Bangalore, Friday 22 January 2010:A group of college students dressed in Brinjal costumes paraded at the Brigade road signal today to express their choice not to consume Bt Brinjal. Dressed in life size brinjal costumes, the youth interacted with passersby distributing booklets which highlighted the effect of BT Brinjal. They urged ‘nama Bangalooru’ to attend and voice its preference at the Bt Brinjal consultations scheduled in Bangalore.

Bt Brinjal created by inserting a Toxic gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis( Bt) into Brinjal helps kill the insects like Shoot and Fruit Borer. Upon ingestion of the Bt toxin by these insects, it disrupts their digestive processes, resulting in death. Tests done by various independent scientists globally have shown that bt brinjal is potentially dangerous to human health and that of the environment.

“We will not be treated as lab rats.” There are enough variety and quantity of brinjals for consumption. Weighing the ill effect Bt brinjal has on consumers health, the environment and forcing farmers into slavery of buying Bt Brinjal seed, it’s not worth the trouble. Why should we be at the mercy of the government and financial interests of multinational companies? It’s great that Jairam Ramesh has organized these public consultations to record the choice of consumers, farmers and scientists. We should actively participate and express our choice” said Smithen and Snehal, St Joseph Arts & Science College and Bangalore Institute of Legal Studies.

Bt Brinjal has faced stiff resistance from farmers, scientists and consumers in Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Ahmadabad where the consultations were completed. Since the beginning of the debate on commercialization of Bt Brinjal last year, atleast 8 state governments have openly declared that they do not want Bt Brinjal to be approved. The latest was Karnataka which joined states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The past week also saw some intriguing political twists with the Union Minister for Science and technology, Mr Pritviraj Chavan and Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar coming out in open to promote Bt Brinjal resulting in a rebuttal from the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh who is holding public consultations in 7 cities across the country.

The Bangalore consultations which was earlier scheduled on 25th January has now been postponed to 6th of February.

Farmers are under threat, there are known ecological impacts, consumers choices are violated and it is not clear to this day why we need Bt brinjal when safer affordable and sustainable alternatives for pest control exist. said Bhakti Nefertiti, Campaigner, Greenpeace India. She also opined that “While it is heartening to see state governments are taking proactive steps to reject Bt Brinjal, we hope that our environment minister would resist the pressure from other ministries with vested interests and stand by the public verdict against Bt Brinjal”

Notes to the editor
Information, photos and videos of the previous consultations in Kolkota, bhubaneshwar and Ahmedabad are available in www.safefoodnow.org

For further information contact
Bhakti Nefertiti, Campaigner, Greenpeace India, 9663655664, bhakti.nefertiti@greenpeace.org
Syed Mehaboob, Media Officer, Greenpeace India, 9731301983, syed.mehaboob@greenpeace.org