In an interview to discuss India’s redlines in negotiating a trade agreement with the US, one of India’s foremost experts on agriculture and Distinguished Professor at ICRIER, Ashok Gulati, said that India’s refusal to buy genetically modified soya and maize from the US  on the grounds India does not import or grow genetically modified food is “inconsistent”. He also said that the stance was irrational and indefensible.

Gulati, a former Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, pointed out that, for the last two decades, GM corn seeds are being used as food for poultry and animals, while oil made from GM cotton seeds is being used as cooking oil and, as he put it, "available in every third grocery store in Gujarat". In fact, Gulati went further and pointed out that India imports cooking oil made from American soya which is entirely GM-based.

Watch the full discussion.

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