NOTE: The US and Monsanto may be pushing GM for all their worth but, as
these articles make clear, from eminent scientists to farmers' leaders
to editorials in India's largest national daily, resistance is rising.
Meanwhile the crisis the US created is pushing more and mre farmers
towards suicide (item2)
NEWS FROM INDIA
1. US may push agri, defence agenda after N-deal: scientist
2. India's suicide-prone farmers go back to basics
3. Precaution is the key
4. Shun GM seeds, experts urge farmers
5. GEAC should address health and environmental concerns
6. Dismantling Democracy, Science And The Public Interest
7. After deal, CPI(M) now ups ante on bio bill
8. No Basmati, no Katarni: Rice contamination certain, unless we stop it!
1.US may push agri, defence agenda after N-deal: scientist Press Trust of India, July 14 2008
http://www.ptinews.com/pti/ptisite.nsf/all/146DFB76C72B487B652574860036601C?Opendocument
Bangalore - An eminent scientist has expressed fear that after the
Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, Washington may try to push its
agricultural agenda and defence sales to New Delhi.
Past president of Indian Nuclear Society and former Director of Indira
Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Dr Placid Rodriguez said the deal
comes under the whole gamut of strategic alliance covering defence,
space, nuclear and agriculture.
"My greatest reservation (about the deal) is that the strategic alliance
between India and the US is going into agriculture because in the other three sectors (defence, space and nuclear) we are strong and we can go
independently and we will go," Rodriguez told PTI here.
"Our agricultural universities, state universities, ICAR (Indian Council
of Agricultural Research) laboratories -- they will be completely
overwhelmed by giants like Monsanto whose resources are plenty and whose
motivation is only monopoly," he said.
After Bt. Cotton, now genetically modified brinjal is going to be
brought in, Rodriguez said, adding, "we don't know what's next". "Even
European Commission has not accepted genetically modified food and we
are not examining all the consequences".
The former President and Honorary Secretary of Indian National Academy
of Engineering said another "lubricant" (for the US to sign the deal
with India) behind the 123 agreement is the "large possibility of
defence sales (in India}".
2. Business Features
India's suicide-prone farmers go back to basics
Deutsche Presse-Argentur, July 15 2008
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/features/article_1417167
.php/Indias
_suicide-prone_farmers_go_back_to_basics
New Delhi - India is in the grip of its worst agrarian crisis,
witnessing unprecedented farmer suicides, at the rate of one death on
the farm every 30 minutes.
The rising costs of seeds, pesticides and fertilizers have pushed
peasants into mounting debts, and led untold thousands of them to commit
suicide by drinking the same pesticides that created their liabilities.
India which has 600 million people engaged in agriculture and allied
activities, ushered its green revolution in the late 1960s. It was
apparent two decades later that chemical-intensive farming had resulted
in increased costs of cultivation and far-reaching environmental
damages.
The loss of topsoil, a drastic decline in soil fertility and water
tables owing to the use of fertilizers, pesticides and genetically
modified crops, should have made a compelling case for scientists and
policy makers to restructure Indian agriculture.
Instead, impoverished farmers plunged deeper into debt through trade
distortions brought on by the country's economic reforms and the
plummeting price of produce seen in the past 15 years.
By the government's own admission, over 100,000 farmers committed
suicide in the last decade in the four states of western Maharashtra,
central Madhya Pradesh and southern Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
But some farmers are now escaping the debt trap by returning to
traditional low-cost farming, enriching the soil with farmyard manure or
compost, using indigenous seeds and returning to biological pesticides
such as nee tree oil and cow urine.
In Andhra Pradesh 300,000 farmers are reaping increased yields and
earning better incomes without genetically modified GM seeds and
chemical pesticides, and using local pest management techniques.
'Farmers who mortgaged their Ramachandrapuram village recovered the
entire land by repaying the debts, merely by stopping use of
pesticides,' food and trade analyst Devinder Sharma said.
