RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Kisan Sangh asks govt to ensure GM-free imports of food items
The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the farmer wing affiliated with RSS, has urged the government for strict compliance of existing laws to ensure only non-GM food items are imported and has demanded mandatory quality checks of imported food.
“Import of Genetically Modified (GM) seeds is prohibited in India and as such our food items must be non-GM. It is necessary for policy makers to comply with this. Though the responsibility of monitoring GM-free food has been entrusted to food safety regulator FSSAI, it is failing in its duty,” BKS said in a statement. The resolution on imported GM-food was passed at its executive committee meeting held in Nagpur on July 26-27, BKS said.
The timing of the resolution coincides with India’s talk with the US for a bilateral trade agreement where America is insisting on allowing GM soyabean and GM corn. But, the Indian side is beleived to have conveyed India’s inability to accept the demand.
Apart from GM-food, BKS has also sought standards for chemical residues should be set in all agricultural crops as well as for processed food items. “A system of independent and separate product purchase, marketing, storage, distribution, branding and simple certification should be established for cow-based organic food,” the resolution said.
To make India a developed nation by 2047, a solid strategy based on “Gau-Krishi Vanijya” (cow-based agriculture trade) will have to be adopted for “Healthy India, Nourished India”, the resolution said.
The organisation pointed out that various reputed public health, food and agricultural research institutes of the country have proved that chemical farming is a major cause of Alzheimer’s, cancer, skin and respiratory diseases. “Research has found that due to pesticide residues, diseases like lymphoma and breast cancer have increased rapidly not only among farmers but also among the common people who eat these food. The findings of a research has also revealed that our major food grains have seen a 45 per cent decline in nutritional value in the last 50 years,” it said.
On the other hand, the recent report of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices shows that the cost of production of farmers is increasing rapidly, and not in proportion to their rise in income.
“Today we have to improve this situation with immediate effect and make our agricultural system chemical residue free and poison-free in a stipulated time period, and in a phased manner. By adopting cow-based organic agricultural production system in a planned manner, maintaining quality and high productivity, the overall agricultural system will have to be adopted for healthy, nutritious and poison-free food production,” it said.
Highlighting that there is an inseparable relationship between crops and human health, it said that qualitative and pure food can be produced only from healthy, rich and lively soil, which is possible only through Gau Krishi Vanijayam, it said.
Published on July 28, 2025
