15 August 2014 - QA 8

Genetic engineering has many benefits in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, nutrition and different other aspects. The intention encompasses a noble cause to help the poor and I would like to have your opinion on this.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

When genetic engineering is banned in many countries, why should we invite them here? When it is banned in Canada, when Europe has banned it, when USA has banned it then why should India be open to it?
Second point is, experiments are okay, but we should first look into the pros and cons of doing it on a mass scale. Without that we should not step into something which will cause us to regret later. We have done that with the BT cotton and you know the consequences that followed it. It is very serious.
For your information, the employees of Monsanto (An agrochemical company) went on strike and said that they wanted food to be GMO free in their canteen. This says a lot.