UTUQAQ- Ice that Lasts Year after Year

Suman Sahai

There is a 2020  film out of Greenland called Utuqaq which translates to ‘ice that lasts year after year’, in other words permanent ice. Made by Iva Radivojevic, the film is about the Arctic ice which is now melting because of global warming. And as the ice melts, nations are scrambling to corner the ‘real estate’ that is getting uncovered as hundreds of meters thick  ice melts away thanks to the destruction that we have wrought upon this planet. The vanquished Arctic is being turned into a commercial hub and greedy prospectors are already scrounging for minerals and resources to fill the never ending demands of the voracious consumer.

As all this happens, scientists go about their business, drilling meters deep for ice samples to study what happened on Earth thousands, maybe millions of years ago, for as the sutradhar of the film says, the ice has a long memory and in it are locked the secrets of what the air contained a million years ago.

But there is so much more that this Utuqaq ice contains. It carries embedded live in its many layers, a chronicle of what the earth was like thousands and millions of years ago. Which animals roamed the land which birds flew in its skies and which worms and insects went about their business in these parts. It has the record of which plants flourished in these regions and yes…it also has  locked in its sheets of permafrost, the previously known and as yet unknown bugs that inhabited the ecosystems of the then Earth. Frozen in Utuqaq are also the bacteria and viruses that this generation of Homo sapiens has perhaps never encountered.

The world was turned on its head by the pandemic unleashed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, better known as the Corona virus. We are still not free of the Corona virus and if experts are to be believed, that serendipitous state is unlikely to return. Waiting in the wings are the bugs that were scrubbed out years ago, like smallpox and the as yet encountered viruses and bacteria, that will emerge from the destruction of once pristine ecosystems.

As global temperatures continued to rise, scientists predicted that with the thawing of the permafrost, ancient infectious agents trapped in the ice for millennia, could be released. Humans would encounter these new agents , bacteria, viruses, even others for the first time and thus have no immunity against them. Already, such events are being reported.

 

In a remote area of Siberia not so long ago, when the permafrost thawed, it released the frozen spores of the Anthrax bacterium into nearby water and soil and then into the food supply. This resulted in the death of thousands of reindeer and of one boy. Hundreds were hospitalized. Russian scientists studying the permafrost had predicted in 2011 when the situation with global warming began to look dire, that with permafrost melting, “the vectors of deadly infections of the 18th and 19th centuries may come back, especially near the cemeteries where the victims of these infections were buried.”

 

In 2014 and 2015 scientists discovered two still infectious viruses from a chunk of 30,000-year-old Siberian permafrost. Although these viruses only infected amoeba, they are a harbinger of what could await us. Remember that the Corona virus first infected only bats and then somehow found its way to humans. Such discoveries are indications that other viruses like the smallpox virus, now eradicated due to extensive vaccinations, could emerge once again from thawing permafrost, as can the virus causing the Spanish flu, the earlier pandemic that took some 50 million lives worldwide.

 

There is in addition, informed speculation that human viruses from very early times are likely to be captured in the sheets of the Utuqaq ice. It is possible that disease causing agents, microorganisms like bacteria and virus , fungi and protozoa that coexisted with the early human populations that populated the Arctic are frozen in its soil and ice. As the Arctic ice melts and the land is exposed, these infectious agents would come into contact with humans. There are several indications that ancient humans like Neanderthals and Denisovans were plagued by bacterial and viral diseases like smallpox. There were other disease causing bugs which might have disappeared but remain frozen in the ancient soil. As temperatures rise -these bugs could come to active life and multiply, creating a dangerous source of diseases for  the current human population. This here is just one more reminder that pathogens never really go away, they just lurk around the corner waiting for a favourable situation to emerge so that they can jump back in. As the climate turbulence hurtles on, creating un-programmed and unpredictable situations, we can worry about potentially catastrophic scenarios unfolding.

Dr Suman Sahai is a scientist trained in genetics and chairperson of the Gene Campaign

Source: The Citizen, 16 January 2023

SOME CRITICAL QUESTIONS ON GM MUSTARD

SUMAN SAHAI

GM mustard is at the center of an animated discussion with the participation of a broad cross section of people including scientists and medical professionals. The reason is probably because GM mustard, unlike Bt cotton, is a food crop so it has provoked concerns and questions. This is a good sign because these new and transformative technologies must be subjected to rigorous debate and scrutiny before adoption.