'Over the last three years, over 700,000 acres in the state have turned
pesticide-free or organic. The programme is going strong, aiming to
cover 1.2 million acres this year and 2.5 million acres in two years.'
There is evidence of such success in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region,
notorious for an estimated 30,000 suicides over the last decade.
About 11,000 farmers, including the worst-hit cotton growers from five
villages, have pledged to practice chemical-free ecological farming
under an initiative by Navdanya, an organization that pioneered the
organic food movement in India.
An organic cotton project by textile manufacturer Arvind in 33 villages
in Vidarbha's Akola district claims there have been no suicides in the
area since farmers started avoiding chemicals and using indigenous seeds
last year.
Not counting farmers in several parts of India who never shifted from
traditional agriculture, an estimated 1 million farmers are estimated to
have reverted to traditional techniques over the past years, some
200,000 in the last five years.
But agriculture experts contend that the solution is not as simple as
going back to the basics.
One expert, KSRK Murthy, argued that organic agriculture cannot
guarantee the high productivity assured by synthetic fertilizers that is
necessary to feed the growing population.
Murthy said crop yields in organic farms ere up to 50 per cent less, and
required big quantities of organic manure and more land under
cultivation, to produce the same amount of food.
But Navdanya founder Vandana Shiva said that argument ignores the true
hidden costs of industrial agriculture.
'Traditional farming seems expensive because there is a 1-trillion-rupee
government subsidy for chemical fertilizers. Our experience has shown
that organic farming can yield up to three times as much food as
conventional farming,' Shiva said.
The UN International Fund for Agricultural Development, which carried
out a recent study in Vidarbha, suggested to the Indian government
explore organic farming for debt-ridden farmers.
Shiva, who also chairs the independent International Committee for the
Future of Food and Agriculture, said organic farming raises consumer
awareness of both food quality and the link between climate change and
agriculture.
'Industrial farming and unnecessary global trade in food is responsible
for up to 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. Organic farming
contributes to mitigation and adaptation to climate change,' she said.
'Such farming can help small farmers survive, increase farm
productivity, repair decades of environmental damage and lead to better
food security. When chemical farming has led to a total collapse,
traditional and organic farming is the solution, the way of the future.'
3. Precaution is the key
Editorial, The Hindu, July 15 2008
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/15/stories/2008071555150800.htm
Unlike traditional breeding techniques, whereby hybrids are produced by
transferring genes within varieties belonging to the same species,
genetically modified crops involve transfer of genes across species.
Thus in the case of Bt cotton, a gene of a soil bacterium, Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt), is inserted into cotton varieties to give them
resistance against bollworm pests. If changes in a single or a few bases
in the DNA can turn a normal cell into a c ancerous one in humans and
animals, biosafety studies for allergenicity and toxicity of the
transgenic plants on humans and animals who consume or come into contact
with them, must therefore be thoroughly examined. Six years after the
Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) permitted the commercial
cultivation of Bt cotton in India, there is no dedicated laboratory to
verify the samples and validate the biosafety results provided by
companies. The GEAC, unlike its counterparts in various countries where
GM crops are cul
tivated,
has "supported the suggestion" of setting up such an independent
laboratory, as the minutes of the 85th committee meeting held in May
indicate. The GEAC would do well also to insist on chronic toxicity
testing in animals. This is essential as acute testing may not reveal
long-term effects, and unlike drug trials, no trials on humans are ever
conducted using GM crops.
If animal toxicity testing is strict in the case of drugs, the
requirements for a genetically modified crop should be as stringent.
Drugs can be recalled from the market when found to cause harm. But
corrective measures are very difficult, if not impossible, in the case
of GM plants once they are released into the environment. This
underlines the need to build a system and a culture of independent
verification. Precaution should be the watchword. The first step in this
direction is to strengthen the current system and involve State
agricultural universities in participating actively in the monitoring
and evaluation of field trials. The current practice of relying solely
on companies to provide samples for testing is unsatisfactory. Instead,
the universities involved in monitoring the trials must be authorised to
collect samples for the independent laboratory. Another good practice
will be to make the full results of the study available for public
access, as in the case of drug trials
.
