CG Krishnamurthi
Date: Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 2:25 PM
Subject: An Appeal with respect to BT-Brinjal - from a Farmer/Environmentalist group
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Honorable Minister Sir,

India is an important signatory / member of UNEP- CBD - Convention on Biological Diversity (Except USA all other countries are signatories of CBD). This year (2010) being the year of International Biodiversity we look forward to the ministry to critically evaluate the warning and concerns of eminent scientists on BT-Brinjal and take appropriate decisions. (A sample of warnings from eminent Scientists are given below, more from Environmentalists, UN Bodies, even MNC seed companies themselves are in the attached document)

Please note that CBD clearly states that GMO could adversely affect the environment [Article 8(g)] - "modified organisms resulting from biotechnology which are likely to have adverse environmental impacts that could affect the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity" - Thus any and all introduction of GMO’s should be assessed under the CBD before any release is considered.

As a nation we made terrible mistakes with respect to BT-Cotton which has resulted in large scale damage to cattle and other native species of Cotton, however with respect to BT-Brinjal we must not repeat our mistakes and prevent another CATASTROPHE. Honorable Minister Sir, we appeal to your esteemed office to prevent the entry of further GMO in India (trial & commercial), where we being the custodians of one of world's largest region of biodiversity, have responsibility to protect it for the future & safety of humanity and all species.

Cordially,
CG Krishnamurthi, Representative Tamil Nadu Kaveri Delta Farmers group /Environmentalist, Chennai, India

--------------------------------

Warnings from Scientists - On GMO Foodstuff /GMO Crops:

1. “After reviewing more than 600 scientific journals, [Dr. Pushpa M. Bhargava] concludes that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a major contributor to the sharply deteriorating health of Americans and should be stopped”
- [Jeffrey Smith, "Doctors Warn Avoid Genetically Modified Food", Rense.com, July 22 2009, http://www.rense.com/general86/doct.htm, citing the view of] Dr. Pushpa M. Bhargava, World renowned Molecular Biologist, Vice Chair of National Knowledge commission, Supreme Court nominee to GEAC, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. Of India

2. “The indigenous breeds of brinjals and the biodiversity will ultimately be lost. This will result in a monopoly of a particular multinational corporation of US (Monsanto) ”
- Dr. Tushar Chakraborty, Gene Regulation Laboratory, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, India

3. “What has been of particular interest in this and past debates on the subject is the way in which those who oppose GM crops are painted as being against science (see for instance, the editorial in The Hindu on 21 October, 2009 or Starved for Science by R Paarlberg). There is a blatant attempt by GM promoters to polarise the discussion and manufacture a science-vs.-antiscience debate. All those who oppose GM crops are neither anti-science nor Luddites. Indeed, many scientists have been, and still are, critical of GM for a number of good reasons. Scientists and scientific academies, including the National Research Council of the US National Academy of Sciences, have expressed serious concerns regarding the scientific rigour of experiments and the impacts of GM crops, especially on biodiversity.”
- Dr. Sujata Byravan, PhD, Molecular Biology, Nov 2009, India

4. "Several cases of violation of guidelines by the seed company, Mahyco (Monsanto Indian arm) with respect to health and environmental safety" from the Report of the independent panel of Scientists on Bt brinjal. Panel members include of Prof. KP Prabhakaran (Former Prof. National Science Foundation); Dr. Ramesh Bhat, (Former toxicologist of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN)); , Dr. A Narayanan (former ICRISAT plant physiologist); Dr. Ghafooruissa (former NIN biochemist); Dr. MS Chari (former director of Tobacco Research Institute); Dr. D Narsimha Reddy (former professor of economics, Hyd. University)

5. “From a recent comparative study of Bt and Non Bt cotton farmers in Karnataka. The study reveals that while the Bt farmers did get a marginally higher yield, the cost of getting this improved yield was so high that they ended up making less money! Thus, while the gross margin for non-Bt farmers worked out to Rs.10,880 per hectare, the margin for Bt farmers was a paltry Rs.1435. In other words, non-Bt farmers were earning 7.5 times more than Bt farmers.”
- Dr. Ashok Malkarnekar, Dr. Hermann Waibel and Dr. Diemuth Pemsl of the Chair of Agricultural and Development Economics, School of Management and Economics, Hanover, Germany

6. “I feel, we should take time to judge the suitability of Bt Brinjal for the human consumption in India. As such, with plenty and cheap Brinjal Production these days in India, there is no urgent need to spread such GMO Bt brinjal for the cultivation in India where at present over 3000 land races and varieties are available as our Genetic variability in Brinjal. With the introduction of such untimely introduction of the GMO BT- brinjal, all such land races and many local varieties will be lost in the future?”
- Dr. Ramesh B Thakare, Geneticist and Vice Chairman Bharat krishak samaj maharashtra
A largest farmer's NGO for the farmers causes in India (Former World Bank ADB USAID Agric Project Adviser in Africa and In Charge Seed Project in Uganda with the EEC ADB Seed Project).

