OPINIONS, VIEWS, SCIENCE AND DETECTIVE STORIES! GM FOODS SAFETY

When does one change one's view after years of taking a definitive stand on an issue? Either after becoming a turn coat due to considerations other than merit or getting convinced genuinely that the stand taken was wrong based on new information generated. GM foods, by any stretch of imagination, cannot be considered a closed issue because there are turn coats galore in this materialistic world who are ready to "confess" about their guilt in "opposing" these versions of food products made by genetic manipulation. It does not matter how many such turn coats appear on the scene confessing their mistake in opposing these foods, the truth can never be suppressed. The argument that not even a single person has died so far eating a GM food is irrational and illogical just like saying that no single death has been reported of death any where in the world due to obesity! Logically world need not bother about obesity if such arguments are accepted! It is dangerous to allow such specious arguments to cloud the issue and gloss over it. Here is a typical "view" now being aired by pro-GM lobby players to "convince" the world that GM food is absolutely safe!

In the speech, a founder of the anti-GM food movement issued his personal apology to the planet for the harm done to world food production. Oh, and he also said GM food is without risk to food safety. The money quote: "I don't know about you, but I've had enough. So my conclusion here today is very clear: the GM debate is over. It is finished. We no longer need to discuss whether or not it is safe – over a decade and a half with three trillion GM meals eaten there has never been a single substantiated case of harm." And: "You are more likely to get hit by an asteroid than to get hurt by GM food. More to the point, people have died from choosing organic, but no-one has died from eating GM." Lynas used "unflinching language and tone" in the remarks, according to Bloomberg News, which is where I first learned of this speech. It was downloaded 125,000 times in the three days after it became available. My take is Lynas demonstrated impressive knowledge of science and current GM events around the world. "We are coming to a crunch point, and for the sake of both people and the planet, now is the time for you (the anti-GM lobby) to get out of the way and let the rest of us get on with feeding the world sustainably." And don't think he's gone corporate. Lynas documents how opponents have raised the cost of bringing any GM crop to market that only big corporations can do it. "It now costs tens of millions to get a crop through the regulatory systems in different countries. In fact the latest figures I've just seen from CropLife suggest it costs $139 million to move from discovering a new crop trait to full commercialization, so open-source or public sector biotech really does not stand a chance, " he said. "There is a depressing irony here that the anti-biotech campaigners complain about GM crops only being marketed by big corporations when this is a situation they have done more than anyone to help bring about. As for food safety risks, he says the public has been fooled into misconstruing reality. Germany's deadly 2011 E. coli outbreak was equal to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with 53 deaths and 3,500 victims of kidney failure and the source was organic beansprouts. Lynas says the people who chose organic to avoid "trivial risk" from pesticides or fertilizers are the one who ended up making fatal decisions. The author has a few good things to say about organic, but wants people to understand it freezes agricultural practices at about 1950, just as the Amish practices stop at about 100 years earlier. His message is we cannot afford to stop there or not use technology to feed a world population of more than 9 billion by 2050. Totally disconnecting food safety from the GM food issue is not going to be easy. Many GM stories you see in the news these days are about obscure patent issues or the intricacies of federal processes. I've chased these myself only to find there was never going to be any "Perry Mason" moment about food safety. However, food safety studies are going to go on forever. One of my colleagues pointed out that a recent Nova Scotia study has found Monsanto's GM cucumbers cause the added problem (or maybe benefit) of causing "total groin hair loss and chafing in sensitive areas."  (Okay, that was Canadian satire.) What it does mean, I think, is that we are going to raise the bar for what makes a GM food story a food safety story. It is the only way we can make sure we are expending time and resources on the right food safety targets. And as I think about it, maybe we need to go back and look at all those illnesses and deaths caused by organic practices and look at whether the public is properly weighing risks".

It is a foregone conclusion that human survival depends very much on increased food production through safe and efficient technology and agricultural scientists will have to evolve such technologies sooner than later to keep up production in tune with growing population. But to argue that GMO route is the only one to achieve production increase cannot be accepted as of now unless there is unanimity about its safety on long term consumption. The specious argument that no death has been reported due to consumption of GM foods cannot be a credible proof for universal acceptance of these artificially fabricated food materials. To continue this logic why is that tobacco was banned when not even a single death was reported due to only cigarette smoking? Why is alcohol consumption discouraged when no single death was directly attributed to drinking of alcoholic products? Why is there restriction on caffeine consumption when millions drink coffee and cola beverages and no one has proved that caffeine has killed any one in the history of mankind? If there are millions of clues and indicators regarding the possible risk of consuming GM foods on the long term which may not be directly due to GM foods but due to collateral damages, can these foods be really acceptable? All countries cannot emulate the US and if this country wants its population to be under the ever dangling sword in the form of threat of impending calamity from GM food consumption one day or the other it is their business. Future history will prove how responsible those countries not allowing unrestricted use of GMO foods are in protecting the health of their valuable citizens!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"DESI" FARMERS FLOURISHING IN "VIDESHI" LANDS!- A PARADOX!