So what is this GM mustard, and why is even the scientific community concerned about its relevance and safety? Technically known as DMH 11 or Dhara Mustard Hybrid 11, this is a genetically engineered crop which has used a special scientific process using the Bar-Barnase-Barstar gene system to create a hybrid mustard plant. The Bar gene confers the Herbicide Tolerant (HT) trait which makes the GM mustard  a herbicide tolerant (HT) crop.

DMH 11 is projected by its developers to be higher yielding than existing mustard varieties. This claim is challenged by mustard scientists who point out that varieties with higher yield are already in the market. Available data shows that the NON GM hybrids NDDB-DMH 1, NDDB DMH 3 and NDDB DMH 4 for instance have higher yields than the GM DMH 11.

Because of the fear that GM mustard could damage honeybees and hence honey production, the government body GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) had directed the developers of GM mustard to conduct tests on its impact on honeybees, other insect pollinators and soil microbial diversity.

But this direction was flouted in a shocking violation of government rules and permission was granted for the environmental release of GM mustard. This is not the way that risky new technologies should be adopted : by cutting corners and violating biosafety recommendations.

Even more worrying in my view is that fact that the GM mustard is a Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crop. The HT technology is designed to control weeds by spraying chemicals that kill plants. An HT crop is one in which a gene has been engineered to protect it from the herbicide. So a field of HT mustard can be sprayed with a herbicide which will kill all the surrounding biodiversity but not the HT mustard crop.

Using chemicals to control weeds in the large farms and labor deficit conditions of industrial countries may work but does this work for Indian farming ? Let’s see why not. Firstly, weeding is an income source in rural areas, especially for women. The HT trait is essentially a labour saving and hence a labour displacing trait which will deprive agriculture labour of income.

Weeds are considered a nuisance in the monoculture agricultural systems of industrial nations. Not so in India and other developing countries , many so called “weeds’’ are useful plants. Plants collected during weeding provide nutritious leafy greens, saag like bathua and chaulai for the farm family. So weeds provide food and nutrition at no cost. This access to free nutrition is one of the reasons why nutritional status is somewhat better among the rural poor than among the urban poor.

The plants collected during weeding that are not consumed by the family, serve as fodder for the livestock that rural families keep as additional food and income sources. India is a fodder deficit country and increasing fodder availability is one of the key concerns of the agricultural research system. Using HT crops like GM mustard and the accompanying herbicides will destroy the fodder plants that are available for free. This makes no sense at all.

In addition to the food and fodder that they provide, so called weeds are also the medicinal plants that rural families depend on for health and veterinary care. The introduction of HT crops would kill the surrounding vegetation and deprive rural communities of the medicinal plants which form the basis of indigenous healing traditions. It is well known that about 80% of rural communities across the world are dependent on medicinal plants and indigenous systems of medicine.  Destroying the vegetation around crop fields would deprive village communities of crucial health care opportunities especially when the formal system does not adequately address their health and veterinary care requirements.

Apart from this, using herbicide tolerant crops would make it impossible to do intercropping and mixed farming which is done to provide additional food and increased farm incomes. Traditionally farmers usually plant more than one crop in the field. Sugar cane for instance is interspersed with lentils or mustard and it is not uncommon to find farmers planting mustard along with wheat, to be harvested one after the other or linseed together with lentils. Mixed cropping is widely practiced, with differing combinations of crops depending on the region. Often farmers will grow crops like yams, ginger or vegetables on the bunds surrounding rice fields. Thus two or three kinds of produce are available from the field in the same season. This advantage would be lost if the package of herbicide tolerant crop varieties and herbicide use would be implemented.

Clearly, the adoption of HT technology in Indian agriculture is detrimental to our interests. The Technical Expert Committee appointed by the Supreme Court to provide expert advice on the matter of GM crops had in fact recommended a ban on the adoption of Herbicide Tolerant technology. The government must take heed.

 

Dr Suman Sahai is a scientist trained in genetics and chairperson of the Gene Campaign

 

Source: Times of India, 4 January, 2023

PROBLEMS WITH GM MUSTARD

 Suman Sahai

There is a furore over the approval granted to India’s first food crop, GM mustard (Brassica juncea). Activists, consumers, farmers and scientists have risen in protest against the government’s approval for the environmental release of a  genetically engineered crop despite outstanding concerns.

