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Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, who took the decision, questioned the logic of letting private companies drive biotechnology research in agriculture. The brinjal in question has been developed by Mahyco — a private firm in which global seed major Monsanto holds a 26% stake — in collaboration with two Indian agricultural universities.
“We cannot depend on private sector to drive the biotechnology research in our agriculture sector. I think research in seeds is as strategic as space or nuclear research. I am therefore a firm believer in the strong involvement of public sector research in agriculture sector,” Ramesh told reporters.
“India’s first green revolution was not powered by the private sector. And there is no reason to believe that the second green revolution would be driven by private companies,” he told The Indian Express later.
Experts expressed surprise at Ramesh’s line.
“I am a great supporter of Jairam Ramesh, but is he asking for a reversal of the policy on public-private research in agriculture prevalent for the last several years? Is it that what we have been doing for over 15 years is wrong? There cannot be a separate policy for the Agriculture Ministry and the Ministry of Environment,” said Y K Alagh, agriculture expert and a former member of the Planning Commission.
Alagh described the government’s decision on Bt brinjal as “unfortunate”.
Ramesh argued that there was no “clear consensus” in the scientific community over the safety of the crop, that many state governments had strongly opposed its introduction, that public sentiment was overwhelmingly negative, and that there was “no over-riding urgency” to introduce it in the country.
“It is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary principle-based approach and impose a moratorium on the release of Bt brinjal, till such time as independent scientific studies establish, to the satisfaction of both the public and professionals, the safety of the product from the point of view of its long-term impact on human health and environment, including the rich genetic wealth existing in brinjal in our country,” Ramesh said.
“By taking this decision, the government is being responsible to science and responsive to society,” he added.
The decision, announced a day ahead of schedule, came after a month of often-acrimonious debate in emotionally-charged public meetings in seven cities. The public meetings were organized by Ramesh after the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the technical body authorized to clear GM crops for use, gave its approval to the Bt brinjal in October last year, but left it to the government to take the final call in view of the “very important policy implication at the national level”.
If cleared, Bt brinjal would have become the first genetically-modified vegetable to be grown anywhere in the world. In India, the only GM crop allowed to be cultivated is Bt cotton, which has brought about a huge increase in yields.
Bt cotton was cleared by the GEAC in 2002, without referring it to the government. But Ramesh today renamed the GEAC, replacing Approval with Appraisal, to underscore the fact that, henceforth, decisions of the committee would not be considered final.
Ramesh also sought to make a distinction between Bt cotton and Bt brinjal on the grounds that the former was not a food crop.
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Bt cotton which was allowed by Balu without proper safety evaluation initially appealed as higher yields and reduced expenditure on pesticides were seen. But seed cost was Rs 1700 instead of the previous Rs 7 per unit weight. Later when it was seen that water requirement is double and pesticide use also skyrocketed, farmers withdrew from Bt cultivation. But supported by the Govt, the companies formed a cartel in 2006, and stopped selling non-Bt seeds, forcing farmers to buy Bt.cotton seeds. This resulted in 150,000 farmers's suicides in India since 1997and is a horrible genocide by Multinationals. Bt cotton allergic reactions with excessive tears, nasal discharge, and sneezing. In 2003, nearly 2,500 sheep died after grazing in Bt cotton fields. South Africa has decided to ban GM cotton in favour of improving traditional varieties
European countries don't allow GM food to be produced or sold. GM potatoes and tomatoes were introduced but taken off the market. GM seeds and pesticides are mainly marketed by Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow etc. The present epidemic level hypothyroidism among women in India, is due to the nonstick like Teflon coating manufactured and marketed by DuPont, but the ordinary citizen will never hear about it. Cottonseed oil is used for cooking by 8 percent of the world's population. 34 million tonnes cottonseed is produced for food and feed annually. Around 24 million tonnes end up in animal feed. 65 percent of the cotton harvest enter our food chain directly through food oil or indirectly through the milk and meat of animals and Monsanto misled us by stating that Bt cotton is not used for food.
