Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/cleared-super-brinjal-in-frying-pan-256.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cleared, super-brinjal in frying pan | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Cleared, super-brinjal in frying pan

A brinjal engineered through biotechnology to kill plant-eating insects, the focus of a sharp and bitter debate about the safety of genetically modified plants, has leapt closer to dinner tables in India.

The government’s apex safety review panel for genetically engineered products today approved the release of the brinjal into the environment, turning it into India’s first GM food crop ready for commercial cultivation. The final clearance now rests with the government.

Agricultural biotechnologists welcomed the approval from the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) which functions under the environment and forest ministry, saying the engineered brinjal would reduce the use of pesticides. But consumer and non-government activists who had in the past raised concerns about safety issues have decried the decision.

The brinjal, developed by a consortium of scientists with private company Mayco and universities in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, is designed to secrete a protein that kills insects called fruit borers that routinely attack brinjals.

The GM brinjal had been under field trial at several sites across the country for more than four years to assess its performance on farms.

Environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh said he had received the GEAC’s recommendation this afternoon and would examine it before taking a decision.

“There are arguments for and arguments against GM food crops,” Ramesh said. “We’re not going to act under any pressure — from either companies or from non-government organisations,” he said.

But at least three members of the GEAC had expressed concerns over GM brinjal during a meeting today and had dissented on the approval, a senior biologist who participated in the meeting told The Telegraph.

“It’s intellectual corruption — it appeared to be a predetermined decision. The others had already decided what they wanted to do,” said Pushpa Bhargava, former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.

Bhargava had raised several technical issues over the design and implementation of safety studies that had been submitted by the developers of the GM brinjal to the GEAC in seeking approval for commercial cultivation.

The approval has sparked a fresh call from consumer representatives about the need for labelling of all GM products and produce in the country, something the government had agreed to introduce but has not implemented yet.

“I’m disappointed. In the absence of labelling of GM food, this is a threat to consumers’ right to choose what they want to eat,” said Bejon Misra, a member of the government’s food safety and standards authority, and a consumer activist.

But Kailash Bansal, a scientist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, said: “People in North America have been consuming genetically modified soyabean, corn and papaya for years. Genetic engineering introduces a precise change in the make-up of the plant — the GM brinjal will allow farmers to use much less pesticide.”

However, activists campaigning against GM crops said an expert committee that the GEAC had set up had not responded adequately to all the safety concerns raised by Bhargava and a French scientist.

“Two members of the expert committee had been earlier involved in biosafety research commissioned by the private company and they sat in this committee to review their own findings,” said Kavita Kuruganti, an activist and member of the Coalition for a GM-Free India. “One expert committee member is a GM crop developer himself.”

India’s 500,000 hectares of brinjal farms are spread across Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal. Some scientists estimate that fruit borers eat up about 50 per cent of the crop.