The GM Mustard hybrid DMH 11 has been projected as a high yielding variety that will increase the production of edible oil in the country and reduce our import bill. But this claim does not appear to be substantiated by official data. Scientists of the government’s Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research (DRMR) have said that there are mustard varieties in existence already that show substantially higher yield than the GM hybrid.

India is self-sufficient in mustard oil, meeting its requirement through domestic production, not imports. According to the data on import of edible oils, 2020- 2021, the maximum  import of edible oils is that of palm oil (7491 MT), soybean (2866 MT ) and sunflower (1894 MT) oil, followed by palmolein (686 MT ) and CPKO ( Crude Palm Kernel Oil (143 MT ). 

Edible oil preferences are region specific. Mustard oil is consumed largely in northern and eastern India. India produces enough to meet this need. Any surplus mustard oil would not fill the deficit, say in coconut oil in south India or groundnut oil in western India. So the argument of needing GM mustard to increase production of mustard oil through this GMO is hard to see.

What is of great concern though are violations in the regulatory process and exceptions made leading up to the approval for environmental release of GM mustard. Dr Pental developer of GM Mustard at the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) applied to the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) in September 2015 for approval of environmental release of the GM  hybrid DMH 11. After evaluating the data and the many comments received from different stakeholders, GEAC, gave directions to the CGMCP to conduct further studies to assess the impact of GM mustard on honey bees and other pollinators as well as on soil health.

Thereafter follow strange and highly objectionable developments, Dr Pental wrote to the GEAC on 10 May, 2022 asking for approval of GM Mustard without conducting the tests directed by the GEAC. The GEAC referred this request to the Department of Biotechnology and Department of Agriculture Research & Education, both of who recommended that the developer may be exempted from conducting any of the required tests. Strangely, the GEAC went along with this breach in the regulatory process and gave approval to GM mustard.

So in a shocking violation of its own Rules and Guidelines, the central government granted approval for the environmental release of GM Mustard on 25 October, 2022. The required tests are now apparently to be conducted post environmental release of GM Mustard. This is a farce. The point of assessing such socio economic impacts of a GMO before granting approval is to catch any harmful impacts in time.

Another problematic aspect of the GM mustard is the fact that it is essentially a Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crop. This fact has been pushed under the carpet highlighting instead a supposed yield advantage. The government’s defence is strange, saying that  since this HT GM Mustard is not labelled as an HT crop for commercial release, it cannot be called an HT crop even if it carries the HT trait ! But the government has taken cognizance of the HT trait by proscribing herbicide use and threatening to penalize farmers if they do use herbicides with the HT GM Mustard.! All this makes very curious reading.

Gene Campaign’s PIL of 2004 on GMOs followed by another by Rodriguez in 2005 led to the Supreme Court to appoint a Technical Expert Committee (TEC)  to provide recommendations in the matter of GM crops. The government has stated that all the recommendations of the TEC have been followed. This is clearly not the case as we see in the case of GM Mustard which carries the HT trait.

On HT technology, the TEC recommends “In view of the concerns bearing on health, environmental, and socioeconomic considerations, a moratorium on field trials of herbicide tolerant (HT) crops…. until an independent committee comprising experts and stakeholders has examined and assessed the potential impact of HT- technology and its suitability in the Indian context.”

Once GM Mustard is released into the environment and its impacts are felt, it will be too late to do anything or recall/reverse the damage. And it is almost certain that the Herbicide Tolerant (HT) trait will be passed on via pollinators to Non-GM Mustard thereby contaminating the gene pool of Brassica juncea, the special Indian Mustard.

The HT trait is highly undesirable for Indian agriculture as we see. Herbicide use destroys all the vegetation in and around the field where the HT crop is cultivated. It therefore destroys the biodiversity that is used by the rural community in many ways.

In India, this biodiversity is not considered useless, as it is in the west. These so called "weeds" provide leafy green vegetables and many kinds of saag like chaulai and bathua that provide valuable nutrition to poor rural families; they also provide green fodder for livestock kept by rural households. Such "weeds" are also the medicinal plants that traditional healers use in the treatment of human and animal diseases.

HT crops are clearly not in India’s interest. But what is truly alarming is the violations of Rules and this slipshod method of approving GM crops

 

*Dr Suman Sahai is a scientist trained in Genetics

Source: Asian Age, https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/201122/suman-sahai-slipshod-way-of-approvals-for-gm-crops-very-alarming.html