Indian cooking has been embroiled in a major political controversy as food security becomes increasingly important.
Narendra Modi is spending billions of dollars on self-reliance. On roads and in factories, the Indian prime minister's slogan translates to generous subsidies for home electric-vehicle batteries, solar panels and green hydrogen – anything that could help reduce Middle Eastern reliance on crude. However, there is another imported oil that the South Asian nation is accustomed to: the one used for cooking. Indian kitchens spend $19 billion every year on Indonesian palm, Ukrainian sunflower and Argentine soybean oil.
Food bought from abroad adds to the dollar, which no developing economy wants to give up right now. but that's not all. In the current geopolitical climate, it seems unfair to leave the daily base of 1.4 billion people at the mercy of global trade. Self-sufficiency in food should be a legitimate public-policy concern, as Russia's suspension of a UN-agreed corridor for grain vessels sailing from Ukraine's Black Sea ports has recently underlined. Eliminating this nutritional vulnerability would not require expensive handouts. With some public funding, scientists can get to work. The question is whether the politicians will let him go.
We will know the answer soon. New Delhi has given environmental clearance to a genetically modified mustard crop that promises to increase yields by up to 28%. If everything goes according to plan, there is a good chance that the country's farmers will have access to GMO mustard before the October 2025 planting season.
As of now, Monsanto Company's insect-resistant Bt cotton is the only genetically modified crop in India. It was introduced two decades ago amid strong protests by anti-GMO activists. There is debate to this day as to whether the subsequent boom in Indian cotton yields was due to Bt specialties or more intensive fertilizer use. However, when it comes to GMO food, major objections have been raised by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the main economic think tank of the Hindu right-wing cultural movement, which supports Modi's ruling party.
According to SJM, instead of making India's oilseed economy self-sufficient, GMO mustard farmers will be "severely dependent" on a multinational giant like Bayer AG, which holds the final patent on the technology. Nevertheless, scientists from Delhi University who have come out with the new version say that their research is publicly funded and, therefore, the new seeds will be reasonably priced.
For millennia, the cooking mediums of the Indian sub-continent have been as diverse as the food consumed across the vast region. Coconut oil is popular in the south, while western regions prefer to fry in peanut oil. Mustard oil is used more in East and North. But for nearly 25 years, local oilseed production has been falling short of demand. No conventional, cold-pressed, filtered oil has managed to hold its own against the constant onslaught of imported palm, soy and sunflower oils. About 70% of the demand is now met by imports. Prices, which rose last year, have cooled only slightly in 2022.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union assisted India in local sunflower production; Americans helped with soybeans, initially marketing it as a solution to India's protein shortage. While the population never warmed up to soy milk or nuggets, India became the largest importer of soybean oil in the world. Exactly the same for sunflowers, which nowadays meet 10% to 12% of the country's annual cooking oil requirement, even though local production is stagnant.
After India began to open up its economy in the 1990s, big food merchants such as the Archer-Daniel-Midland Company flocked to the second most populous country. ADM is the largest shareholder of Singapore-based Wilmar International Limited, whose joint venture with India's Adani Group controls the country's top edible oil brand. A barrage of advertising dollars touting the perceived health benefits of colorless, odorless, refined liquids won over the middle class. Traditional favorites such as mustard, coconut, peanut and sesame oils suddenly started looking heavy and greasy in comparison. An adulteration scandal in the late 1990s turned the movement into a move away from filtered oils.
The most price-conscious segment of the market was surrounded by palm oil, which was responsible for the massive destruction of Indonesian rain forests. Getting rid of 8 million tonnes of imported palm oil could help India reduce ischemic heart disease mortality associated with cooking. Yet there is no consensus on whether transgenic crops are the right weapons for this fight. At both ends of the political spectrum - left and right - there is a shared apprehension about farmers losing their right to reuse or sell their seeds. With the modified mustard, honey exporters worry that the nectar collection activities of bees will be affected.
India moved closer to approving GMO mustard in 2016 — six years after public-health concerns rejected an engineered eggplant. (Bangladesh has allowed the version with considerable success.) With climate change increasing the uncertainty of food production every year, delaying the decision is beginning to seem like a costly mistake. Almost all Canadian canola consumed around the world (including India) is genetically modified. Australia has approved the release of a cross between Indian mustard and GMO canola, noting that the hybrid poses "negligible risk" to the health of people or the environment.
The imbalance created in almost three decades will not be corrected in a day. But with the help of science, it may be possible to start putting traditional, homegrown oils back on India's kitchen shelves.
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