A perennial question that has been begging for an answer in independent India is whether the country will ever be self-sufficient vis-a-vis the basic foods like cereals, pulses and edible oils? When the much hyped Green Revolution was at its pinnacle, many citizens in this country entertained hope that self-sufficiency was achievable one day or the other. But with each passing day the pessimistic population is increasing and for a valid reason. The agricultural policy of the country, if there is one, is a sham with neither the NPC nor the GOI having any clue regarding the direction the country is moving. Year after year the gap between demand and supply is widening at an alarming rate when it comes to pulses and edible oils. As for the cereals, though adequate production is being achieved to meet the statistical average per capita need, due to economic compulsions many poor families have limited or no access to them at affordable price. The global demand for food grains may provide an outlet to the surplus production of many farmers through export but the restrictive and unpredictable export policy of GOI is a dampener to such efforts. Naturally the suppressed entrepreneurial energy of aspirational Indian farmers can find expression only in a foreign land with free environment and minimum hassles by way of government interference. Here is the story of the farmers from Punjab region who are making it big in countries like Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Georgia and other erstwhile states of former Soviet Union, cocking a snook at the GOI leaving it red faced! 

Singh, 38, is one of a new wave of farmers pioneering one of the world's more unlikely migrations. During a recent spell as a cook in Dusseldorf, Germany, he heard about thousands of acres of fertile land on former collective farms lying fallow in Georgia for want of manpower. The contrast with his native Punjab, with its surging population and high land prices, was striking. So two months ago, he and three friends flew from Amritsar to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, to seal a deal for the lease of 50 hectares. Back for a short break and some tandoori chicken, Singh said he was very happy with the move, even if he remains slightly vague about the geography of his new home. "We are paying $950 [£580] for each hectare for a 99-year lease. You'd not get much for that in the Punjab. I'm not sure if the farm is in the north or south but it is sort of over by Turkey and Armenia," he said.Singh and his associates are far from alone. A growing number of Punjabi farmers are heading for Georgia. Agents in major towns such as Jalandhar are advertising Georgian land deals and business is brisk. "It started a while back, just a dozen or so. Maybe now it is hundreds. Once words spreads there will be many. They come to me for passports. They are looking for pastures new," said JS Sodhi, the bureaucrat who issues travel documents in Amritsar, the nearest major city to Manochahal.The farmers of the Punjab, known as the grain basket of India, have long searched overseas for new land. An earlier wave of migrants went to Canada, where urbanization meant thousands of farms were empty. More recently, Punjabi farmers have been buying or renting thousands of hectares in Ukraine, Uzbekistan and across eastern and central Africa."Punjabi people are always going to different countries. They are very adventurous and enterprising," said Sodhi.

The success of these entrepreneurs will depend to a large extent on their ability to respect the local population and its ethos and culture. Identifying themselves with the local citizenry and working for their uplifting through better employment opportunities and working conditions can be expected to endear them to their country of adoption. The idea that foreigners are allowed to own land by these countries must have strong reason and that could be to increase food production to meet the local demand. Therefore any marketing efforts must keep in view the food situation in that country and at least a part of the local need must be met from the production achieved by the Indian entrepreneurs. Probably Indians can be expected to learn valuable lessons from their foreign enterprises in course of time and must keep in mind the catastrophic experience of early Indian settlers in Africa who had to flee from these countries under tragic circumstances. Let it be a win-win situation for both the Indians and the countries of their adoption.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

E-TRAINING FOR RIGHT EATING!-A NEW APPROACH

One of the reasons ascribed to putting on weight in human beings is eating the food too fast which leads to ingesting more than what is required by the body. Consumption of too much calories beyond one's actual need, the body tends to convert the excess ones into body fat. While ideally strict eating discipline can avoid over eating, it is more easily said than done. This is true especially in countries where ready to eat foods of diverse tastes are easily available at low prices. Taking into consideration this human gullibility, an innovative technique has been developed which involves designing electronically controlled spoons and forks that can warn the consumer about fast eating. Here is a take on this interesting innovation.

