India has for the first time decided to take a controversial plunge for large scale field trials of a genetically modified (GM) food crop.
NEW DELHI: India has for the first time decided to take a controversial plunge for large scale field trials of a genetically modified (GM) food crop and limited testing of eight others, along with several varieties of Bt Cotton.
The decision provoked an outcry from activists and organisations who fear threat to public health and safety from these crops.
The spokesperson of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) said the approval for trials came at a recent meeting of Genetically Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) when it accepted the recommendations of the sub-committee for Multi Location Research Trials (MLRT) after considering bio-safety measures including the pattern of pollinating agents, nature of pollination and other aspects.
The GM crops were awarded field trials with respect to uniform isolation distance of 50 to 1000 meters to prevent contamination of, and from, other crops through pollination.
The combination of physical and biological containment measures - like isolation and insect-proof net coverings - are adequate to maintain the genetic purity at the highest possible levels, the committee believes.
The GM brinjal, cleared for field trials, will have MLRT now with additional bio-safety measure of 300 meter distance between two acres of trials. Brinjal is a self-pollinated crop and its pollinating crop and its pollinating agents are insects. Permission has been accorded to conduct MLRT of four transgenic Bt Brinjal -- Co2-Bt, MDU1-Bt, KKM1-Bt and PLR1-Bt containing cry1Ac gene (EE1 event ) -- at five locations.
These trials will be conducted during June-September this year and January-April next year to evaluate their agronomic performances and efficacy in controlling pests like fruit and shoot borer and the effect of beneficial insects.
Bhaskar Goswami, of Forum for Biosafety and Food Security alleged that the GEAC clearance violated the assurance of government counsel to Supreme Court on August 1 that all biosafety data would be made public and put on the GEAC website. These biosafety tests were not yet over, he said.
Agriculture scientist and food policy analyst Devinder Sharma said that such large-scale field trials meant de facto approval of the crop and intended to generate seeds for future sale, adding that the health of people was going to suffer from GM food.
So far, there have been reports of sheep and goat dying after consuming Bt Cotton leaves, and cattle in Punjab and Haryana falling sick and refusing to eat. “Now it would be the turn of people,” he warned, saying Bt Cotton had already been blamed for allergies and rise in asthma and rashes among cultivators.
He argued that in a country where there was no information even on deaths caused by pollution, or about effects of poisoning through pesticides, any illness due to toxins from GM food accumulating in human body would also be attributed to other causes.
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