India has this week deferred commercial cultivation of what would have been its first genetically modified (GM) food crop. Production of Bt aubergine has been put on hold while further research is done. India has grown transgenic cotton since 2002, and GM varieties now account for 80% of plantings, but aubergine would have been the first GM vegetable crop to be approved in the country.
Few topics in agriculture and food divide opinion - or arouse such debate in world trade - as much as that of genetically modified (GM) food. GM crops have been widely cultivated in the USA and now account for over 90% of soyabeans grown there, and some 85% of maize (up from 25% in 2000). A number of countries in South and Central America also grow GM crops. Europe has so far been more wary, but the UK's Chief Scientist, Professor John Beddington, gave growers and farmers at this year's Oxford Farming Conference a clear indication that Britain must embrace the technology, warning them that it is no longer possible to rely on improving crop yields through traditional methods.
"Techniques and technologies from many disciplines, ranging from biotechnology and engineering to newer fields such as nanotechnology, will be needed," he says.
GM proponents have long argued that the technology, rather than just being about increasing the profits of multinationals or allowing the use of particular agrochemicals, offers a way to produce healthier food (much GM research is now about increasing levels of nutrients or health-promoting compounds in crops), or engineer crops capable of growing in stressful conditions, and more resistant to pests and diseases. Thus, the news that India has deferred the commercial cultivation of what would have been its first GM vegetable crop is a blow to those who think that GM is a way to promote food security in Asia and Africa.