What's the coolest new gadget at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week? It's too soon to tell. But I have an early favorite for the title of oddest new gadget: theHAPIfork and HAPIspoon. They may sound like characters from a nursery rhyme, but this fork and spoon connect to the Internet and can monitor and record how you eat. The HAPI utensils measure how long your meals last, how long you pause between each bite and how many mouthfuls of food you consume. If these utensils think you are eating too fast, they will vibrate — it feels kind of like a silent ring on a cellphone — to let you know to slow down. Unfortunately, they are not yet programmed to beep or issue electric shock if you chew with your mouth open. However, you can plug them into your computer when you are done with your meal and upload the data about what you just ate. And you can share it all on Twitter.

Interface between daily activities including eating and electronic apps is providing many gadgets for daily use by the consumer to monitor and adapt the living style to what is ideal as per expert recommendations. Though this looks intimidating to most consumers, there are many who are excited about electronic gadgetry, willing to use them regularly. It remains to be seen whether man will ever give up his innate, God-given mental strength in controlling his destiny in favor of a battery of soulless electronic gadgets!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

WASTE, WASTE AND WASTE! THE GREAT FOOD PARADOX!

Food wastage is as old as human civilization and there has never been or never will be unanimity regarding the extent of loss at different stages of production, distribution and consumption. From time to time estimates (are they not guesstimates?) of food waste are aired in developing as well as the developed countries, though there is some credibility problem in completely trusting those figures. Latest to come out is a report which puts the wastage globally at a staggering 1.2 billion tons annually though the methodology used to decide on this awesome figure is not known. It is true that significant amount of food, whether raw, cooked or processed, is lost and the reasons for this unfortunate phenomenon can be many. While people in rich countries cause food wastage on their dining tables, those in poor countries incur losses in the field during production or defective storage or distribution inefficiencies. While the wastage of food is real, what the world does not know is how to cut down or prevent such losses. Here is a critique on this issue and after reading this one still does not get a clue as to how much is really lost and how that can be tackled.  

"The Institution of Mechanical Engineers estimated that between 30 and 50 per cent of food produced around the globe, or 1.2 to two billion tonnes each year, never reaches a human mouth. Vast quantities of produce from developing countries is lost due to poor storage or inefficient farming, while wasteful behavior by consumers and supermarkets means half of all food bought in the west is thrown away. As many as 30 per cent of UK vegetable crops are not even harvested because they do not meet retailers' stringent demands on appearance, which are based on what customers will accept. Supermarkets often reject entire crops of "perfectly edible" fruit and vegetables at farms because they have the wrong size or appearance, and are guilty of encouraging consumers to buy more than they can eat with promotions on perishable items, the report said. Use-by dates can also cause more waste because retailers use conservative estimates to avoid the threat of legal action, thereby encouraging customers to throw perfectly good food away before it has gone bad, it was claimed. Dr Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said: "The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. "The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers." The report called on governments to introduce better technology and food storage facilities in the developing world and introducing policies to reduce waste by supermarkets and consumers in countries like Britain".

Taking the case of India, both the so called experts as well as the governing class were routinely touting figures like 30-50% as food losses though there are not many reliable sources of information to verify the same. Even the Prime Minister of the country has recently pronounced that 30% of food in the country is wasted though he forgets that his government as well as the previous ones are responsible for this miserable state of affairs in the country. On one hand there is a glut of food grains coming from the farmlands of the country while there are millions of Indian citizens starving due to inaccessibility to affordable food. It was only last year that the Supreme Court pulled up the government for allowing food grains to rot in the open for want of efficient management and critical shortage of grain storage facilities in tune with the production increase from year to year. As for dining table wastage, the upper middle class and rich people only can be accused of such callousness while big caterers and restaurants do waste food due to reasons beyond their control. Education and sensitization of kids during early stages of their life can instill in them a sense of responsibility and awareness regarding the criminality of wasting food on the dining table. Food banks which are now being established in the western world are doing a yeoman service to at least arranging to lift foods from super markets and other retailers which are no more marketable but still edible for distribution to poor people. Field losses of raw foods can be avoided only if farmers employ modern preservation technologies and sound scientific storage practices.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

CARBON CLEANSING-ANEW APPROACH FOR REDUCING CO2 IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Carbon dioxide is considered one of the greatest pollutants in the history of mankind and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air humans breath has increased tremendously with the advent of extensive fossil fuel burning practices that sustain modern civilization. Whether burning of coal, diesel or natural gas for power generation in thousands of power plants across the world or consumption of petroleum products for internal combustion engines in automobiles and other transportation carriers, carbon dioxide is the end product that is spewed out into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is known to trap heat which in turn leads to global warming creating natural havoc like drought, flooding, unnatural and unseasonal rains, agricultural failure etc and global efforts in reducing carbon pollution do not seem to be taking the world any where near the reduction target desirable for atmospheric stability. One of the feasible ways to reduce carbon dioxide reduction is to remove the same through efficient technologies on a scale that will have some significant impact. A recent claim by a company in Canada that it has developed a technology to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide is exciting news though its economic feasibility is yet to be established. Here is a glimpse what this innovator has done in this area.