The enlightened policy approach will be to encourage research in
laboratories and put on hold approvals for field trials until these
measures are in place. The experience of European countries has shown
that public apprehensions about GM crops must not be taken lightly by
those who think they know better.
4. Shun GM seeds, experts urge farmers
Special Correspondent
The Hindu, 13 July 2008 [shortened]
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/13/stories/2008071353530300.htm
CUDDALORE: Agriculture scientist and president of Indian Organic
Farmers' Association, G. Nammalwar, has called upon the farmers to shun
genetically modified (GM) seeds being marketed by multinational
companies, and continue to raise traditional crops.
Mr. Nammalwar was addressing a seminar on 'Save our rice campaign,' and
'Impact of GM technology,' jointly organised here on Saturday by the
Federation of Consumer Organisations - Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry
(FEDCOT), the Consumer Research Education Action Training and
Empowerment Trust (CREATE) and Thanal, Kerala.
He cited the instance of the farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra,
who succumbed to aggressive marketing strategies of MNCs to take to Bt
cotton cultivation, incurring heavy losses that led to suicides.
In Tamil Nadu, too, a section of farmers in Salem and Dharmapuri
districts had sown GM seeds with high expectations of getting a bumper
yield of 15 quintals of cotton an acre, but were gravely disappointed by
getting less than a quintal of crop per acre.
Only on the intervention of the Agriculture Department did the companies
concerned compensate the farmers. Farmers who were raising these crops
might be in for disappointment, besides exposing their fortunes and the
health of the consumers to risks. No laboratories were equipped to test
GM products. The Indian Medical Association had also joined in the
campaign against the GM technology, Mr. Nammalwar added.
5. GEAC should address health and environmental concerns
Krishan Bir Chaudhary
Financial Express, July 14 2008
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/GEAC-should-address-health-and-
environmental-concerns/335290/1
The government must clarify why it is setting up the National
Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA), replacing the existing
regulator Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) which is already
acting as a single window clearance for biotech products. If the
government feels that the GEAC is incompetent and inefficient, it should
bring it to the public knowledge.
The Supreme Court, in the course of hearing a writ petition seeking a
moratorium on GM crops, had ordered some improvements for introducing
transparency in the functioning of GEAC. The government had always
defended the functioning of GEAC in the Supreme Court. Has it got any
moral right now to say that GEAC is not functioning well and needs to be
replaced by NBRA?
The fact is that the GEAC, without caring for any biosafety norms and
transparency, has been very fast in the approval of GM crops with a view
to benefit the multinational seed companies. Since 2002, GEAC approved
over 175 Bt cotton hybrids, five events and one Bt cotton variety. It
has conducted field trials of Bt brinjal, Bt okra, GM mustard, Bt
cabbage, GM tomato, GM groundnut and GM potato.
The functioning of GEAC has been questioned by many independent
scientists, like the founder director of the Centre for Cellular and
Molecular Biology (CCMB), Pushpa Mittra Bhargava. He called for a total
review of India's experience with Bt cotton, including how Bt technology
was brought into the country. He has also sought a two to three years
moratorium on GM crops, unless and until proper independent studies are
done on biosafety like pollen flow, seed germination, soil microbial
activity, toxicity, allergenicity, DNA finger printing, proteomics
analysis, and reproductive interferences.
At the global level, independent scientists like Arpad Pusztai have
questioned the safety of GM food. Pusztai has pointed out by saying
"Well-designed studies, though few in number, show potentially worrisome
biological effects of GM food, which the regulators have largely
ignored." In India, there were reports of sheep mortality on account of
grazing over Bt cotton fields in Andhra Pradesh, which the GEAC did not
consider with seriousness.
