Focus on Asia
http://www.gmwatch.org/asia.asp

Among the points of interest in the first article is "the three-day South Asia media workshop on Agricultural Biotechnology" which has just taken place in hyderabad, India, in which the biotech-industry backed ISAAA has been involved. It is the first of several such workshops planned to take place in Asian countries.

ISAAA has multi-million dollar funding from Bayer, Cargill, Dow, Monsanto, Novartis, Pioneer, Syngenta, in addition to foundations and Western governmental funding agencies. Its board of Directors has contained leading biotech industry executives.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=66&page=I

According to the Financial Express, the aim of the workshops is "training mediapersons in their reportage on modern biotechnology". Among the speakers at the media workshop are "several scientists working in multinational companies".
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=66656

Another interesting point in the article is the statement by Dr RP Sharma of the National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology that India's regulatory authority "followed necessary procedures in time while approving the country's first transgenic crop". The significance of this is that GM proponents in India have been calling for the fast-tracking of GM crops, complaining in the words of former Syngenta man, Dr Shantu Shantaram, "all we have is one stupid Bt cotton to talk about."

1.Not much delay in Bt Cotton approval process, says expert
2.Fortified food: Complex regulatory issues make it a distant dream
3. VANDANA SHIVA on what is wrong with foods today
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1.Not much delay in Bt Cotton approval process, says expert
ASHOK B SHARMA & BV MAHALAKSHMI
Financial Express, October 12, 2004
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=71167

HYDERABAD: While the industry has complained about the unnecessary delay in approval of genetically modified (GM) crops, Dr RP Sharma of the National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, is of the view that the regulatory authority followed necessary procedures in time while approving the country's first transgenic crop.

Bt cotton is the country's first transgenic crop approved for commercial cultivation. Dr Sharma, speaking at the three-day South Asia media workshop on Agricultural Biotechnology organised jointly by International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), UNESCO, Asian Media Information and Communication Centre of India (AMIC) and International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) in Hyderabad on Monday said: "No unnecessary delay was involved in the process."

It may be recalled that the MS Swaminathan panel based on the industry's grievances suggested the setting up of a statutory single window system of approval. The RA Mashelkar panel in its draft report has also suggested on the same lines.

Dr Sharma clarified: "Monsanto India imported Bt cotton seeds in 1995. The Bt gene had to be inserted into locally grown cotton varieties. Thereafter, the seeds had to be multiplied for both contained and largescale field trials. The process was completed in time and the first transgenic crop got the approval for commercial cultivation in March 2002."

Further, Ramanaiah of the department of biotechnology said that the government has already accepted all the recommendations of the Swaminathan panel relating to biosafety

"The biosafety guidelines have been changed. We have also accepted the proposal that once the transgene and the event are evaluated for biosafet, the process should not repeated," Mr Ramanaiah said.

Indigenously isolated modified genes and promoters are now being increasingly used in transgenic development, according to Dr Sharma.
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2.Fortified food: Complex regulatory issues make it a distant dream
BY MAHALAKSHMI & ASHOK B SHARMA
Financial Express, October 12, 2004
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=71162

HYDERABAD: Biofortified foods research in the country might see the fruits only after a decade. It might be a distant dream to have fortified foods for the poor. Complex regulatory issues are among the reasons behind the delay, experts say.

While the agenda is indeed to provide food to the poor, having the tools of biotechnology through tissue culture, marker-assisted selection, comparative and functional genomics and genetic engineering, which are the inevitable waves of the future, it might take long before it fructifies, according to Dr KK Sharma, scientist, at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT). There were many issues in plant genetic engineering which were yet to be discussed, he said.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), in coordination with the Directorate of Rice Research, along with few state agricultural universities is working to develop Golden Rice containing higher levels of Beta Carotene targeting Vitamin A deficiency among the masses.

Under the HarvestPlus programme, ICRISAT has also proposed to work on edible vaccines for rabies and Vitamin A for improving Beta Carotene levels in groundnut and improving sulphur amino acids in pigeonpea.The research aimed to make not only 'Golden Rice', but also Golden Mustard and Golden Peanuts, he said.

Highlighting transgenics, Dr Sharma pointed out the next generation of transgenic crops will be marker-free transgenic plants, plant-based vaccines, enhanced nutritional content, plant-derived plastics and polymers, besides controlled gene expressions.

While agricultural biotechnology has the potential to reduce levels of natural toxins in plants, provide simpler and faster ways to identify and remove pathogens and increase food supply to support growing world population and decreasing agricultural space, Dr Sharma also cautions on the risk assessment of transgenics. There has to be precision in plant breeding, which will take care of deploying transgenics else the risks might be very high, he said.

Dr Sharma informed that some of the bottlenecks are lack of efficient protocols for transformation and genomics, availability of novel genes and effective promoters, lack of scientists, research facilities and lack of proper biosafety regulations in most developing countries of Asia and Africa.
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3.Straight Answers
EDISON THOMAS
TIMES NEWS NETWORK, OCTOBER 10, 2004

VANDANA SHIVA Environmentalist on what is wrong with foods today.

What can go wrong with the diet of today's child?

With genetic tampering of foods, increasingly narrower concentration of food production and attaching toy sales with fast foods and soft drinks, we are neglecting wholesome intake of food and affecting a generation at large.

What is wrong with genetically altered foods?

DNA from bacteria and other organisms are interwoven with crop. The intention is to either make it resistant to pests or better yielding. But this in turn can have an adverse effect on humans. Earlier, plant diseases stayed with plants, animal disease stayed with animals and human ailments affected only humans, but today with all the genetic tampering, viruses mutate from plant to animal to humans.

What do you mean by narrow concentration of food supplies?

By catering to an export market, we have turned our fields to produce mainly soya, potato, corn, rice and wheat. There are 650 other local foods that can provide wholesome nutrition to our population. We must change our farm to port policy and make it farm to stomach.

How can the city dweller contribute to change this trend?

The more aware urbanite has started looking at farms for weekend getaways. Small holdings being the future, these small patches can be turned to produce healthy crop which can cater to personal and local needs. When these numbers grow, it will make a difference. In the West, the urban farmer is making a big difference by conscientious farming.