-The Hindu Highlighting the possible disastrous consequences of field trials of Genetically Modified (GM) crops, an expert committee has recommended to the Centre to implement a 10-year moratorium on such trials on Bt. Transgenics in all food crops. In its interim report submitted to the Supreme Court, the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) said: “Based on current overall status of food safety evaluation of Bt. Transgenics, including the data on Bt. Cotton and...

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...

A new study questions safety assessments of Bt brinjal, asks for an independent regulator Does it matter if the gene introduced in Bt brinjal varies from the natural brinjal by 70 amino acids rather than by one? What if the regulators in the country fail to detect this and rubber stamp a genetically-engineered vegetable on the basis of the premise submitted by the company that produced it — Mahyco in...

-The Telegraph A group of eminent individuals has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to initiate a “truly inclusive process of deliberation” to help formulate a rational public policy on nuclear power and genetically modified (GM) crops. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, a former Supreme Court judge, and 16 others, including former scientists and administrators, have also questioned Singh’s remarks to a US journal last month suggesting that foreign non-government organisations...