There are reported cases of illegal imports of hazardous GM food, which
are not approved in the country and the government has remained a mute
spectator. Illegal imports of GM food are in violation of the Rules,
1989 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The annual amendments to
the Foreign Trade Policy made in April 2006 said unlabelled GM food
import would attract penal action under Foreign Trade (Development and
Regulation) Act, 1992. But this is not implemented in absence of
guidelines.
The panel of experts and stakeholders headed by the additional
director-general of National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Shiv
Lal had recommended mandatory labeling of GM food, irrespective of the
threshold level. But the recommendations were not implemented either by
the health ministry or GEAC. Rather, the GEAC allowed free imports of
oil extracted from GM soybeans without any labeling, tests and
restrictions.
The plan to set up NBRA is largely based on the recommendations of the
two panels headed by MS Swaminathan and RA Mashelkar. The suggestions
made and apprehensions raised by the Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) in its paper - Regulatory Regime for Genetically Modified Foods :
The Way Ahead - have not been considered.
Monsanto is charging a high technology fee, which has raised the prices
of Bt cotton seeds and the issue is subjudice before the MRTP Act. There
are fears that pollen flow from GM crops to non-GM crops may cause
problems for farmers, who may be asked to pay high technology fee for
their own seeds as had been the case with the Canadian farmer Percy
Schmeiser. Indian farmers, in many areas have suffered heavy losses on
account of failure of Bt cotton. States like Kerala and Uttarakhand have
banned GM crops and the Centre, through the NBRA, is planning to
override states governments' power to regulate agriculture.
The government should make GEAC more accountable to address health and
environmental concerns, rather than set up NBRA.
The writer is president, Bharatiya Krishak Samaj...
6. Dismantling Democracy, Science And The Public Interest
By Vandana Shiva
Z Mag, 14 July 2008
http://www.countercurrents.org/shiva140708.htm
Dismantling Democracy, Science and the Public Interest to put GMO's on
Fast Track: The Proposed National Biotechlogy Regulatory Authorigy
(NBRA) and National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill, 2008
July 12, 2008 -- Genetically Engineered Organisms (GMOs) are transgenic
organisms made by introducing genes across species boundaries. Thus Bt.
Cotton, or Bt. Rice or Bt. Brinjal has genes for a toxin taken from a
soil bacteria and put into the food crop. In addition, GMO's use
anti-biotic resistance markets, viral promoters and cancer genes as
vectors. These new genes can have risks for public health and the
environment. Ensuring safety in the context of genetically engineered
organisms is referred to as Biosafety.
India has one of the most sophisticated Laws of Biosafety in the world.
The "Rules for the Manufacture, Use / Import / Export and storage of
Hazardous micro-organisms / genetically engineered organisms or cells",
1989, notified under the Enviornmental Portection Act, 1986 is science
based public interest oriented legislation created long before the
commercialization of genetically engineered organisms (GMOs) and crops
and long before the International Biosafety Protocol of the UN
Convention on Biological Diversity came into force.
The genetic engineering industry, in particular Monsanto, which controls
95% of all GM seeds sold worldwide, first tried to by pass India's
Biosafety Law when it started field trials without approval of the
Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, the statutory body for Biosafety
regulation. The rules clearly state -
9(i) Deliberate or unintentional release of genetically engineered
organisms / hazardous microorganisms or including, deliberate release
for the purpose of experiment shall not be allowed.
Note : Deliberate release shall mean any intentional transfer of
genetically engineered organisms / hazardous micro-organisms or cells to
the environment or nature, irrespective of the way in which it is done.
Field trials of GMO's are clearly a deliberate release.
That is why when Monsanto - Mahyco started field trials of Bt. Cotton in
1997-98, without approval of the GEAC we initiated a case in the Supreme
Court of India to challenge the illegal trials. As a result
commercialization of Bt. Cotton was delayed upto 2002.
