- Sanjna K.
The story of ‘GMOS’ starts in 1947 when India was left in a state of turmoil with a wave of famine. Mr. M.S. Swaminathan proposed green revolution that introduced modified plants possessing 'superior genes' which boosted the yield thus tackling the increase in demand. Later on, pest & drought resistant plants were introduced.
While this remains true that farmers have been benefitted, GMOs also pose various threats to the workers who are involved in processing of GMOs. This aspect of workers safety is rather not talked about. In Bt corn, the 'Bt' refers to Bacillus thuringenisis which produces a toxin which when ingested by the bollworms, kills them. While this is beneficial to the farmers in terms of reduction in usage of pesticides, it produces 'corn dust' and 'pro -delta-endotoxin' which are classified as allergens that affect the health of workers when exposed.
There is a possibility that we can protect these workers by decreasing the time of exposure & the amount of labor hours. Mechanizing the procedures & improving the gm crops in such a way that it has genes for higher processing efficiency reduces the manpower required. One such invention was tomatoes which possessed genes to improve processing traits with high levels of pectin and another kind possessed genes for controlled ripening and a longer shelf life, both will decrease the labor hours & the exposure.
Another case where workers become crucial is the segregation of the GMO seeds from non GMO seeds produced by cross pollination. To prevent this, pollination must be inhibited by making the pollen 'unviable'. calcium ions are required for pollen germination. If the gm crops are modified to possess minimal ca+2, then the probability of successful pollen germination gets minimized, reducing the amount of mix-up & manpower required.
I would like to conclude by saying, safety of workers involved in GMO production is important. That being a diabolical problem is not much talked about & enough awareness has to be created.
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