Greenpeace activists hang a banner outside Science Ministry

“It’s the duty of a citizen to prevent anyone from committing an act that can jeopardise the rights of the people to safe food and the country’s food security. This is precisely why we as citizens are demanding a citizens’ arrest (1) of Minister Chavan at his office today.” said Jai Krishna, Campaigner, Campaigner for Sustainable Agriculture, Greenpeace India.

Bt Brinjal, the first proposed GM food crop in the country has been indefinitely put on hold by the moratorium announced by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) earlier in February. Following this, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) has proposed the BRAI bill, 2009, (2) to replace the GEAC (under the MoEF).

The proposed central authority with three bureaucrats as the decision makers, denies the rights of the state governments to refuse GM crops. So far the governments of Kerala and Orissa, have opposed the bill as it takes away their right to regulate GM seeds in agriculture, which according to the constitution, is a state subject.

Additionally, BRAI has the authority to supersede information sought under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The bill also proposes a section that imposes penalties like imprisonment and fine of up to Rs. two lakh for persons ‘misleading’ public on GM crops.

The proposed authority will be under the MoST and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), which is a clear case of conflict of interest. DBT has a mandate to promote and fund research on GM crops and will also help in establishing the BRAI. Minister Chavan has also publicly supported GM crops and even upholding biotech industry funded reports to support GM crops.

Over the last few weeks 25,000 Indian citizens have sent petitions to the Prime Minister demanding the withdrawal of the BRAI bill in its present form. Last week, in a public survey conducted by GfK Mode, an independent market research agency, 89% of the public across six cities said that they have the right to protest or reject government decisions on GM foods. A majority (80%) of them demanded an impartial, independent government agency to test and certify GM crops and 78% wanted all information on GM food prior to the approval of GM crops.

“We need an impartial and independent agency which is democratic and transparent, and has a mandate to put people’s health, biosafety, food security and environment before corporate interests. It should promote ecological farming solutions which are more reliable than the unpredictable, unsafe, and corporate driven technologies like GM crops. (3) We are requesting the Prime Minister to withdraw the bill as its inherently flawed and encourages a regulatory system that serves only corporate interests” said, Jai Krishna, Campaigner for Sustainable Agriculture, Greenpeace India.

Greenpeace Demands

• The BRAI bill draft should be immediately withdrawn.
• An immediate ban on all field trials of GM crops happening across the country.
• Agricultural research to focus on ecological alternatives, to identify agro-ecological practices that ensure future food security to the country and livelihood security to our farmers and farm labourers.

Notes :
1. sec 43(1) of the CrPC: Arrest by private person and procedure on such arrest.
Any private person may arrest or cause to be arrested any person who in his presence commits a non-bailable and cognizable offence, or any proclaimed offender, and, without unnecessary delay, shall make over or cause to be made over any person so arrested to a police officer, or, in the absence of a police officer, take such person or cause him to be taken in custody to the nearest police station.
2. a brief of the bill is available: lhttp://greenpeace.in/safefood/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/GM-Flyer-lr.pdf.
3. the poll is available at: http://www.greenpeace.org/india/press/reports/public-opinion-survey-on-ge-fo

For more information, video and photos, please log on to: www.safefoodnow.org
* Jai Krishna, Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner, Greenpeace, +91 98455 91992 jaikrishna.ranganathan@greenpeace.org
* Seema Javed, Senior Media Officer, Greenpeace, +91 99100 59765, seema.javed@greenpeace.org
* Syed Mehaboob, media officer, Greenpeace, +91 9731301983, syed.mehaboob@greenpeace.org

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Consumers say no to GE food

Greenpeace activists hung banners at the Nestlé India headquarters in Gurgaon. The banner said: “Nestlé, GM free forever?” questioning Nestlé if they will be GM free forever. Greenpeace volunteers also dressed up as Nestlé’s most popular products — Maggi, Cerelac and Kitkat made a beeline to the office, asking Nestlé officials if they have a GM-free future.

Greenpeace India released a Safe Food Guide[i] in August 2009, ranking companies based on their policies for or against the use of GM[ii] ingredients in their foods. Nestlé was placed in the red category since they had supported the use of GM ingredients. Soon after, bowing to tremendous public pressure created by more than 28,000 cyber activists, Nestlé responded to Greenpeace queries and stated that their products do not contain GMOs as of now in India, since the law prohibits it. However, Nestlé refused to commit future positions, saying taking a future stance on GMOs is “hypothetical”.

In an online Greenpeace poll, nearly 98% of the 4,000[iii] people polled stated that they will not eat GM food even if it becomes available in future. Several companies, who previously had no position on the use of GM ingredients, have given statements that they prefer to avoid GM ingredients in their products. MTR Foods, Britannia, and Ruchi Soya have also said they do not support GM foods.

In September 2009, Nestlé baby food products sampled by Greenpeace were found to be genetically contaminated in China.[iv] “The consumers in India are not satisfied by Nestlé’s declaration of status quo. Nestlé India must have a policy, which ensures that its products are GM-free not only today, but in the future as well said Jaikrishna, Campaigner, Greenpeace India.

