India's rejection of the 1,000 tonne food aid consignment from the United States comes at a time when the country is saddled with more than 51 million tonnes of foodgrains, much of it stacked in the open for want of adequate storage space. And yet, the US is trying desperately to arm-twist India into accepting the consignment of genetically modified food. Senator Christopher Bond was recently in India, trying to exert political pressure for lifting the ban.

What has not been reported is that the food consignment was actually part of an attempt by the US to dump unhealthy food onto unsuspecting societies all over the world. And that too as aid and relief consignments. What a clever and sophisticated way to dump rubbish all over the world.

Food analyst Devinder Sharma says that this is not the first time that what India is likely to receive from the US is unhealthy. In fact, all food consignments to India, including those under the PL-480 in the first three decades after India's Independence in 1947, were of food stuff that was either 'cattlefeed' or sub-standard. US has been trying to push in genetically modified soyabean into India since the year 2000. Interestingly, when the US imports food from developing countries it uses the sanitary and phytosanitary standards to reject food containing even a fraction of the allergens or pathogens saying that it will be harmful for human consumption. But the soyabean that it has been trying to force on India comes with 15 diseases, seven of which are viral diseases. It also contains one dreaded nematode species -- H.glycerine -- which is not reported from India and is known to travel with even seed samples. But then, the US is telling India that these diseases and pathogens are not harmful !!

It is also time the Indian government (as well as the international community, including the FAO) makes it mandatory for relief agencies to follow the example of World Food Programme (WFP). This UN agency buys food stocks from India for distribution to the vulnerable groups within the country.

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