Never in the past had crops that we cultivate had to undergo such scrutiny, and rightfully so, as in the case of GE crops.
Genetically Engineered (GE) crops are organisms created artificially in labs through a process called recombinant DNA technology. The unpredictability and irreversibility of Genetic Engineering and the uncontrollability of GE crops in the environment coupled with studies pointing at the potential risk to human health and environment has resulted in a controversy across the world around the need for introducing such potentially risky organisms. This had also resulted in most countries in the world putting in place a precautionary approach towards GMOs reflected in their regulatory systems. India currently has a regulatory system in place, the intention and efficiency of which had been under question.
The debate in India on GE crops had started with Bt cotton, the only commercially approved GE crop in the country (March, 2002) and had become shrillest around the approval of Bt Brinjal, the first GE food crop in India. The fact that government, pointing at precautionary principle, finally rolled back an approval given by GEAC, the apex body for approval of GMOs in our country, has validated the concerns raised by many against the existing regulatory system. While the inadequacy of the existing system had long since been pointed out by many including the Swaminathan Task Force on Agri-biotechnology (2004), it’s shocking the manner in which the Ministry of Science and technology is trying to lower the bar for the approval of GE crops and changing all the rules of the game to quell any future dissent against them.
This is being done through a bill that is to be tabled in the Parliament in the Budget session of 2010. This has been named as The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India bill.
Flawed process:
The Present bill has its origins in 2005, and a draft version has been in circulation (in 2008). The selective consultations for these were totally biased and were done by the bio-tech consortium of India limited, an agency created to promote biotechnology in India. The Department of Biotechnology drove the process for the erstwhile NBRA and also drives the present version, BRAI.
Several comments were received from the civil society and the scientists, farmers and consumers to change the structures, decision making processes and the need for ethical, and socio economic considerations before approving a GE (genetically engineered) crop. All these have been totally ignored in the present bill.
What is wrong with the bill?
Centralised, bureaucratic decision making with mere advisory role to elected representatives like Ministries and state governments.
The apex authority is the “Biotechnology regulatory authority of India” – (BRAI) with a chairperson, and two members, all scientists with either a bio tech or a health background.
The decision making process:
• Three divisions in BRAI to take applications with GE in agriculture, GE in pharma and GE in industrial or environmental uses.
• A risk assessment unit to evaluate risk and not necessarily to conduct independent tests.
• A product ruling committee to recommend approvals.
• Final decision by the BRAI.
Ministerial representatives are placed among the Inter Ministerial Advisory Board and State Governments are restricted to their respective “State Biotechnology Regulatory Advisory Committee”.
With this structure, neither open air field trials, nor final approvals can be opposed by the state governments.
In comparison, the existing structure provides the final decision of any GE crop to the state governments. There are seven ministerial representatives in the GEAC – can intervene in each and every decision of the authority – a situation required for providing checks and balances on decisions that can have serious ramifications on diverse ranging from a citizens health to the countries trade security.
Conflict of interest between the BRAI and the Ministry of Science &Technology
The BRAI is hosted by the Ministry of Science and technology. Dept of biotechnology – under the ministry of S&T, has the mandate of promotion of GM crops. DBT funds several GE crop development projects using public funds and is the nodal agency for redirecting funds from foreign governments to GM crop development projects. It has been seen with the existing regulatory system where the Review Committee for Genetic Manipulation [RCGM], the committee under the DBT, has been mired in controversies with regard to conflict of interests. Many members of the RCGM are GM crop developers and body itself was sitting with in a department which was promoting GM crops.
With the promotion and regulation of GE crops under the same ministry, there is huge conflict of interest.
Transparency- an option decided by the authority.
The Right to Information Act, 2005(RTI) is been considered as the one of the best tools for ensuring transparency in governance. It has immensely helped the citizen to exercise his/ her democratic rights to know about how our government takes decisions and has been empowering the public in various governance issues.
A recent central information commission order has even made it mandatory for the all bio safety data presented by the company to the regulatory authority to be disclosed to the public even when a GE crop is in a field trial stage. This order, the result of a 30 month long RTI appeal for the bio safety data of GM crops by Greenpeace, can now ensure independent review of the data on GE crops and enables participation of the civil society.
The section 27 (1) and (2) of the BRAI bill super cedes the requirement of the Right to information act and places the decision to disclose information for public interest with the authority instead of the central information commission or the Delhi High court as required by the RTI act 2005. This means that once BRAI is in place the citizen’s right to know about safety of GM crops is killed for ever. This would kill any informed public debate on GM crops in future, one of the aspects that helped in stopping Bt Brinjal.
Penalty for questioning GMOs:
While the decision of GE food is decided by a 3 member bureaucratic system, there is an extreme interest shown in gagging the voice of dissent.
The sec 63.of the bill, says, that persons misleading the public about the bio safety of GE crops without scientific evidence can be imprisoned for 6 months or fined for 2 lakh rupees or both.
