The call by experts for an indefinte ban on GM field trials until India's broken regulatory system is fixed should be accepted
1.Accept expert panel report on GM crops: forum
2.Vidarbha farmers welcome Supreme Court committee’s “NO” to GM crops
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1.Accept expert panel report on GM crops: forum
Gargi Parsai
The Hindu, July 25 2013
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/accept-expert-panel-report-on-gm-crops-forum/article4949788.ece
*The report is a strong indictment of regulatory affairs, says Coalition for a GM-free India.
NEW DELHI - Welcoming the recommendations of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) on Genetically Modified crops, the Coalition for a GM-free India has urged the government to accept the report and “not come in the way of delivery of justice”.
The panel, set up by the Supreme Court in a Public Interest Litigation, has recommended in its final report that it would not be advisable to conduct any field trials in Bt transgenic crops till gaps in regulatory system are addressed.
“The report is a strong indictment of the state of regulatory affairs with regard to modern biotechnology in the country. We urge that the Central government to take the report seriously and act on it in the interests of food safety, security, and sovereignty as well as protection of environment and farm livelihoods,” the Coalition said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
However, the Association of Biotech Led Enterprise - Agriculture Group (ABLE AG) that represents the industry has termed the document — though an improvement over the interim report that called for a 10-year moratorium on field trials of Bt transgenic in all food crops (those used directly for human consumption) — as “regressive, biased and a troubled treatise” that promises to push Indian agriculture into an archaic age.
“The industry believes the TEC report, besides being incomplete, is also anti-science and anti-research and will severely dent the future of country's farmers besides destroying the domestic private and public sector research. While improving the testing programmes is a continuous process, we do not believe that testing should be stopped in the interim,’’ said Ram Kaundinya, Chairman, ABLE AG in a press statement.
The report submitted to the Supreme Court has not been signed by R.S. Paroda, the representative of Agriculture Ministry who was inducted after the submission of the interim report last year.
“This is not surprising given the fact that Dr. Paroda’s very inclusion in the Committee was controversial and objectionable — his organisation receives funding from biotech majors like Monsanto and Mahyco — and this constitutes a clear conflict of interest. It is ironical that even this court-appointed committee has had to face such a conflict of interest situation, given that this has been the case with almost all GM-related issues in India so far,” the Coalition’s letter said.
The TEC’s comments with regard to bio-safety dossiers that were approved by the current biotechnology regulator is a scathing indictment of the failings of the existing regulatory regime, the Coalition noted.
The TEC could not find any compelling reason for India to be the first country where Bt transgenics are widely consumed in large amounts for any major food crop that is directly used for human consumption.
The TEC has therefore reiterated its recommendation made in the Interim Report that there should be a moratorium on field trials for Bt in food crops, until there is more definitive information from sufficient number of studies as to the long-term safety of Bt in food crops.
With regard to herbicide tolerant (HT) GM crops, the panel said that these would most likely exert a seriously adverse impact over time on sustainable agriculture, rural livelihoods and the environment. Noting that that HT GM crops are completely unsuitable in the Indian context, the TEC recommended that field trials and release of HT crops not be allowed in India.
Unlike the situation in 1960s, the TEC said, there is no desperate shortage of food and India is in a reasonably food secure position. It recommended that the release of GM crops for which India is a centre of origin or diversity as in Bt brinjal should not be allowed. (Philippines Supreme Court has recently banned open field trials of Bt Brinjal.)
Urging the government to accept the recommendations based on sound-science, justice and principle of sustainability, the Coalition said “vested interests must not be allowed to prevail”.
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2.Vidarbha farmers welcome Supreme Court committee’s “NO” to GM crops
Vidarbha Times, 23 July 2013
http://vidarbhatimes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/vidarbha-farmers-welcome-supreme-court.html
Nagpur - 3 million debt-trapped distressed cotton farmers who are innocent victims of first Genetically modified (GM) crop Bt.cotton commercial trials resulting more than 10,800 farmers suicides have welcomed recommendations of Supreme Court technical expert committee imposing an indefinite moratorium on the field trials of Genetically Modified (GM) crops till the government comes out with a proper regulatory and safety mechanism.
“Vidarbha is known as the farm suicide capital of India after 2004 when Indian Govt. allowed very rain sensitive Bt.cotton commercial trials which has proved as disaster as Technology was suitable for dry land cotton farmers and successive bt.cotton crop failure and mounting debt has started farm suicide spiral which is till continued and this truth was confirmed by Indian parliamentary committee headed by Basudeo Achaya MP reports too but cartel in Agri. Ministry and close liaison of MNCs has been able to push GM crops even after this Vidarbha farmers’ genocide hence we are indebted to the Supreme Court technical expert committee's historic decision. Kishore Tiwari President of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), an activity group working for farmers and demanding a ban on GM crops since 2004," said in a press release today.
“We urge UPA Govt. to scrap proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill, 2013, which is pending with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forest as expert committee in its report to the Supreme Court said there should be a moratorium on field trials for Genetically Modified food crops like Bt Brinjal intended for commercialization until there is more definitive information from a sufficient number of studies as to their long-term safety based on the examination of the safety dossiers. It is apparent that there are major gaps in the regulatory system as it is serious that GM crops for which India is a centre of origin like rice, brinjal, and mustard now being kept on hold which reflects view of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, in a report August 2012 had asked for ban on GM food crops in the country,” Tiwari added.
"Vidarbha cotton farmers have paid cost misdeeds done by regulators which ignored several issues relating to health safety data of GM crops that biotechnology companies had used to obtain approvals aimed at commercial release of the crops without any socio-economic impact study during evaluation, the panel said, that was confirmed by apex court technical committee. Hence we want criminal prosecution against [those] concerned who allowed Bt.cotton seed commercial trials in dry land region of vidrabha where there is no protected irrigation facility. [There are] farmers forced to kill themselves due to massive crop failure and mounting debt converting the region to a graveyard of dying fields of farmers, and tragedy is still continued," Tiwari added.