The damning report on GM crops and food security from India's Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture is available for download on the GMWatch website here:
http://www.gmwatch.org/files/India_GM_Report.pdf
The report cites, among other abuses:
- safety tests that were requested but not carried out on Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine)
- pressure brought to bear by industry and the Agriculture Minister on the co-chair of the GM regulator GEAC to approve Bt brinjal
- inexplicable changes in the organs and tissues of Bt cottonseed-fed lambs
- the grossly inadequate and antiquated regulatory mechanism for assessment and approval of transgenics in food crops
- the serious conflict of interest of various stakeholders involved in the regulatory mechanism
- the total lack of post-commercialization monitoring.
The Committee asked for an end to all GM field trials; recommended an in-depth probe to track the decision making involved in commercial release of Bt cotton, "including how Bt cotton became a priority when the avowed goal of introduction of transgenics in agricultural crops was to ensure and maintain food security"; and asked the government to take into consideration the effects of GM crops on agricultural exports when considering whether to approve them.
More GMWatch coverage of the report:
Parliamentary report calls for immediate end to all GM field trials:
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14127
Important interview with Chair of Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, on its new report:
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14136
MPs discover the truth about Monsanto's "model village":
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14143
GM crops are no way forward:
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14149