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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Call for moratorium on GM food by Dennis Marcus Mathew

Call for moratorium on GM food by Dennis Marcus Mathew

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published Published on Jan 2, 2010   modified Modified on Jan 2, 2010

ALAPPUZHA: Noted scientist and founder of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, P.M. Bhargava, has called for a moratorium of at least eight years on genetically modified (GM) food products in India.

Inaugurating a national seminar on Bt. Brinjal and Alternatives in Agriculture at the Mararikulam Brinjal Festival here on Saturday, Dr. Bhargava said the moratorium period should be used to set up an independent laboratory in the public sector exclusively for risk assessment of GM products. Only after extensive research at this lab should any GM product be considered for approval as a commercial product in the country, he said.

‘Ludicrous document’

Lambasting the report based on which the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee’s Expert Committee II, headed by Arjula R. Reddy, recommended the approval of Bt. Brinjal, Dr. Bhargava said the report was “full of lies and absurdities,” a “ludicrous document that brought down Indian science in front of the whole world,” and one which looked like it had been written by the public relations officer of the Mahyco-Monsanto collaboration, the makers of Bt. Brinjal.

“Further, Arjula R. Reddy confided in me that he was under tremendous pressure to clear it. Many tests that should have been done were not done. Those that were done were not done properly. Further, the report is based more on data supplied by Monsanto, a company with an abominable record,” he said.

“The widespread aversion to GM food products also cannot be ignored. A majority in the U.S., the European Union and Japan among others are against it. Even Zambia and Nigeria have stood up against GM food products. If India still approves Bt. Brinjal, that will be the single, greatest tragedy in the history of independent India,” Dr. Bhargava said.

These points would be conveyed to Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh during the public hearing on Bt. Brinjal in Hyderabad on January 22.

‘Decisive intervention’

Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, who said the Mararikulam North Grama Panchayat was “acting locally but thinking globally” through the ongoing Brinjal Festival, added that the panchayat was also attempting a decisive intervention in national policy.

The State government had already decided to keep Kerala totally GM-free while the panchayat wanted sufficient precautions and research on Bt. Brinjal.

Noted environmental activists Suman Sahai (of the Gene Campaign), Karnataka State Women’s University Vice-Chancellor Geetha Bali, Dinesh Abrol of the All-India People’s Science Network and others also spoke.


The Hindu, 3 January, 2010, http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/03/stories/2010010360911800.htm
 

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