"Now a Canadian company has developed a cleansing technology that may one day capture and remove some of this heat-trapping gas directly from the sky. And it is even possible that the gas could then be sold for industrial use. Carbon Engineering, formed in 2009 with $3.5 million from Bill Gates and others, created prototypes for parts of its cleanup system in 2011 and 2012 at its plant in Calgary, Alberta. The company, which recently closed a $ 3 million second round of financing, plans to build a complete pilot plant by the end of 2014 for capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, said David Keith, its president and a Harvard professor who has long been interested in climate issues. The carbon-capturing tools that Carbon Engineering and other companies are designing have made great strides in the last two years, said Timothy A. Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London. "The technology has moved from a position where people talked about the potential and possibilities to a point where people like David Keith are testing prototype components and producing quite detailed designs and engineering plans," Dr. Fox said. "Carbon Engineering is the leading contender in this field at this moment for putting an industrial-scale machine together and getting it working." Should the cost of capturing carbon dioxide fall low enough, the gas would have many customers, he predicted. Chief among them, he said, would be the oil industry, which buys the gas to inject into oil fields to force out extra oil. The injection has minimal risk, said Howard J. Herzog, a senior research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The enhanced oil recovery industry has put tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the ground every year for decades with no problems," he said.

World to day is estimated to generate about 33377 million tons of carbon dioxide of which China alone accounts for 9700 million tons followed by the US with 5420 million tons! Though the development of the technology is still at the pilot plant stage, looking at the technical feasibility there is no reason why it will not become an option in future for controlling the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Captive modern power plants are already deploying carbon dioxide trapping gadgets located at the emission end to bring down the level of this gas in the exhaust as much as possible. What is posing a challenge is the billions of tons of this gas spewed by millions of cars and other petroleum fuel consuming transport carriers, each one of them capable of emitting 5 tons of carbon dioxide per year! Probably location of the carbon dioxide capturing plants as reported above, in any parts of the world can have benefit for the entire humanity. Collective investment by all countries in putting up such massive plants in desolate and uninhabited islands can bring about very significant lowering of carbon dioxide in the air through out the world with its attendant benefits flowing to the entire global community.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

ANOTHER BUMPER CROP? THE IMPLICATIONS

Any news regarding increased food production should be welcomed, especially in a country like India where hunger and poverty live side by side. If so why is that the latest "projection" by government agencies ( based on sowing estimates!) predicting a bumper harvest of food grains this year should create panic in the government? The answer is simple. Those in power at Delhi is again going to be caught in a state of unpreparedness to store the grains that will flow into the government granaries in the coming months. The problem is further accentuated by the higher support price being decided by the government against the advice of its own expert panel for political expediency. Those keen observers of the "grain politics" GOI is practicing in the past, cannot forget the rap it got from the Supreme Court last year for allowing precious food grains to rot in the open as sufficient storage facilities were not organized in spite of knowing the problem for almost two decades. With no clarity still emerging regarding the so called "Direct Cash Transfer" scheme and the fate of PDS in the coming years, what is in store for millions of people living below poverty line in future is still uncertain. Here is a critique on this vital issue facing the nation.   

