Biotech students sound warning against Bt Brinjal

After several groups expressed concern over the manner in which the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee approved field trials for Bt Brinjal in October 2009, the Union minister for environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, decided to hold public consultations across the country. On January 25, there will be a public hearing in Bangalore.

Meanwhile, students of the Reva Institute of Science and Technology, were engaged in a discussion on Wednesday.

“Genetically modified (GM) crops may survive difficult conditions but their genes may be drawn from unrelated species. Is the resultant vegetable safe for human consumption? Also we do not know how transgenic species (those that contain genes from other species) react to the environment,” said Subashree, a final-year MSc student.

Amrita, her classmate, said: “While the process of genetic modification can make a crop pest-resistant even without the use of pesticides, there is no conclusive evidence that the crop is then safe for human consumption. What is more, the crop could be affected by secondary pests, and might cause super weeds to spring up. So there is no certainty that the consumption of pesticides will actually decrease with the use of the genetically-modified variety. In fact, in the long term, there might actually be an increase.”

Reacting to claims that the genetically-modified varieties could be packed with nutrients, Renuka, a lecturer at the institute said that the human body can only absorb nutrients in certain combinations, and the requirement is for certain levels of nutrition.

Undergraduate student George added that there was a need to understand how the bacteria in the human digestive system would interact with GM foods.

While the students were sceptical, they agreed that there was no need to fear research that used genes from the same plant species. There are nearly 2,500 varieties of brinjals available in India. “Where is the need for Bt Brinjal? In our effort to create new species and varieties, we should not lose out on the existing plant and crop species,” said the head of the department of biotechnology at the institute, Nalini Prasad.