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TEN-YEAR FREEZE ON GM TRIALS FAVOURED
Environmentalists, civil society groups and scientists working with marginal farmers have welcomed recommendation of the Supreme Court appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) placing a 10-year moratorium on field trials of GM crops in India. The TEC freeze advice includes field trials of Bt transgenics in all food crops which are used directly for human consumption. (See links below for the actual report and more details)

The TEC, which was appointed in response to a petition from anti-GM activists Aruna Rodrigues and others, significantly echoes the conclusions of a parliamentary panel in August, which also called for a moratorium on field trials. Those who have welcomed the recommendations include the Gene Campaign, Greenpeace and the Coalition for GM Free India. As many as 31 scientists, institutions, journalists and activists had given written submissions and presentations to the committee on the pros and cons of the GM technology. (See the list in the links below)   

The five-member TEC has asked for setting up a powerful regulatory system with better mechanisms for monitoring the trials besides conducting studies on long-term impacts of GM crops on food and environment. It also called for the conflicts of interest in the regulatory body to be addressed in order to protect the interests of small and marginal farmers as against those of the powerful multinational companies. 

The interim report of the TEC has unanimously held that all field trials in India must be stopped until the following conditions are met:

1. Specific sites for conducting field trials have been designated and certified and sufficient mechanisms for monitoring the trials put in place.

2. A panel of scientists, qualified in evaluation of the biosafety data of GM crops has been engaged for scrutiny and analyses of the safety data.

3. Conflict of interest in the regulatory body has been removed .

4. The requirement for preliminary biosafety tests prior to field trials including sub-chronic toxicity in small animals has been included.

The TEC goes further, calling for a re-examination of biosafety data on all GM crops already approved for field trials, and recommending long-term and inter-generational feeding studies in rodents for all products, whether already approved or yet to be approved. It also wants to prohibit all field trials of GM versions of crops for which India is a centre of origin or a centre of diversity and wants trials of herbicide-tolerant crops banned “until independent assessment of their impact and suitability in the Indian context”. 

The TEC recommended establishing secluded sites inside the premises of state agriculture universities, Indian Council of Agriculture Research institutes and fields of applicant firms for conducting field trials of GM crops while prohibiting the outsourcing or subcontracting of such trials. Field trials should not be conducted in farmer's fields and this practice should be immediately banned, it said. 

In many cases these untested GM  food crops from open field trials have found their way to the markets and been consumed by local farm families, putting at risk the health of those who have unwittingly consumed these possibly toxic foods. 

A 10-year moratorium was suggested to make space for a detailed food safety evaluation. Several transgenic Bt crops like Bt rice, Bt maize and Bt cauliflower are being developed by institutes. The word Bt comes from the name of a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (hence Bt), whose genes are inserted in the seeds to enable the plant to produce its own pesticide to kill insects. 

The Bt technology, first developed by American biotech giant Monsanto Company in 1986, was introduced in India a decade ago in cotton seeds. Three years ago, Monsanto’s Indian partner, Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco) sought to commercialise a GM brinjal using the same Bt gene, but was stopped by then minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh who imposed an indefinite moratorium on its release in the wake of widespread concerns over its safety in a food crop. 

The TEC interim report has also called for a moratorium on field trials of herbicide tolerant (HT) crops.  It said the moratorium was necessary “in view of the concerns bearing on health, environmental and socio-economic considerations” and until an independent committee of experts and stakeholders “has examined and assessed the potential impact of HT technology and its suitability in the Indian context”. 

Geneticist and social activist Dr Suman Sahai of Gene Campaign said that several transgenic food crops are being developed with non Bt genes and these must also be brought into the ambit of the 10 year moratorium. The impacts of these genes (like the ama gene used in potato and the genes being used in mustard etc) are even less understood than the Bt gene and bringing them under the moratorium for further assessment is crucial.

The TEC advocated a stronger bio-safety regulator with full-time professionals to replace the existing two-tier regulatory structure comprising the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) under the Union Environment Ministry.

Both panels have about 30 part-time members – mostly scientists from government institutions – who can devote little time on bio-safety issue as they are preoccupied with other works.

