Food for thought, Food for death.
Bhubaneswar: Mahesh
Bhatt adds a new dimension to the growing rage against GM food amongst
consumers all over the world. In the film, 'Poison on the Platter',
directed by Ajay Kanchan, Mahesh Bhatt puts across the message that
consumers in India deserve better than mere verbal assurances by a
handful of industry backed scientists and bureaucrats that GM food is
safe. He himself prefers to be on the side of science. One of the first
statements that the film states is that it is based on hard facts; upon
peer reviewed scientific studies.
What
could be worse than a nuclear attack, the huge tragedy of 9/11, floods,
cyclones and the world wars? Bhatt says the health hazards of
genetically modified would dwarf all such catastrophes. It is
bioterrorism, he emphasizes, and it has the potential to wipe out life
from the planet, in its entirety. After all, he argues, everyone needs
food and if that is poisoned, what could be more devastating?
Bhatt
is not alone in the film. Dr Pushpa Mittra Bhargava, Dr Shiv Chopra, Dr
Devinder Sharma, Jeffrey Smith, Kavitha Kuruganti, Aruna Rodrigues,
activists, farmers, students all join the chorus. Dr Pushpa Bhargava,
founder director Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology and
Supreme Court nominee to the GEAC, minces no words as he demands a
moratorium on all GM foods till there are irrefutable science based
impartial evidence to prove it is safe.
'The
Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is a rubber stamp and is
sold to the industry,' states Dr Devinder Sharma, food security
analyst, 'If there is a single clause inserted that says that the
Chairman of the GEAC should be imprisoned if GM foods cause health
damage, there would be no GM food in India.'
No
less a person than Sri Sri Ravishankar exhorts the biotech lobby to
refrain from promoting GM food till it is found scientifically safe.
Swami Ramdev is no less severe in criticism. The emerging voice of a
new era of health and well being clearly does not want to have anything
to do with such highly unnatural food.
Harm
from GM food is not a myth, says Bhatt as he portrays the havoc wrought
by the genetically modified food supplement L-Tryptophan on American
Citizen. Jeffrey Smith, author of the highly acclaimed book Genetic
Roulette, recounts it led to scores of deaths and thousands were taken
ill by the time the source of the problem was discovered.
Smith raises another very pertinent point, 'Are Indians GM free?' The
audience is horrified as he heads to a supermarket in India and points
out food packets containing imported corn and soya, imported from the
USA. More than 70% of these crops are genetically modified in the USA,
he points out. He also talks about Canola and food imported from other
countries where GM food has been allowed.
Bhatt succeeds in retaining the interest of the audience in this short
and yet hard hitting film. The visuals are magnificent, the editing
terse and the comments come from some very serious people who are
extremely worried about the emerging scenario around the vital issue of
food safety and sovereignty. If Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth opened
the eyes of the world to a catastrophe that has already been set in
motion, Mahesh Bhatt warns consumers about a disaster that can still be
averted.
film provides food for thought. It points to a grim future. It informs
that our daily need, food, can now lead to our death, a fact that the
common man interviewed in the film simply refuses to believe. It is
sad, laments Kavitha Kuruganti of Kheti Virasat Mission, that
regulatory authorities who are supposed to protect the citizen are
exposing them to the sordid motives of multinationals.
film evoked strong feelings amongst the audience. Sri Saroj Mohanty, a
farmer leader from Sambalpur, explained that the entire issue of
introducing genetically modified seeds is an effort by multinationals
to take the control of agriculture by ending the self reliance of
farmers. The process of deskilling and displacing farmers has been
started by the Green Revolution and the Gene Revolution seeks to
totally eliminate the role of the individual farmer and hand over
agriculture on a platter to corporates.
They started off with contract farming, the new agriculture policy,
and now in the name of increasing productivity, are introducing GM
seeds that will make the farmers totally dependant upon select
multinationals. Does this technology address the inherent problems of
agriculture? Does it seek to solve the problems created by the Green
Revolution that has destroyed the fertility of the soil and played
havoc with the ecology? Or is it simply about patenting seeds and
taking control over the entire food chain? asks Sri Mohanty.
D Narayan, organic farmer from Ganjam, detailed how moving forward to
sustainable and eco friendly methods was benefiting him. He narrated
that farmers are enchanted by the advances in organic farming and
are taking to it in large numbers. He expressed surprise that the
government is turning a blind eye to such positive developments and
instead promoting hazardous genetically modified crops like Bt Cotton
which has resulted in loss of soil fertility, decreased yield and,
contrary to claims that such crops would control pests, has resulted in
increased pest attacks.
narrated the plight of farmers who had been goaded into taking up the
illegal cultivation of Bt Cotton in the cotton growing districts of
Orissa. They hoped that after seeing the film the policy makers of the
state would think twice about playing with the lives and health of the
consumers and the livelihoods of the small and marginal farmers who are
the majority in the state of Orissa. They decried attempts to introduce
the first GM food crop, Bt Brinjal into the state paying scant regard
to biosafety and health concerns.
should watch this film if you value the safety of your food, your
health and your life. You cannot afford to ignore the clear and present
danger Mahesh Bhatt warns about in this film.
Do not miss it. Do not let the poison get into your platter.
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