This goes against the spirit of precautionary principle which says that even if there is no scientific consensus on the harm ensued evidence of potential harm is enough to stop GM crops from being released in to the environment. BRAI is thus not only violates this golden principle on GM regulation but also is a gag order to keep alternative opinions of scientists, health experts, environmental experts and the fourth pillar of democracy- the free press away from public sphere. It’s a fundamental violation of the basic human rights.
No concept of rollback of approvals, labeling of GE food or liability of the crop developer:
No labeling, liability or rollback of products:
Present day testing procedures of GE crops are grossly inadequate to ensure its safety or ascertain its environmental impacts. Despite this being the case, there are no sections talking about roll back of approvals, or labeling of GE crops, or liability of the crop developer due to economic losses by contamination.
Remediation of contamination :
Following a contamination incident (or in the case of a wrong approval), remediation of the site and redress mechanisms for the affected are required to ensure the safety of public health and the environment. These find no note in the bill.
Socio economic assessments missing:
Socio economic studies for assessing GE crops are not part of the existing regulations. They don’t find any mention in the new one either.
If BRAI is on, safe food is off. Withdraw the bill!
If the BRAI is passed as an act in the parliament this session, Bt Brinjal will be back, and following it is Bt rice, Bt tomato, GE mustard and 40 other food crops.
Minister Chavan’s biotech bill can make approval of unsafe GM food a decision of 3 technocrats; overrule the citizen’s right to know, kill the consumer right choose by refusing labeling while pushing the country into a treadmill of GM foods and jeopardise food security and sovereignty.
The Prime Minister must withdraw the bill and an authority with the mandate for protection of bio-safety must be created. Precautionary principle must be the guiding principle of the policy towards regulating GM crops. A transparent and democratic process must be followed in the creation of this new authority.
Lets join together to stop the bill. It is clear for the consumer, that the end of choice for safe food starts here.
For more information : www.safefoodnow.org
Contact : Jaikrishna R, Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner, Greenpeace India,
mob: 91 98455 91992, Email: jaikrishna.r@greenpeace.org
In Australia in 2000 researchers attempted to create a mouse contraceptive through genetic engineering. Instead, they created entirely by accident an incredibly virulent form of mousepox virus. There is a write-up on it here for those interested.
http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/2009/11/armageddon-bug.html
There is little evidence of increased yields from GM foods, while grave evidence of serious health problems exists. Even aside from this debate the position that we can mix and match genes across genus, phyla and kingdom in self propagating organisms released into the wild and have any clear idea of the consequences of our actions is the height of arrogance and scientific hubris. The story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice was I guess a couple centuries ahead of its time.
Googlel- “Agenda21″ and” Eugenics” says:
March 5, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Mr Unbiased,
How naive you are as an informed citizen when you put this statement “While GM foods have their problems, they have more benefits than problems.” Have you ever faced the hidden truth which is not released to the general public because of the interest of globalist agenda. No you can’t and masses also can’t because we are all controlled by the false media and real reports are always suppressed. We are living in “SCIENTIFIC TYRANNY” where the governments (puppets of the Globalist Banking-Military Industry Cartel) take the route of problem-solution alchemy, they create problem and then force solution which is beneficial for the globalist agenda. Now when you say GM food have their problems you have no ideas how BIG that problem is. Do you know how and why GM foods came into existence? GM came into existence because of the WARS and Globalists Profits Agenda and the agenda of Eugenics and mass extermination of human population.
After second world war the it was headache to dump millions of dollars worth of excessive chemical weapon “Nerve Gas”. So the Globalist-Military industry decided to spray it on us in the diluted form and experimented on cockroaches and other insects and reduced the effect to that level that it could kill the bugs instantly but not the humans and that gave rise to the Pesticides.
So a new industry started and the propagating that without pesticides there can no longer be excessive food growth and whole population would die starving and the biggest manufacturing company of pesticides then in USA was MONSANTO. It was a big wave in the name of Green Revolution and excessive pesticides use which did more harm to the ecology and human cancers and deaths. Excessive use also made the bugs resistant to the variety of harmful pesticides and accelerated the problem. There were big protests and then the same SCIENTISTS who then said it is ALL GOOD FOR YOU, were responsible for the gruesome act and the government had just apologies. After these incidents people started looking for natural ways which are tried and tested since human history for more than 5000 years and beyond. And found the Bacillus thuringiensis (bah-SILL-is thur-in-jee-EN-sis),commonly known as Bt, is a bacterium. Bt acts as an insecticide by producing proteins that react in the gut of some insects, paralyzing their digestive systems. The insects stop eating and quickly starve. And “volla” a natural bacterium but with some limitations because the bacteria must be eaten by the insect to be effective, good spray coverage is essential. You should avoid breathing the powder or spray when applying Bt to your plants. Bt degrades fairly quickly in sunlight, so it will not persist in your garden. Some strains persist for less than 24 hours while others remain viable for about a week.