Besides, there are allegations of conflict of interest at least in the case of RCGM as the DBT is a promoter of biotechnology. The Department has spent close to Rs 80 crore on biotechnology research in the last five years and many scientists who sit on RCGM and GEAC are also involved in developing GM crops.

TEC has also emphasized that socioeconomic aspects of introducing GM crops be considered before taking any decisions. Socioeconomic aspects are an important issue raised in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to which India is a signatory. Failing to consider the impact of a GM crop, for instance on organic farming, ignores the interest of such farmers who would lose their markets if contamination with the GM product were to take place.

What the technical experts’ panel recommended:

• Ten-year moratorium on field trials of Bt transgenics in all food crops that are directly consumed by people

• Moratorium on field trials of herbicide tolerant (HT) crops

• All biosafety data of all GM crops approved for trials and those in the pipeline to be reviewed by independent bio safety experts, in the light of ‘several cases of ignoring problematic aspects of safety data’.

• Key recommendations by the committee include a reassessment of the bio safety data that is generated by field trials; ensuring there is no conflict of interest (that is, those tasked with evaluating the bio safety of GM crops are themselves not stakeholders in promoting such crops); a ban on outsourcing or subcontracting field trials; and ensuring that crops being considered for testing be evaluated by rodent-feeding trials.

• Long-term and inter-generational toxicity studies to the current requirement which stops at sub-chronic stage.

• There should be designated sites where stage I and stage II field trial can be carried and nowhere else. Trials, the experts emphasised, should not be conducted in farmers’ fields as is the practice now

• Scientists qualified in evaluation of the biosafety data of GM crops should be engaged to analyse safety data submitted by developers; preliminary biosafety tests prior to field trials, including sub-chronic toxicity in small animals, should be included in the protocol
 

For More InformationPlease Follow the Links:

 

Technical ExpertCommittee’s interim report

http://indiagminfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/SC-TEC-i
nterim-report-oct17th-2012-GMO-PIL.pdf

 

The Supreme Court OrderSetting Up The Tec, Its Constitution And Its Terms Of Reference

http://indiagminfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/2012_STP
LWeb_294_SC.pdf

 

“Cultivation ofGenetically Modified Food Crops–Prospects and Effects”, Committee onAgriculture, Fifteenth Lok Sabha, 37th Report, August, 2012, http://164.100.47.134/lsscommittee/Agriculture/GM_Report.pdf

 

Interim Report of theSupreme Court Technical Expert Committee in GMOs PIL

http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/SC-TEC
-interim-report-oct17th-2012-GMO-PIL.pdf

 

Bt Cotton in India: A Country Profileby Bhagirath Choudhary and Kadambini Gaur, July, 2010, http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/biotech_crop_p
rofiles/bt_cotton_in_india-a_country_profile/download/Bt_C
otton_in_India-A_Country_Profile.pdf

 

Background Note on BtCotton Cultivation in India, http://www.envfor.nic.in/divisions/csurv/geac/bgnote.pdf

 

Science panel urgeshalt to GM field trials in India

http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/10/science-panel-urges-h
alt-to-gm-field-trials-in-india.html

 

Indian parliamentary panelslams GM crops

http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/indian-parliamentary-
panel-slams-gm-crops.html

 

“Should field trialsof GM crops be banned? – NO” – Harish Damodaran

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/should-field-t
rials-of-gm-crops-be-banned-no/article4034935.ece?homepage
=true

 

“Should field trialsof GM crops be banned? – YES” – Kavitha Kuruganti

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/should-field-t
rials-of-gm-crops-be-banned-yes/article4034938.ece?homepag
e=true

 

Boon or curse? Spotlight onBt brinjal again!

http://www.im4change.org/news-alert/boon-or-curse-spotligh
t-on-bt-brinjal-again-1179.html

 

Basudeb Acharia,Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture interviewed byGargi Parsai, The Hindu, 21 August, 2012,

http://www.im4change.org/interviews/basudeb-acharia-chairm
an-of-the-parliamentary-standing-committee-on-agriculture-
interviewed-by-gargi-parsai-16684.html