The sequence of events, which took place in implementing the illegal
trials in India, can be briefly outlined as:
*24th April 1998 Mahyco files to Department of Biotechnology for field
trials
*May 1998 Joint venture between Mahyco and Monsanto formed
*13th July 1998 Letter of Intent issued by DBT without involving Genetic
Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC).
*15th July 1998 Mahyco agrees to conditions in letter of intent.
*27th July 1998 Impugned permission by DBT for trials at 25 locations
granted.
*5th August 1998 Permission for second set of trials at 15 locations
granted
*6th January 1999 PIL filed by Research Foundation for Science
Technology and Ecology in the Supreme Court of India
*8th February 1999 RCGM expresses satisfaction over the trial results at
40 locations.
*12th April 1999 RCGM directs Mahyco to submit application for trials at
10 locations before Monitoring and Evaluation Committee
*25th May 1999 Revised proposal to RCGM submitted by Mahyco.
*June-Nov 1999 Permission granted for different trial fields
*Oct-Nov 1999 Field visits
*May 2000 Mahyco's letter to GEAC seeking approval for "release for
large scale commercial field trials and hybrid seed production of
indigenously developed Bt cotton hybrids".'
*July 2000 GEAC clears for large-scale field trials on 85 hectares and
seed production on 150 hectares and notifies through press release.
*October 2000 RFSTE filed an application for amendment in the petition
challenging the fresh GEAC clearance.
*GEAC orders uprooting of "Navbharat-15", which was found to contain
transgenic Bt.
*26.03.2002 32nd Meeting of the GEAC was held to examine the issue of
commercial release of Bt Cotton. Members of GEAC from ICHR, Health
Ministry, Commerce Ministry, CSIR, ICAR did not attend the meeting.
Inspite of the absence of important members of the GEAC, approval was
granted to three out of four of Monsanto - Mahyco's transgenic hybrids.
*05.04.2002 Formal approval granted to mach-12, Mach - 162 and Mach 184
by A.M. Gokhale, Chair of GEAC. Order of 05.04.2002 is a conditional
clearance valid for three years. The stipulated conditions/restrictions
are a clear implied admission on the part of the government that the
tests are far from complete. In effect, the commercialisation was an
experiment. Monsanto-Mahyco had been asked to gather further data and
submit annual reports on the resistance that the insects develop over a
period of time to GM seeds and to conduct studies on resistance to
bollworm, susceptibility tests, and tests for cross pollination.
*02.03.2005 In March, RFSTE releases results of continued failure of Bt
Cotton, especially in Andhra Pradesh.
*GEAC rejects renewal of the 3 Bt Cotton varieties planted in the
Southern States. However, other Bt varieties are cleared in Northern
States.
In any case the Review Committee of Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) does not
have the authority to approve field trials. According to the "Rules".
The RCGM "shall function in the Department of Biotechnology to monitor
the safety related aspects in respect of on-going research projects and
activities involving genetically engineered organisms / hazardous
microorganisms". Clearly RCGM is not an approving authority. The
industry has repeatedly used the RCGM and the Biotechnology Department
to subvert India's Biosafety Laws. Now that citizens have used this law
effectively, industry is trying to have it dismantled.
The latest attempt at Biosafety Deregulation by the Biotechnology
Department is to float the proposal for a National Biotechnology
Regulatory Authority and a National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill, 2008.
As the proposal states "DBT is considering to promulgate new legislation
National Biotechnology Regulatory Act (NBR Act).
The false argument being used is that biotechnology regulation is
currently spread over multiple acts. This is not true. There is only one
Act, the Rules for GMO's under the EPA, regulating GMO's in all fields.
It is also being argued that the NBRA will promote public confidence.
The public will not and cannot have confidence in an industry driven,
centralized, undemocratic, unaccountable law and institution floated by
the agency which is a biotechnology promoting agency, and has done
everything in the last decade to undermine citizens rights and the
public interest. This is a direct attempt to replace India's excellent
Biosafety Law with industry friendly legislation, and to replace the
GEAC as a Biosafety Regulation Authority with the National Biotechnology
Regulatory Authority to promote biotechnology, not biosafety.
