Says reporters should set up their own labs to do toxicity testing!

Faced with angry farmers demanding compensation for the failed Bt brinjal crop in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) claimed the crop was safe.

However, when asked whether BARI had conducted any research to find out whether Bt brinjal would harm human health, the BARI director general "became furious and asked reporters to set up their laboratories to carry out the research as Bangladesh had no laboratories to conduct such research" (item 1 below)!

Interestingly, some toxicological research was done on Bt brinjal by Mahyco, Monsanto's Indian subsidiary. Dr Lou Gallagher, a New Zealand-based epidemiologist and risk assessment expert, analyzed the raw data of Mahyco’s 14- and 90-day rat feeding studies from the Bt brinjal dossier.

Dr Gallagher noted that rats eating Bt brinjal experienced:
* Organ and system damage: ovaries at half their normal weight, enlarged spleens with white blood cell counts at 35 to 40% higher than normal with elevated eosinophils, indicating immune function changes
* Toxic effects to the liver.

Dr Gallagher continued: “Major health problems among test animals were ignored in these reports… Release of Bt brinjal for human consumption cannot be recommended given the current evidence of toxicity to rats in just 90 days and the studies' serious departures from normal scientific standards.”

Dr Gallagher concluded, “The safety claims made for these plants are not supported by existing data. On the contrary, there are alarming signs that the consumption of food derived from these plants could result in adverse health effects.”

Meanwhile British pro-GM campaigner Mark Lynas, who defended Bt brinjal in the face of local reports that it had failed (http://www.marklynas.org/2014/05/bt-brinjal-in-bangladesh-the-true-story/), has not written anything on the topic on his blog for several months.

1. BARI claims Bt brinjal has no adverse effects: No research conducted
2. Affected farmers demand compensation from govt
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1. BARI claims Bt brinjal has no adverse effects: No research conducted

Staff Correspondent
New Age (Bangladesh), 8 Sept 2014
http://newagebd.net/46932/bari-claims-bt-brinjal-has-no-adverse-effects/#sthash.Tj2sSDPt.8pt9u9wA.dpbs

Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute claimed on Sunday that genetically modified BT brinjal has no detrimental effects on human health, bio-diversity and environment though it said it carried out no research on the controversial food crop.

BT brinjal, or bacillus thuringiensis brinjal, is a transgenic brinjal by injecting the soil bacterium bacillus thuringinsis into the genome of various brinjal cultivars.

Bacillus thuringiensis, commonly used as a pesticide was discovered by Japanese biologist Shigetane Ishiwata in 1901.

In the backdrop of huge opposition to commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal,  BARI called a news conference at  Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council at Farmgate for what it said, ‘dispelling misgivings bout Bt brinjal.’

The news conference turned noisy with  BARI officials getting involved in heated debates with affected Bt brinjal farmers and reporters over the controversial food crop.
BARI director general Rafiqul Islam Mandal said Bt brinjal farming was introduced in Bangladesh to save the crop from the deadly fruit and shoot borer paste attacks.
He said that the objective had been achieved.

He said farmers would be able to collect Bt brinjal seeds from their own farms as it was not a hybrid crop.

He said that there would be no need for the farmers to depend on select seed companies for Bt brinjal seeds.

Nor they have to pay royalties to anyone, he said.

He also said that there would be no adverse effects on the environment and farmers’ health as the Bt brinjal cultivation requires limited pesticides.

He said that farmers would get desired outputs.

Several Gazipur farmers, who were given the controversial Bt brinjal saplings for cropping disagreed with the BARI director general and said they would not cultivate the genetically modified crop again as it totally ruined them.

But some of the farmers from Mymensingh and Pabna who also grew Bt brinjal, with saplings they had received from BARI, said they had a good harvest.

Haidul Islam and several other farmers from Saitalia village in Sripur upazila, Gazipur, said their Bt brinjal plants died in 10 to 15 days after they had planted the saplings.
BARI director general said that the saplings died as they could not plant the Bt brinjal saplings in time.

Several farmers said that Bt brinjal tastes  bitter.

Asked whether BARI conducted any research to find out whether Bt brinjal would harm human health, the BARI director general became furious and asked reporters to set up their laboratories to carry out the research as Bangladesh had no laboratories to conduct such research.

Did Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association and Unnayan Bikalper Nitinirdharoni Gobeshona conduct any such research, he shot back.

How then they oppose Bt brinjal cultivation, he demanded to know. ‘We shall carry out the research next year only after we get an accredited laboratory,’ he said.

Environmentalists have been asking the authorities not to introduce Bt brinjal cultivation after its cropping ‘failed’ in many areas.

The government introduced Bt brinjal cultivation in Bangladesh in the backdrop of controversy surrounding the genetically modified crop in India.

India where Bt brinjal seeds were developed imposed a moratorium on its cultivation in 2010.

Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech found itself in the centre of controversies for developing BT brinjal seeds in India.

Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech, is a 50:50 joint venture between US based Monsanto Holdings P Ltd, a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation and Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company.

Bangladesh is the first country to encourage its farmers to grow Bt brinjal.

Countries that are parties to the Convention on Biodiversity and have  ratified the Cartagena Protocol are committed to the safe handling of living modified organisms and genetically modified organisms, said scientists.

The Cartagena Protocol provides a broad framework of biodiversity especially focusing on trans-boundary movement of genetically modified organisms and also covers seeds that are intended for food, feed or used in food processing.
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2. Affected farmers demand compensation from govt

Financial Express (Bangladesh), 8 Sept 2014
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/09/08/54956

* BARI press meet on Bt Brinjal

Many of the farmers, who cultivated the controversial Bt Brinjal at a press conference Sunday demanded compensation from the government as they incurred massive losses.

The peasants claimed that they suffered unbearable losses by cultivating Bt Brinjal as all the plants died with the beginning of fruiting period although the government officials said it could be a profitable crop.

The demand came at 'the press conference on Bt Brinjal' organised by BARI (Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute) held at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) in the city.

BARI officials said the press meet aimed at removing the misunderstanding on Bt Brinjal among the people following a press conference organised by eight environmental, business and consumers' right organisations on August 31 where seven farmers demanded compensation for their loss by cultivating Bt Brinjal.

BARI director general Rafiqul Islam Mondal and director (research) Dr Khaled Sultan, among others, spoke on the occasion.

Senior scientific officer of BARI Md Kamruzzaman presented a paper on Bt Brinjal and its development in Bangladesh.

However, sixteen Bt Brinjal farmers out of twenty were present on the BARI press conference.

Eleven farmers revealed that all the plants of their fields died within two to three months after plantation.

Two farmers, Md Afzal and Md Amzad Hossain from Pirganj in Rangpur and Iswardy in Pabna respectively, said they got good crops without using pesticide.