Mr.Antonio Waszyk, who heads Nestlé India now, clearly has a much bigger challenge to respond to, than merely ensuring his company’s high profits. Mr Waszyk, 28,000 of your consumers are watching and they want to know if Nestlé is going to be GM-free for the future.,” continued Jaikrishna.

For Further Information contact
Jai Krishna, Campaigner, +919845591992, jr@greenpeace.org
Syed Mehaboob, Communications: +919731301983, syed.mehaboob@greenpeace.org

[i]Greenpeace India launched the Safe Food Guide in August 2009 which categorizes 17 food companies operating in India into a ‘red list’ and a ‘green list’ based on their responses to Greenpeace regarding their policy on the use of genetically modified (GM) ingredients in their food products.

[ii]The guide comes at a time when the Union Government is in the verge of approving genetically modified Bt Brinjal. Following-Bt Brinjal, there are close to 40 other food crops, like rice, tomato, mustard, and potato, which the government may approve. The safety of GE crops as a foodstuff for animals and humans is unknown and the testing regimes inadequate. No amount of testing would prove GM crops are safe for the environment and foodstuff because GM crops are subject to unexpected and unpredictable effects

[iii]The snap poll was conducted online by Greenpeace India and the results can be viewed here: http://greenpeace.in/safefood/poll/

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Nestle showed no interest in listening to their customers

The plan was rather clear: we had been collecting products from Nestle consumers for the last two days. Got them – returned to the sender – because consumers would rather have other products than Nestle’s products which cant be trusted to be GM free.

Larger than life nests were made, names of consumers printed and neatly stuck by our volunteers Kuba, Vikrant, Sahai, Debojyoti, Anurag, Naina, Mehul and Sayani, all ready to go.

More than 1000 consumers had pledged to return the products in a span of 20 hours. The total count of people who have demanded Nestle to go GM free has so far crossed 22,000.

Instead the police were brought in to get rid of consumer pressure!

So when we finally arrived, Nestle pulled their cars in (fearing us?), refused to let us even into the reception. They called the police in five minutes and locked themselves up. After the police were satisfied with the reason why we were doing this they demanded that we should take it away, which we promptly refused – we were merely representing consumers.

After Nitin’s amazing ‘dances’ with the police and having made it very clear that we are not going to take them away, we left the area. Last I saw, after more than 2 hours, Nestle’s office remained shut and the nests were having a lot of interesting visitors.

Read the entire News Release at http://greenpeace.in/safefood/news-blog/returned-to-sender/

See a video from ANI http://videosfromindia.smashits.com/view/9544/activists-protest-against-genetically-modified-food

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New Delhi: 16th September 2009: More than 500 consumers today pledged to return their Nestlé products to the company’s corporate office in Rajiv Chowk today, even as Nestlé continued to deny the consumers their right to GM free products. Greenpeace volunteers, who acted on behalf of more than 20,000 consumers across the country, placed the rejected products marked with question marks, into larger than life nests in front of the office building, parodying Nestlé’s well known logo. This symbolized questionable contents of Nestlé products owing to the company’s failure to have a GM free policy.

Greenpeace India released the Safe Food Guide in New Delhi recently ranking 17 major food companies as ‘green’ or ‘red’ on the basis of their policies regarding the use of genetically modified ingredients. Only two companies Nestlé, and Hindustan Unilever had indicated a policy which favoured the use of GMOs.

Hindustan Unilever, which was initially slotted in the ‘red’ list, has since clarified to Greenpeace that it does not use any GM ingredients in its products. This clarification by HUL has made Nestlé, with brands like Maggi, Cerelac, Lactogen, Kitkat and Nescafe, under its umbrella, one of the big brands, openly supporting the use of GM ingredients in its products.

As a result of the pro GM food position indicated by Nestlé, thousands of consumers across the country have started demanding that Nestlé, in sync with its policies in the European Union and Russia, should go GM free in India as well. Over 21000 emails have been sent to the Chairman and Managing Director of Nestlé India, Mr. Antonio Waszyk demanding that Nestlé India go GM free.

Last week, Greenpeace in China discovered Nestlé’s baby food products contaminated with GM ingredients. Like India, Nestlé has had a history of disregard to consumers in China. Soon after the news of this scandal, over a 100 people called the Nestlé India head office demanding a GM free policy from the company.

“Overwhelming public opinion shows that consumers reject GM food as unsafe and unnatural. Nestlé needs to respect consumer choice and declare itself GM free like it has in Europe and Russia. Anything else will be merely a manifestation of double standards. If MTR foods can, why can’t Nestlé” said Jai Krishna, campaigner with Greenpeace India.

(1) Of the 17 major food brands, 6 are in the ‘green’ list. 11 companies are in the red list. In the green list, MTR is the only company to have a policy rejecting GMOs in their food products. For the entire guide log on to www.safefoodnow.org

(2) http://www.greenpeace.org/china/en/news/nestle-baby-food
India has not approved any GM food crops as of today. However there are more than 11 food crops which have been under hundreds of acres of field trials. In addition to this, unauthorized imports of packaged foods and even grains, makes the threat of contamination a reality.

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