The National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill refers to "consolidation of
regulatory policies, rules and services under a single biotechnology
authority". There is already a single biosafety authority for all
biotechnology approvals - the GEAC. It needs strengthening, not
substitution and dismantling. Further, the proposal authority, like the
GEAC is restricted to modern biotechnology or genetic engineering,
defined as "the application of in vitro nucleic acid techniques,
including recombinant direct injection of nucleic acid (DNA) and direct
injection of nucleic acid into cells or organelles, or fusion of cells
beyond the taxonomic family, that overcome natural physiological
reproductive or recombination barriers and that are not techniques used
in traditional breeding and selection.
The proposed authority undermines the regulatory role of diverse
ministries and the rights of states and districts. The GEAC consists of
members from different ministries, agencies and departments, as well as
expert members who are heads of Agricultural Research, Medical Research,
Scientific and Industrial Research, D.G Health Services, Directorate of
Plant Protection, Chairman Pollution Control Board. The existing law
allows creates State Biotechnology Coordination Committee (SBCC),
District Level Committee (DLC). In the proposed authority, the statutory
bodies role of diverse ministries has been replaced by an
Inter-Ministerial Advisory Board, with no authority, but only to promote
Central Government Cooperation. The checks and balances, and the
decentralized institutions reflecting our federal, democratic structure
that are part of the existing law are being destroyed to make it easy
for industry to get approvals. As the proposed law states 6(3).
"The
Inter-ministrial Advisory
Board and the National Biotechnology Advisory Council will have no
authority to intervene on product specific decisions made by the NBRA."
Both the different Ministries, diverse agencies and the States have thus
been robbed of decision making powers which is vital to the functioning
of democratic structures in the public interest.
The functions of the proposed Authority totally overlap with the
functions of CEAC. Thus this is a proposal to displace GEAC. The
Authority also proposes to displace the Ministry of Environment as the
nodal agency for international negotiations for regulating the risks of
genetic engineering.
Instead of a multi-ministerial committee, all powers for decision making
are proposed to be concentrated in one individual, the chairperson, who
will be a biotechnologist, with skills in genetic engineering but no
skills or expertise in Biosafety.
The proposed authority is thus centralized, individualistic biased in
favour of genetic engineering and hence will lend itself to easy
influence of the genetic engineering industry.
The Bill clearly states that the following laws will stand repealed when
the Bill becomes an Act. Among the Acts mentioned are -
Rules for the manufacture, use, import, export and storage of hazardous
micro-organisms, genetically engineered organisms or cells, 1989 issued
under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. To be amended to exclude
genetically engineered organisms or cells from the mandate / scope of
the Rules. Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 Section 13(3)(c) : The
Scientific Panel may be established for genetically modified foods.
Genetically modified organisms to be taken out of the mandate of FSSA.
Section 22(2) : The definition of genetically engineered or modified
food to be amended to exclude foods and food ingredients composed of or
containing genetically modified or genetically engineered organisms.
Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 8th Amendment : The definition of recombinant
drug to include all therapeutic proteins derived from recombinant
organisms, but exclude recombinant biologics (eg. DNA vaccines, gene
therapy products etc) The Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill, 2007 To
exclude clinical
trials, pre commercial safety assessment, product approval and post
release monitoring of recombinant biologics. The Seed Bill, 2004 :
Section 15 on Special provision for registration of transgenic
varieties: In clause 1 Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to be replaced
with National Biotechnology Regulatory Act. Proposed Plant Quarantine
Bill (a) Section 6(2)(o): Regulating the import of transgenic materials,
to be modified as "regulating the import of transgenic material subject
to the approval of the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority".
In other words, all safety regulation for health and environment will be
demolished in one fell swoop if the National Biotechnology Regulatory
Bill is passed and the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority is
established.