Officials said wheat production in 2013-14 season that starts from April 1, is expected to be between 85 and 90 mt as sowing till Friday is around 458,000 hectares more than last year. This year, the country harvested a record 94 mt of wheat compelling state agencies to procure an all-time high 38 mt, a staggering 10 mt more than 2011-12. A situation similar to this year is also expected in 2013-14. Already, in rice state agencies have procured 1.2 mt more till yesterday as compared to the same period last year. By the close of the season, government plans to procure almost 40 mt of rice from farmers this year, 5 mt more than 2011-12. Wheat and rice procurement seasons are different. Rice procurement starts from October every year, while wheat begins from April. However, all this will not come at a low price. Infact, with government increasing the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat for 2013-14 season by Rs 65 per quintal, the food subsidy burden will straight away rise by Rs 2,275 crore. In 2012-13 Union Budget, the food subsidy has been pegged at Rs 75,000 crore. "With increase in MSP by Rs 65 a quintal, procurement cost of FCI will surely go up, and depending upon how much is procured and for how long it is stored and at price it is distributed under PDS, the subsidy Bill will get inflated. Presuming that FCI will procure at least 35 mt of wheat (last year it procured 38 mt), and if all other costs remain the same, the subsidy bill will go up by minimum Rs 2,275 crore," Gulati said. The burden will also be no less on consumers as wheat prices along with that of wheat flour will further move up. "Retail prices of wheat will go up further unless larger leakages from PDS flood the market at lower prices," Gulati said. The direct fallout of over-emphasis on grains, which the CACP sought to correct by recommending freezing the MSP of wheat for 2013-14 season is that import of edible oils and pulses is expected to cross Rs 65,000 crore in 2012-13 financial year, a steep jump of almost 16 per cent from the previous year. But, a bumper harvest does not necessarily mean that the farmers are getting benefit from producing more. A recent field visit by senior officials from the department of agriculture found that rice prices in eastern India has plummeted to almost Rs 800-1,050 a quintal, as against the Centre determined MSP of Rs 1,250 a quintal in the absence of suitable state intervention mechanism. Official data showed that this year (2012-13) rice procurement in the three major eastern states of Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha has been less than one-fourth of last year."This clearly shows that something is serious wrong with the policy as farmers are producing more, but in many area they are not getting adequate returns for their labour," another expert said.

What is becoming tragic is that farmers who toil hard against all adversities are becoming more and more stressed financially while the consumer prices are soaring making the lives of both more and more miserable! One of the funny reasons attributed to food inflation is that many states are succeeding in plugging leakage from the PDS, resulting in less and less transfer of cheaper grains from the distribution chain to the open market! Openly or surreptitiously GOi is bound to allow more and more export of grains to prevent spoilage like last year due to shortage of storage facilities. If direct cash transfer system were in place throughout the country probably there would have been higher off take of grains by those economically poor families with the cash received from the government. But this "gift" of the government may take years to come to the hands of all the beneficiaries as the infrastructure for fund transfer is grossly inadequate as of now. Thus bumper harvest or normal harvest, it makes very little difference to the two important players in this ball game, viz the poor farmer and the ever suffering aam aadmi!  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

FRUCTOSE, THE VILLAIN FOR OBESITY- NEW RESEARCH FINDINGS

The fructose vs glucose controversy surrounding obesity development is of a relatively recent origin. If a poll is taken on this issue probably the result may be evenly balanced with 50% condemning fructose while the other half doubting its role in over weight problem! What is the truth? If the latest report on the subject is to be believed, fructose definitely behaves differently. first because of its ability to cross brain barrier and the second due to its influence hypothalamus which controls the appetite. Here is a take on this subject which provides interesting insight into the on going controversy. 

Subjects showed substantial differences in their hypothalamic activity after consuming the fructose-sweetened beverage versus the one sweetened by glucose within 15 minutes. Glucose lowered the activity of the hypothalamus but fructose actually prompted a small spike to this area. As might be expected from these results, the glucose drink alone increased the feelings of fullness reported by volunteers, which indicates that they would be less likely to consume more calories after having something sweetened with glucose than something sweetened with more fructose.Fructose and glucose look similar molecularly, but fructose is metabolized differently by the body and prompts the body to secrete less insulin than does glucose (insulin plays a role in telling the body to feel full and in dulling the reward the body gets from food). Fructose also fails to reduce the amount of circulating ghrelin (a hunger-signaling hormone) as much as glucose does. (Animal studies have shown that fructose can, indeed, cross the blood-brain barrier and be metabolized in the hypothalamus.) Previous studies have shown that this effect was pronounced in animal models.

It is always an intriguing situation considering that the common sugar which is a chemical combination of fructose and glucose was being consumed by mankind for centuries and the obesity problem as being seen to day was never an issue of the old society. The coincidence between the commercialization of cheap high fructose syrup (HFCS), a product containing predominantly fructose and quantum jump in the obese population in the US cannot be wished away simply and the study brings out the stark reality that scientifically HFCS with high fructose proportion can influence appetite in a way that in spite of no need for food, consumers are "forced" to eat mechanically by the brain due to its negative influence on two hunger controlling hormones, insulin and ghrelin. These findings must spur further research to confirm the results which are indeed disturbing.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com