People's victory in India's brinjal wars
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI - After India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced on
Tuesday a six-month ban on the cultivation of Bt Brinjal, the country's first
genetically modified (GM) food crop, food security experts and activists said
this major farming country has been saved from a biodiversity disaster.
"This is an historic decision. The minister deserves to be congratulated, given
that he was under enormous pressure to give approval for Bt Brinjal, especially
after the country's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) cleared it,"
leading food security specialist Devinder Sharma told Inter Press Service
(IPS).
Had the genetically modified version of brinjal - more widely known as eggplant
or aubergine - been cleared in India, it would have
opened the floodgates to a technology that is regarded with huge suspicion
around the world, Sharma said. "Countries like the Philippines and Bangladesh
were waiting to see which way India would go on this."
Sharma said Ramesh's decision had several implications, starting with the
credibility of the GEAC, which had earlier approved the cultivation of
genetically modified Bt Cotton. Both Bt cotton and Bt Brinjal carry a gene
taken from a bacterium, bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), that is toxic to pests and
supposedly saves on pesticides.
The introduction of Bt Brinjal has not been as smooth as that of Bt Cotton and
the public outcry that followed GEAC's approval of Bt Brinjal on October 14,
2009, was so fierce that Ramesh was compelled to announce the holding of public
hearings before final clearance.
Ramesh's taking the issue to the public, after the GEAC approval, drew vocal
condemnation from two of his colleagues, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and
Minister for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chauhan. In the event, the
verdict from the people was hugely negative.
At a press conference called on Tuesday to announce his decision, Ramesh
admitted to being influenced by massive opposition to the introduction of GM
crops in the country, palpable at a series of public hearings he held in seven
major Indian cities over the past few weeks.
"When the public sentiments have been negative, it is my duty to adopt a
cautious, precautionary and principle-based approach," Ramesh said.
"I will not impose a decision until such time as independent scientific studies
establish the safety of the product from long-term view of human health and
environment, including the rich genetic wealth existing in brinjal in our
country," Ramesh said. "My conscience is clear," he added.
Opposition to a GM version of brinjal, which is one of India's favorite
vegetables and thought to have originated in India, China or Iran, came not
only from civil society groups but also the provincial governments of several
states including Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh,
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
Leaders from opposition-ruled states accused the Congress-party ruled central
government of selling out to giant international food corporations, in this
case the United States-based Monsanto Corp, which owns the patent on Bt Brinjal
and has large shares in Mahyco, the Indian company that markets the seeds in
this country.
According to Sharma, who chairs the New Delhi-based non-governmental Forum for
Biotechnology and Food Security, had Bt Brinjal been allowed to be cultivated
on a large scale there was a possibility that natural varieties of the
vegetable would have been wiped out in no time. "The pests to which Bt Brinjal
is supposed to be resistant to would naturally go for the natural varieties."
Sharma claims that brinjal originated in India, and points to provision in the
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety that discourage genetic modification of crops
in their land of origin. The protocol is a supplement to the Convention on
Biological Diversity, an international treaty adopted in Rio de Janeiro in June
1992 to protect biodiversity and ensure sustainable use and equitable sharing
of the world's genetic resources.
Chitra Devi, a scientist at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources
(NBPGR) in New Delhi, told IPS that earlier release of Bt Brinjal into the
environment could result in the rapid contamination of natural brinjal
varieties with bacterial genes through cross-pollination.
Devi explained that the structure of the brinjal flower was such that it
facilitated a high rate of cross-pollination and also that once contamination
occurred it would be difficult to reverse it. As part of its work of conserving
biodiversity, the NBPGR has conserved some 2,500 varieties of brinjal.
Doctors grouped under the voluntary People's Health Forum have also vocally
opposed the introduction of Bt Brinjal on the grounds that its effect on human
health was untested and unknown.
D Mira Shiva, a prominent member of the forum, told IPS that rats fed with GM
crops had developed fatal lung, liver and kidney problems - an indication that
humans could develop similar problems. "Moreover, in this country there is no
system in place for post-market surveillance on human consumers of GM food
crops," he added.
In a press statement, Gyanendra Shukla, director for Monsanto in India, claimed
that because GM plants "are studied much more extensively than any other plant
product in the world", they provide "equal or greater assurance of safety".
But P M Bhargava, a dissenting voice in the GEAC, said other questions needed
to be asked. "To begin with, we do not need GM crops to feed India's one
billion-plus people. We can feed two billion or more people simply by raising
food productivity, which is comparatively low in the country."
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