For decades we are using pesticides and inorganic fertilizers which are cancer causing and neuro-toxic countries such as U.S.A have banned the use of this but still we use it but our farmers and common man is still lack the consequences it can cause but willingly using it.there is a potential in organic farming but the production and crop safety will be very low the BT brinjal can effectively control pest levels and supplemented with organic farming can bring in a big revolution instead of using pesticides and fertilizers this seems a better safety than using as alternative as this bt modified plant does not cause health effects on other hannd if peoples are concerned about the loss of diversity the same biotechnology has solutions for its preservation by recent preservation techniques its also possible. the way scientific community address people should be beneficial and factual not arrogance,and the if the government thinks seed are like space then why its waiting.
If one says that after the nuclear technology has started some 130 crore humans have died due to radiation, no one will believe. But it is true as I am knowlegable on this aspect and was part of Pokharan I team. Risk is reduced to zero by defining radiation death in such a way that the public is never made wiser by IAEA. After Three Mile Island accident USA stopped nuclear power plant construction some 30 years back. CANADA stopped the unsafe CANDU type reactors as it does not meet 911 safty criteria. But India is going ahead with unsafe CANDU reactors and much more unsafe Breeder reactors as the public cn be called just fools and the politicians are influenced by foreign powers. Bt technology is not being applied in USA or EU, but is being tried on poor India as the risk will be ours and the profit will be theirs as Bt will be based on terminator technology. Imagine for a second that we have some Bt humans as our politicians. Will be ever give our daughter to them for marriage.
If one says that after the nuclear technology has started some 130 crore humans have died due to radiation, no one will believe. But it is true as I am knowledge and was part of Pokharan I team. Risk is reduced to zero by defining radiation death in such a way that the public is never made wiser by IAEA etc. After Three Mile Island accident USA stopped nuclear power plant construction some 30 years back. CANADA stopped the unsafe CANDU type reactors as it does not meet 911 safty criteria. But India is going ahead with unsafe CANDU reactors and much more unsafe Breeder reactors as the public cn be called just fools and the politicians are influenced by foreign powers. Bt technology is not being applied in USA or EU, but is being tried on poor India as the risk will be ours and the profit will be theirs as Bt will be based on terminator technology. Imagine for a second that we have some Bt humans as our politicians. Will be ever give our daughter to them for marriage.
Introducing Bt Brinjal -surrendering to the greedy Foreign MNCs who are looking to capture the Indian food market. We are again somehow going back to collony era..this time under US. Thanks to Jairam for taking a right decesion in a democratic way. FOR the informations GM crops are BANNED in allover EUROPEAN union.
Great Dr. Shanthy Shantharam can you explain why any of the developed country have not allowed any GM food crop in their country, any why they do not allow any GM food product to be imported? You will be willing to accept that their ministers and scientists are not fool or doing that much damage to their country as you are alleging. Even then they are shying away, Why?
Salute to Jairam for the bold decision. Mr. Jairam is fit to be Agriculture Minister. He has demonstrated courage to say to US that Indians are not guinea pigs. When no one in developed world has the courage to allow any GM vegetable crop to be produced even when they have very good control mechanism, why we should be so much willing to be the testing ground. Anyway good decision minister. GEAC has demonstrated who messy scientific panels can be when stacks are high. Congratulation to the country GEAC is now an appraisal committee instead of approval committee. But how we come out of this corruption menace?
You should read complete storty before you make any comment. It was jairam who was pushing hard to bring in BT Brinjal. But after lackign support from BJP rules states (which grow 60% of Brinjal in India) he had no option but to backtrack. Hats off to BJP.. they really deserve rulling India
Why Jairam is pushing so hard to introduce these brinjal here, if they really feel it good for human kind why not Monsanto sells it in US first...... These political people are cashing in on cost of our life...
