stand in the IndiaGMInfo website.

You can also sign this petition to extend your support against GM mustard.

*Inspired by Nammalvar's interaction with a fellow scientist from a different country at a conference. Nammalvar had described, as is usual practice in Tamil, to pesticides and fertilizers as மருந்து (medicine). Surprised by him referring to them as medicine, she'd asked him in all seriousness if he'd care to take a handful of pesticides and consume them, since it was just 'medicine' after all. He'd then realized how by terming pesticides and fertilizers as மருந்து (medicine), people especially farmers, were lulled into not finding it the least bit dangerous to be dealing with these poisons. Nammalvar had understood then, to refer to pesticides and fertilizers instead as உயிர்க்கொல்லி (biocides).