Non-governmental organisations and individuals have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to withdraw the report of the Expert Committee on Bt brinjal and reject the recommendation of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee for its commercial cultivation. Similar letters written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh and signed by 353 groups/persons, challenged the recommendation of the expert committee and charged it with succumbing to pressures...

The national biofuel policy announced by the government last week is well-intentioned but is not really practical. It aims for achieving a 20 per cent blending of biofuels with petrol as well as diesel by 2017. Given that even the 5 per cent ethanol doping target — raised to 10 per cent last October — is yet to be achieved makes the target quite unachievable. The sugar industry, which is...

DINDIGUL: People visiting the farmers market at NGO Colony near here will soon get an opportunity to buy traditional rural food items and homemade products besides vegetables. It would become a single point shopping centre for consumers, said Collector M. Vallalar. He was presiding over a function that marked the concluding day of 10th anniversary of the farmers’ market at NGO Colony here on Wednesday. Selling all items including groceries, masala items...

The current food inflation is a result of food output growth not keeping pace with population growth Few recall that, just last month, there was a food security summit in Rome. In sharp contrast to the almost overwhelming coverage of the Copenhagen climate summit, it attracted far lesser attention from the heads of governments, as also from the media. This is somewhat strange as a food (and water) crisis can hit...

The recent high-pressure tactics to introduce genetically engineered food crops in India are another rude reminder that Western agribusiness companies have a deeprooted strategy to obtain a stranglehold on India’s food and agriculture system. In a review of recent trends titled ‘Food Without Choice’ (The Tribune, November 1) Prof Pushpa M. Bhargava (who was nominated by the Supreme Court in the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee to protect safety concerns), an internationally...