The existing Biosafety Law needs to be upheld. It is an excellent Law.
Weakness in implementation needs strengthening of institutions and
processes. Not the dismantling of a good Law and its replacement by a
centralized, biased Law which is good for industry but a disaster for
citizens right to heath and environmental safely.
7. After deal, CPI(M) now ups ante on bio bill
Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
Daily News & Analysis, July 12 2008
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1177139
KOLKATA: The CPI(M) is planning a multi-pronged attack on the Union
government. It will oppose tooth and nail certain bills the Centre
proposes to get cleared in parliament shortly. The CPI(M)'s first and
most important target is the national biotechnology regulatory bill,
2008. It will also oppose the formation of the national biotechnology
regulatory authority.
While the party's peasants wing, Krishak Sabha, will launch a national
campaign against the bill, the party will also field renowned
biotechnologists and agriculture scientists in its awareness programmes.
Krishak Sabha state secretary Shamar Baora said they will not oppose the
bill as a whole but will surely object to the clause pertaining to
"genetically-modified agriculture products".
"We have consulted a number of biotechnologists and agriculture
scientists and all of them are of the opinion that the proposal for
genetically-modified agricultural products encouraged in the bill will
have multiple adverse effects," he said.
According to Baora, if the bill is cleared production of
genetically-modified agriculture products would become legal in India.
"It is clear that this proposal is mooted to benefit multinational food
processing companies. It will harm the interests of small and marginal
farmers."
The CPI(M) will highlight how the Union government was hurrying to get
the bill cleared keeping parliament in the dark on its details.
Opposing the formation of the national biotechnology regulatory
authority, Baora said its formation was totally unwarranted since the
Union government was not providing enough funds to the Indian Council
for Agricultural Research.
r_sumanta@dnaindia.net
8. No Basmati, no Katarni: Rice contamination certain, unless we stop it!
Arun Shrivastava
MyNews, 13 July 2008
http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=7453
Someone said, "Monsanto invented the pig." Very soon we will learn,
right here in India and Asia, that US and European seeds multinational
corporations "invented" rice. And soon we shall be paying up front
royalty to these companies for eating rice. Hold your breath; that
situation is upon us.
I pose this question to you before you read further: What would you do
to a company that claims it "invented rice" and wants its pound of flesh
because you, Sirs and Madams, eat rice?
India is a rice country. Rice has been our staple for thousands of
years. A French scientist had once said India has 200,000 varieties of
rice. Other environmentalists say 100,000. Does it matter? In the
traditional rice producing regions I found that the taste and shape of
rice often differed from village to village. Not any more. Post green
revolution, the varieties available in the market for commercial sowing
has dropped to about fifty what must surely be called the greatest
destruction of genetic diversity in any food crop anywhere in the world.
Forty years ago when my mother cooked basmati rice, a gentle aroma would
pervade the entire home. Not any more. Under Green revolution rice
slowly hybridized into a commodity and now produced in large mechanized
farms with heavy doses of fertilizers and pesticides. Bayer CropScience,
a German company, genetically modified rice seeds. This gene revolution
genie is now out of the bottle and no one knows how many rice varieties
are contaminated. No one really knows how much of this engineered poison
has already entered our food chain. And that has happened without proper
biosafety studies.
Rice belongs to the Oryza specie. Lay persons like me were told that
rice is self pollinating with little or no chance of pollen drift and
contamination of neighbour's rice field. However, RiceTech, a US-based
hybrid seeds company, has documented that "wind assisted rice pollens
can move over 600 feet." [APHIS Workshop, September 13-15, 2004;
Abstract] If genetically engineered rice is planted amidst
non-genetically modified rice, there is every chance that
non-genetically modified rice will be contaminated and this is what
happened in the United States of America.
