New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the
Centre on an application seeking a moratorium on release of any
genetically-modified crop till an independent testing lab is being set
up in the country.
A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan sought response from
the Centre on an application of Aruna Rodrigues, who is carrying out a
legal battle against GM crops, seeking a moratorium on release of any
genetically-modified (GM) crop, complete ban on import of any GM
product, including GM content in foods, and setting up of an independent
testing facility at par with the international standards.
The SC asked the government to comply with its earlier directions issued
on April 8 this year asking it to put all the data related to toxicity
and allergenicity of GM crops on the website of Genetic Engineering
Approval Committee (GEAC), the only authority empowered to release GMOs
into environment under the Rules of 1989 governing the technology under
the Environment Protection Act.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Rodrigues, said a vast majority
of bio-safety tests, which are required before such crops are allowed
for safe release into the environment, were not being conducted.
Whatever tests had been done were being carried out by the applicant
company, "which has a clear commercial interest".
Rodrigues, while highlighting various loopholes in the present
bio-testing system, pointed to the extensive communication between P M
Bhargava, an international expert in molecular biology, and GEAC.
The petitioner, on the basis of an opinion of Bhargava, has sought a "review of six years of Bt cotton experience" as it was necessary that
review must take place during a full moratorium on all GM crops,
including Bt cotton. |
Europe's Funding of Worldwide Activism
An Inconvinient Truth (Image):
Nature Biotechnology: Volume 25, Number 12, Dec 2007
EMBO Reports: Contents: Volume 9, Number S1
Bioentrepreneur: From Bench to Boardroom
.....for an
update on the latest events focusing on life science entrepreneurship
around the world.
How the EU can Fund your Company
Alfalfa Benifits from Medicago truncatula:
The RCT1 Gene M.truncatula Confers Broad-spectrum Resistance to Anthracnose in Alfalfa
Consortium for Functional Glycomics
Charles's Fantasy Farming Won't Feed Africa's Poor
A Conversation with Nina V. Fedroff , Advocate for Science Diplomacy
Scientists Target Super Cassava
Who Will China Feed?
http://www.businessbhaskar.com/article.php?id=2179 ( Language: Hindi )
Vitamin C and Cancer Revisited
Moving Ahead with an International
Human Epigenome Project
Shrewd Survival Strategy ( Tuberculosis )
World Bank Biofuels Report Finally Released :
The combination of higher
energy prices and related increases in fertilizer prices and transport
costs, and dollar weakness caused food prices to rise by about 35-40
percentage points from January 2002 until June 2008. |