We have been arguing about the efficacy of genetically modified (GM) crops for a considerable time now. In the backdrop of agrarian crisis that India is facing, GM crops seem a seductive pathway to prosperity. While there are scientists and authors—diehard believers that GM crops can provide the world with so much food that wasting it would become guilt-free, there are others, like me, who are uncomfortable and confused. On one hand we have GM crops that pack nutrients in the most mundane of food—say golden rice enriched with vitamin A, while on the other, we have myriad ‘organic’ food jostling for space in high-end supermarkets. From the farmers’ perspective, GM crops are likely to reduce input costs of toxic pesticides, providing them a much needed reprieve, not to mention the environment. Experiences with Bt cotton however proves otherwise, where pests other than the targeted one increased disproportionately. Large and surprisingly few seed selling companies, who hold the rights of these expensive interventions conveniently blame farmers and pin failures on the incorrect usage of inputs. In a changing climatic regime where vagaries of the weather are likely to intensify leading to multiple crop failures and more encouragingly when lesser millets are finding its way back into our diets, are GM crops even needed?