US Rice gets contaminated
Bayer CropScience (the German multinational seeds company) conducted
field trials of LL601 (better known as Liberty Link 601) from 1999 to
2001 in Louisiana. It then dropped the project and did not seek US
Government permission to market it. In 2006, widespread contamination of
US long-grain rice with LL601 trait was reported.
Covering the event, Rick Weiss, the Washington Post staff writer,
reported, "The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating how the
variety escaped from test plots into farmers''' fields, where it was
quietly amplified for years until its discovery. The seeds and plants of
LL601 look virtually identical to those of the popular conventional
variety with which they had become mixed, said Steve Linscombe, director
of Louisiana State University's rice research station in Crowley........
The day the contamination was announced in August, Bayer asked the
government to approve the variety."
On 5th October 2007, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
concluded its genetically engineered rice investigation. Investigators
had hoped to identify how each GE rice line entered the commercial rice
supply, but the exact mechanism for introduction could not be determined
in either instance.
(Source: USDA, Press Release,
www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome?contentidonly=trueandcontentid/2007/10/
0284/xml )
However, it could not pinpoint how engineered rice seeds could
contaminate over such a large area. Speculation was rife: some said
mislabeling, others said human error, yet others said containers got
mixed up.
Approval-by-contamination
On 24th November, 2006 the USDA granted marketing approval of
genetically-engineered Liberty Link 601 of Bayer CropScience. (GE) rice
variety following its illegal contamination of the food supply and rice
exports, first announced three months ago. The controversial decision
was taken despite the insistence of Bayer CropScience that it had
dropped plans to commercialize the variety five years ago.
"With this decision, USDA is telling agricultural biotechnology
companies that it doesn't matter if you're negligent, if you break the
rules, if you contaminate the food supply with untested genetically
engineered crops, we'll bail you out," said Joseph Mendelson, Legal
Director of the Center for Food Safety.
"In effect, USDA is sanctioning
an 'approval-by-contamination' policy that can only increase the
likelihood of untested genetically engineered crops entering the food
supply in the future, and further erode trust in the wholesomeness of
U.S. food overseas," he added.
Naturally, Bayer CropScience welcomed the decision of USDA. "The
deregulation confirms the preliminary decision of USDA, published on
September 8, 2006, that LLRICE601 does not pose any environmental
concerns and should no longer be regulated."
Oh yes, it does, Mr. Bayer. That is why US rice consignments were
returned or destroyed at Rotterdam port....and another, and
another....and another.
Is India vulnerable?
You bet it is. In January I received a set of documents from an
Agriculture University in West Bengal that illegal genetically modified
Bhindi (Okra) has been planted. In March I was told in Jhansi that poor
farmers were offered lucrative deals to plant "special seed" of all
sorts of vegetables including green chilly.
Who knows at how many places illegal genetically engineered rice have
been planted?
Only when contamination will be discovered at the port of landing of
Indian rice exporters that India will wake up to the destruction of its
10,000 years of heritage...THE RICE.
Following on from the US example, it is not too far fetched to say that
our favourite staple rice will be owned by one of the five or six seeds
multinationals....because they "invented" it! Who will be the first to
contaminate our rice is at best a guess.
But IT WILL BE CONTAMINATED. THEY ARE TOO DETERMINED TO OWN OUR FOOD.
Any questions?
Neither the Congress Party, nor BJP, nor CPM nor CPI, nor RSP, nor SP,
nor Shiv Sena...none has the guts or the political will to oppose the
fraud of these multinational corporations. They have all been silenced.
"Who cares if GMO seeds don't provide any of the benefits that were
promised? Certainly not the seed companies. Perhaps benefits to the
people of the world were never the point. Perhaps the point was to get
those first GMO crops in the ground -- promise them the moon! -- and
then allow nature to take its course and contaminate the rest of the
planet with patented pollen. The intellectual property lawsuits will
come along in good time." (Source: 2005 was a very good year for the
biotech food industry; Peter Montague; Rachel's Democracy & Health News
#837, Jan-2006).