Forget negotiating with your usual college bad eggs – When it comes to food safety, the staff and students of Guru Nanak Khalsa College of Mumbai know exactly how to deal with genetic junk, kicking GE food straight out of their educational institute with their heads held high!

A flashback of colour and craziness hit me as I entered the premises. College being one of the most fun times of my life all with the friends, projects and parties, laid the foundations to my future. Stepping back, I felt lucky to have gotten by without having to ever eat this GE baloney.

The ‘canteen days’ were magical, because no matter who you were in college, everyone, and I mean everyone went to the canteen. In fact, most college cool-cats hung out there. After years, it was no surprise to see that somethings still hadn’t changed.

This is exactly why, when it came down to food and safety of the youth, Guru Nanak Khalsa College, took a stand ensuring their students were no guinea pigs to this genetic junk. Besides creating awareness about the disasters of GE food consumption, the college committed to Greenpeace (and to students, staff and parents)that No GE food shall be sold or consumed in their college canteens and premises.

Leading by example and signing a petition vowing that No GE food will be sold on premises, the concerned principal goes further encouraging other educational institutions to do the same.

You wouldn’t want your child messing up their future in college, right? So why would you want anyone to mess up their health?

There are health impacts that GM food brings about which cannot be changed, but following Khalsa College, there is a simple way to not reach that stage. Simply by saying No! And here in India that’s easy, so if the cats got your tongue, a slight nod of the head will do!

It was heartfelt to see the disappointed look and sadden attitude of the canteen manager… which was straight out of an emotional flick. He was shocked that this junk, (and genetically modified junk at that) was being sold by companies. Worse still, there’s a nation of brilliant youth still eating, and scores of canteens still selling, unaware of the genetic tampering that in course, will ruin our future!

Education propels a revolution…So go back to school, college, wherever you studied or are studying, walk up and demand your right to eat safe!

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I have spent portions of my life paying attention to the way I talk, walk, behave, work, relate, earn, sleep, play, and drive. Most humans do likewise. So, there is a whole fraternity that becomes aware of things periodically.

One thing I have not paid attention to, however, is what goes into the food I eat. Again, many humans tend to do likewise. Somehow, this is among the things we take most for granted. Even family is not sacrosanct anymore, but food, curiously, we have not spliced or split under a microscope.

That, however, is about to change.

Apparently, there are so many of us on the planet that there’s not enough food for us. So, for years now, scientists have taken from genes from various organisms and added them to crops. This is to make food healthier, better, and more abundant.

But, it isn’t so simple.

All food, especially baby food, is going into a lab and could possibly emerge completely different. In so happening, the new genetically engineered food could even alter the way we are.

Livers and kidneys, say reports, could behave vastly different. They could get weaker in the process of our food getting stronger, the reports say. There are a host of other cautions that have sprung up from the experiments to engineer food.

Vegetables, grain, chocolate, noodles. Anything.

This now is fundamental. Humans possibly cannot spend all their time in a state of permanent alert because someone somewhere is tinkering with their food. We need to know, just like we know the sun rises, and the sun sets.

How are we to respond if the sun were to be experimented with to produce more sunshine? How are we to respond when our food is now under trial, the unnerving phrase scientists use to say they still don’t know everything about what they are doing?

A safe food guide is now ready. Greenpeace India has put together what ought to be the first of a series of steps to awaken the consumer. In so waking, we become aware and make choices.

The choice we make will determine the outcome.

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