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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Panel finds flaws in GM crops regulatory system

Panel finds flaws in GM crops regulatory system

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published Published on Jul 23, 2013   modified Modified on Jul 23, 2013
-The Telegraph


New Delhi: A scientific panel has identified flaws in India's existing regulatory system that governs genetically modified (GM) crops and called for an indefinite moratorium on trials of GM food crops until the regulatory system is fixed.

The regulatory system, which the Indian government has used to process dossiers of several GM crops, has "major gaps" and will require "rethinking, investment, and relearning to fix," a technical expert committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court has said.

The TEC, in its final report submitted to the court, has found that regulators had ignored several issues relating to health safety data of GM crops that biotechnology companies had used to obtain approvals aimed at commercial release of the crops.

The panel has found that in several cases, the methodology and results of health safety tests of GM crops on animals were not clearly reported, and significant differences between animals tested with GM and non-GM crops were wrongly described as insignificant.

One document processed by regulators that mentioned the weights of rats fed GM-cotton and non-GM cotton showed what the TEC has described as "unusual observations, which are difficult to accept in biology".

"Males and female (rats) have different weights, but the document shows nearly identical weights," said a member of the panel. Scientists say it is unclear how regulators passed this document without questions.

"There are important requirements of toxicity studies which were ignored by expert committees or the regulators who evaluated the dossiers," the TEC said in its report signed by four of the five-member panel.

The Supreme Court, hearing a public interest litigation pleading for a moratorium on open field trials of GM crops filed by Aruna Rodrigues and others, had appointed a TEC, a five member panel of scientists, two nominated by the government.

"This final report makes it clear that we have little that can be called rigour or comprehensive regulation," Rodrigues, who has been campaigning for improved regulatory oversight over GM crops, said in a statement today. "We don't even have the expertise in the areas needed."

The TEC has said its review of dossiers used by regulatory agencies and expert committees to approve GM crops through various stages of the regulatory process suggests that the professional expertise and standards across institutions is "unsatisfactory".

"A deeper understanding of the process of risk assessment is needed within the regulatory system to meet the needs of proper bio-safety evaluation. This is not available in the country at present," the TEC said, adding that India should seek lessons from Norway that has a comprehensive bio-safety regulatory system. Norway is also one of the few countries that includes socio-economic impact during evaluation, the panel said.

The TEC has pointed out that GM soybean, GM corn, GM cotton and GM canola, which make up the largest deployment of GM crops worldwide, are all primarily used for oil or feed after processing.

Nowhere are GM crops engineered with genes from an organism called Bacillus thuringiensis widely consumed in large amounts for any major food crop that is directly used for human consumption. "The TEC could not find any compelling reason for India to be the first to do so," the panel said in its report.

An interim report from the TEC had earlier recommended a 10-year ban on open field trials.

The final report does not specify a timeframe but has called for a ban until the regulatory system is improved. "We're leaving the period open-ended, if they can fix the system before 10 years, let them do it," a panel member told The Telegraph.

The TEC has said confined field trials of GM crops may be conducted in designated sites such as state agricultural universities without letting those sites for cultivating other crops.


The Telegraph, 23 July, 2013, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130723/jsp/nation/story_17146517.jsp#.Ue5DDqzcjco


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