So MONSANTO started experimentation with genes and found the strains of DNA genes that the bacteria uses to produce its toxin , then you know what happened, MR Unbiased, these SCIENTISTS of MONSANTO who are the representatives and sold their souls to the Military-Globalist-Banking cartel industry took out these toxin producing genes from that bacteria and infused these into the genome DNA of the plant so that EACH AND EVERY CELL OF THE PLANT CAN PRODUCE THIS TOXIN AUTOMATICALLY and when the bug eats ANY PART OF THE PLANT may be it a root, leaf, fruit and any cell of that plant THE BUG WILL BE KILLED. These scientists who have sold their souls know this very well and they will not ever let their families live on and eat any BT crops at all. WHY? because the bacteria toxin producing gene is present in each and every cell of your plant food and this gene is remains in the digestive track and harmful to the good gut bacteria which is necessary for human digestive system and thus leads to digestive track cancer. This is just one of the 1000 several reasons given to avoid GM in our natural food chain. It has been found that the the live stock animals those have been feed on GM crops (because these same GM crops were rejected by human population for consumption in the several European countries , American continent after BIG protests), these live stock animals showed signs of food allergies , digestive track cancer and other cancers, and most importantly signs of impotency. Cows never became pregnant when feed on BT corn crops and the whole of the dairy farming community suffered. Now imagine putting GM food on your dinning table and giving it to you own children, wife, husband, parents , brother-sisters and your friends. This is a pure case of MASS EXTERMINATION of HUMAN POPULATION by the EUGENICISTS and followers of the Military-Globalists agenda.
Again all the puppetry governments and the so called NEW WORLD GOVERNMENT is here for SCIENTIFIC TYRANNY over us and want to suppress all the real news and show BIG PROBLEMS to you “GLOBAL STARVATION” and in actual fact they create it for you. Do you know MR Unbiased, that it was the agenda of the Anglo-British empire to keep all the third world nations (Africa-Asia) starving by propagating them to produce Bio-Fuels and other cash crops on their fertile lands instead of food crops for years and still it is ongoing , and even old history of British Raj tell this that British to sabotage the fertile Indian lands propagated the cultivation of INDIGO (Neel) . So MR Unbiased always remember this that puppets governments controlled by the Globalist-Military-Banking cartel are Problem-Reaction-Solution governments, which themselves create Problems and look for the public reaction and release the solution to match their sinister agendas.
Right now the Globalist-Military Corporations have the technology to organic grow organic plants with accelerated growth without much resources needed through the use of magnetic field but they will never release that to the general public because their first agenda is to mass exterminate 90% of the human population under the disguised name of SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT-Agenda21 of United Nations. And GM food is one of the step towards the soft killing of masses and to take away the natural survival ability of the human population and God gifted way to have free seeds from the fruits. In this direction, under the pressure of Military-Globalist-Banking cartel industry, the bills are already being in process to pass in USA and Canada that NO ONE would be allowed to grow any food in their kitchen gardens at all it will be considered as illegal as growing narcotics.
Mr Unbiased you also quoted “And to others who think scientists decide for the public, well who else will? You want your local postal worker to decide what nutrition you will get?” and I have to say again you are so naïve; the organic farmer , our own Ayuerveda , your own grandma, our Vedas can tell you more truth about food nutrition and these scientists who have sold their souls.
You also quoted “Do not follow propaganda blindly ” and I have to say YES all the mainstream media around you is run by the Globalist-Military-Banking industry cartel’s money to make people blind and follow the propaganda and never get the truth.
You are also right MR Unbiased when you quote “And to the other person who thinks this bill has something to do with democratic values, when has India ever produced truly democratic bills? Democracy is only an idea that we hope for and have never been exposed to.” You are so right is saying this because NO GOVERNMENT in the world in this post 2000 era can make a bill which is against the will of their Masters.
Welcome to the NEW WORLD ORDER of scientific tyranny, where “War is Peace – Freedom is slavery and Ignorance is Strength.
Please WAKE UP SHEEPLES , enough is enough. Get out of this Matrix and see how deep the rabbit holes goes for yourself.
If you want more truth, feel free to email at sams_chat@yahoo.com
[...] The bill to end the right for safe food « Say NO to GE Food [...]
This is such a bad bill for so many reasons. The worst thing in it is the limits it puts on expression. The GM industry and their political allies are obviously on the defensive; why else would they push such an obviously repressive bill? So glad to see you organizing against it.
[...] if the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill to be introduced in Parliament is a harbinger of things to come, all debate really seem much ado about [...]
[...] sustainable future. We signed petitions, wrote letters of protest to the Home Minister, opposing the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India bill. We don’t support Genetically Engineered (GE) crops but not a word about this blatant [...]