NOTE: BBC World News is producing a panel discussion entitled 'Feeding India: What will it take? (A Global Collaboratory on Food)'. Disturbingly, this BBC event is being "supported" by the GM/agrochemical giant DuPont.

Even more disturbing is the BBC/DuPont panel. It is 100% pro-GM, with 2 of the five panelists directly representing the GM/agrochemical corporations. This is the panel:

• Balvinder Singh Kalsi, President DuPont, South Asia

• Pradip K Mazumdar, CEO & Director, CropLife India & Executive Director (Retd), Syngenta Group

• Dr M S Swaminathan, Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) [father of India's Green Revolution]*

• Dr Swapan Kumar Datta, Deputy Director General (Crop Science), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)

• Ajay Jakhar, Chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj [a pro-GM farmer close to MNCs like Monsanto and DuPont]

The event is taking place on the evening of Thursday 7th April at Hotel Taj Mahal, Mansingh Road, New Delhi. The discussion will focus particularly on food security and the potential for new technology to boost food production, and related environmental and sustainability issues.

This follows on from other BBC broadcasts on the GM issue that have been seen as startlingly partisan. See, for instance:
Jimmy's GM Food Fix
Sir Peter's GM Food Fight?

Vandana Shiva has suggested the BBC be renamed the Biotech Broadcasting Corporation.

*For a profile of MS Swaminathan see: http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Monkombu_Sambasivan_Swaminathan
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From: Aruna Rodrigues
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dear AnneMaire McNerny,

Your proposed event to be held at the Taj Mansingh on the 7th April 2011 has just come to my notice.
 
The pro-GM bias of the BBC over more than a decade has been noted globally. This latest episode is regrettably brazen, partnering DuPont? Really!  I am prompted to ask, (a) what possible relevance can such an openly biotech industry-bias have on the serious issue of India's food security, 'feeding India: What will it Take?'; and (b) has the BBC then decided to be the permanent official propaganda arm of the GM industry?

The Bt brinjal moratorium in India was based on robust scientific evidence against Bt brinjal by some very eminent and independent scientists. It provides an insight into just how flawed regulation is in India, like it is in the US, borrowing wholesale from that Country. The analyses by these scientists of Monsanto's dossier including its raw data was comprehensive. Bt Brinjal therefore, provides a useful model indeed to judge what is taking place in India in the matter of GM crops. The matter couldn't be more serious.

Across virtually all dimensions of its biosafety, i.e. genomic analyses, feeding studies and Environmental Risk Assessment, it has been demonstrated without doubt that Monsanto's Dossier is not merely sloppy but fraudulent, that our Apex Regulator the GEAC  (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) is not capable of protecting India’s national interest. The pointed comment must be made by those of us who are intimately connected with this whole matter and who were minutely involved in the evaluation of Bt brinjal, that this case study proves conclusively that the GEAC is not in a position to protect India's farming and food security. On the contrary, we are seriously imperilled by their actions.

These matters are easily verifiable, but of course the BBC may not have the stomach for that. Do let me know if you should change your mind. But this latest  journalistic 'escapade' by the BBC should be treated with the contempt it deserves.  

Regards
Aruna Rodrigues
(Lead Petitioner in the Supreme Court of India for a moratorium on GM crops)
M.P. India