-The Business Standard SC decision to seek views on GM crops welcome  The Supreme Court’s decision to seek views of different stakeholders before considering a 10-year moratorium on field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops, as suggested by the technical committee it had appointed, is welcome. The committee’s recommendation had caused widespread disquiet among the scientific community, a section of the seed industry and farmers. If the recommendation was accepted by the...

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...

-IPS News Environmental activists are cautiously optimistic that a call by a court-appointed technical committee for a ten-year moratorium on open field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops will shelve plans to introduce bio-engineered foods in this largely agricultural country. “We are now waiting to see whether the Supreme Court will accept the recommendations of its own committee at the next hearing on Oct. 29,” said Devinder Sharma, chairman of the Forum...

-Outlook Could scientists have got the impacts of climate change on food supply wildly wrong? I believe we might have made a mistake: a mistake whose consequences, if I am right, would be hard to overstate. I think the forecasts for world food production could be entirely wrong. Food prices are rising again, partly because of the damage done to crops in the northern hemisphere by ferocious weather. In the US, Russia...

-The Hindu A.R. Avaneendranathan, a dairy farmer, aims at popularising native breeds of farm animals “This cow is 83 cm tall, just six cm more than the shortest cow entered in the Guinness Book of World Records. I bought her at Badiyadukka in Kasaragod district. She is a Kasaragod dwarf breed of cattle but has the characteristics of a Malnad Gidda, which is also a dwarf breed. This breed can survive on...