7. “Genetically modified organisms contain inherent risks to biodiversity and human health.”
- Dr. S. Faizi, Scientist & Chairman of Indian Biodiversity Forum

8. “We should keep away hormones, antibiotics, slaughterhouse waste and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and Pesticides should not be allowed to enter any food.”
- Dr. Shiv Chopra, Fellow WHO, Food safety expert, former scientific advisor to the Candian Ministry of Health (who exposed the curruption in approving GMO foodstuff in Canada)

9. “The genetically engineered organisms could possibly make all plant life poisonous. The implications are nothing short of terrifying. Anyone that says, ‘Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,’ I say is either unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying.”
- Dr. David Suzuki, Geneticist

10. “GM seeds and BT Brinjal /BT Cotton are dangerous to the nature, human and animal health and will lead to GM contamination which can't be reversed”
- Prof. Sultan Ahmed Ismail , World renowned Vermicologist, India

11. “GM foods pose serious health risks”
- American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) on May 19, 2009 - based on several live human cases and animal tests by scientists

12. “The ecosystem, you can always intervene and change something in it, but there's no way of knowing what all the downstream effects will be or how it might affect the environment. We have such a miserably poor understanding of how the organism develops from its DNA; that I would be surprised if we don't get one rude shock after another”. - on GE crops in late 1990s
- Prof. Richard Lewontin , former Dean of Genetics, Harvard University

13. “Many GMO Soy vareities, including RR soybeans produce lower yields than comparable non-GM varieties. They produced between 5.3% and 10% less than conventional varieties.” After a large study and review the results of over 8,200 university-based soybean variety trials (yields) in 1998.
- Dr. Charles Benbrook, former Executive Director, Board on Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences, USA

14. “It is my considered judgment that employing the process of recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering) in producing new plant varieties entails a set of risks to the health of the consumer that are not ordinarily presented by traditional breeding techniques.”
- Dr. Richard Lacey, M.D., Ph.D in Genetics, Food saftey expert, former Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Leeds, UK

15. “The instability of transgenic lines has been well known since 1994, particularly in connection with gene silencing. This not only affects agronomic performance, but also safety. We have drawn attention to the structural instability of GM constructs in general, which may enhance horizontal gene transfer and recombination.”
- Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Geneticist-Scientist, The Institute of Science in Society, London, UK, Author of the book: Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare? (1998)

16. “Given the fact that genetically modified plants are going to make proteins in different amounts and perhaps totally new proteins than their parental species, what are the potential outcomes? A worst case scenario could be that an introduced bacterial toxin is modified to make it toxic to humans. Direct toxicity may be rapidly detected once the product enters the marketplace, but carcinogenic activity or toxicity caused by interaction with other foods would take decades to detect, if ever”
- Professor David Schubert, Cell Biologist, Cellular Neurobiology Lab, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, USA

17. “The presumption of "Substantial Equivalence" - the basis for current regulatory principles (for approval of GM crop and food stuff- is profoundly flawed and scientifically insupportable.”
- Professor Patrick Brown, Scientist, College of Agriculture & Environmental Science
University of California, USA

18. “ Since 1983, I have closely studied various safety issues concerning the use of recombinant DNA technology (RDNA technology; genetic engineering) to develop new plant varieties. My involvement has been both intensive and extensive. My own analyses, as well as a substantial body of published research, clearly establish that these types of unintended side effects are risks of GMO that cannot be lightly discounted. It is because I view the FDA's policy and practices regarding genetically engineered food to be irresponsible -- and also I regard the consequent risk posed for public health to be substantial”
- Philip J. Regal, Ph.D, Biologist, College of Biological Sciences & Professor of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution at the University of Minnesota, USA

19. MON863 (from Monsanto) a GM Corn variety is found cause toxicity in liver and kidney
- American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM)

20. “Say no to GM Foods” & “Halt GM Crop Trials”
- The British Medical Association (BMA), which has a membership of over 120,000 medical professionals and represents more than 80% of British doctors

21. “Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is the blueprint for life. Inside every cell in your body, DNA contains the code that determines what a life form is and what are the physical physiological characteristics of that life form. Any alteration could have catastrophic effect on the health and evolution of the species”
- GM food safety expert Dr. Arpad Pusztai

22. "Genes exist in networks, interactive networks which have a logic of their own. The technology point of view does not deal with these networks. It simply addresses genes in isolation. But genes do not exist in isolation. And the fact that the industry folks don't deal with these networks is what makes their science incomplete and dangerous.”
- Richard Strohman, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California at Berkeley, USA

23. ICGEB defines Bio-safety as "The avoidance of risk to human health and safety, and to the conservation of the environment, as a result of the use for research and commerce of infectious or genetically modified organisms”
- ICGEB (International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology), UN-IDO

CBD Article 8:
The international "Convention on Biological Diversity" or CBD says the following in Article 8 - In-situ conservation (of biological diversity) - Article 8(g), 8(h), 8(i), 8(j):

(g) Establish or maintain means to regulate, manage or control the risks associated with the use and release of living modified organisms resulting from biotechnology which are likely to have adverse environmental impacts that could affect the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account the risks to human health

(h) Prevent the introduction of, control or eradicate those alien species which threaten ecosystems, habitats or species;

(i) Endeavour to provide the conditions needed for compatibility between present uses and the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components;

(j) Subject to its national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovations and practices;

UNEP has defined India as "One of the "megadiverse" country and is composed of a diversity of ecological habitats like forests, grasslands, wetlands, coastal and marine ecosystems, and desert ecosystems. Almost 70% of the country has been surveyed and around 45,000 plant species (including fungi and lower plants) and 89,492 animal species have been described, including 59,353 insect species, 2,546 fish species, 240 amphibian species, 460 reptile species, 1,232 bird species and 397 mammal species"