Mr Jairam's wisdom is apparent in the distinction he has acknowledged between Bt-cotton and Bt-Brinjal. Actually, one should be circumspect about the Bt-gene even in "non-food" crops: there have been reports of mass deaths of sheep that had eaten Bt-cotton residues. You have quoted YK Alagh as strongly supporting Bt-Brinjal. Alagh, "social scientist, economist, politician", is not an expert on biotechnology. Actually, nor is MS Swaminathan, and Mr Ramesh should be careful not to accept his advice at face value, especially because of his controversial (euphemistic word!) past, e.g. Sharbati Sonora, "The Great Gene Robbery", etc.
Thank you Mr. Ramesh. I'm not a scientist or a farmer or an agriculture centric businessman. I am the humble consumer whose body is sought by the aforementioned as a guinea pig. Worse than a guinea pig or lab rat in fact, as the aforemetioned want my money as well as my body. I want none of it. Human beings cannot outsmart their creator. Please Mr. Ramesh, do not recreate this stress and tamasha with regard to other crops as well.
Artificial & Natural foods are totally different. It is very good decision taken by Sh Ramesh to protect thousands of people of India. Before adopting such things, we should take into consideration of various aspects viz protein, test of artificial product, whether it is good for health etc.
I think questioning the public wisdom by scientists and paranoiac "science only" thinkers is pure foolishness. I am a researcher from MIT in the US and I full well understand that science has clear limitations, the more we discover the more we realize don't know!. To clearly say that a few years research into creating genetic modified food and even less on its effects on the human body (about which we only know a little!) over the long term is enough, is the height of rampant bias. The science of quantifying risk is not without high errors, especially when related to the effects to the human body over generations. Going crazy over short term benefit and ignoring possible long term health and economic loss is the pinnacle of paranoia by narrow minded and myopic scientists.
The minister's decision is reflective of the farmers' collective will against the onslaught of MNC seed firms. Why is it the fertilisers and other inputs developed by the MNCs are not meeting the requirements of the farmers? This is a conspiracy hatched by Monsanto with its partner Mahyco to cheat the farmers and was stopped in the beginning. Good effort from the minister.
Nagapattinam District Organic farmers association
Congratulations Mr. Ramesh you did the Right thing. Supporting technologies which have little credibility in terms of safety is not appreciable. Every discovery by science is not necessarily good and we should not leap to try it on. Inviting genetically modified food to market is invitation to disaster to humanity. There is a long long way to go before we can try these things commercially. I totally appreciate the decision taken by Mr. Ramesh on BT issue.
India should not allow growth of dangerous GM foods which are banned in Europe. GM foods also cross pollinate and destroy great genetic diversity of foods found in India. Instead, India should focus on more profitable organic farming whose market is growing rapidly. India with its vast labor force is ideally suited for organic farming.
and how will Indian feed itself? Organic farming has a huge fault = v.low yield add to this limited agricultural land.
please note American or any MNC their first priority is to make more and more money and try to dominate the whole economy so that they alone will become rih and prosperous their social concerns is not so strong. Also please note that the salary of people working in these organisations is so huge the Manager, officers etc. their salary per month will be more than lakh or so. The Green revolution an dmodern agriculture practices is good provided they protect the soil and aual;ity of produce. Earlier rice cooked could be kept fresh even for next day now within some hours it gets bad. So we have already polluted agriculture nowe this kind of genetic engineering seeds will further ruin our agro infrastructure, what is needed is healthy organic Indian agro practices which worships Mother Earth which uses pure inputs. So please Government of India ask these MNCs and also money minded deadly and demonic Inputs companies manufacturing hazzardous fertilisers/pesticides etc.
Though there were evil forces trying to hijack Indian agriculture and stooges like Shantu Shantaram and many others supporting this. Friends all our efforts to protect our agricultural lands from GMO garbage has yielded results. First let these jokers prove GMO can grow without any Herbicides - then we can see Nagai District Organic Farmers association