People started flowing into the IMA hall premises from 6am in the morning to participate in the public consultation on Bt Brinjal in Nagpur, which was the fourth in the series of seven consultations. Everyone wanted to express their views and be part of one of the historic events in the history of Agriculture in the country.

The hall with a seating capacity of 500 people was full in no time. With hundreds of people left outside, the atmosphere was tense. Inside the hall the farmers started raising slogans against Bt. Soon, Sharad Joshi walked in with his small pro-GM crowd and there were slogans for Bt Brinjal. But their voices were shadowed by the anti-Bt Brinjal slogans.

Minister Jairam Ramesh speaks to the protesters outside the venue after the consultation in Nagpur

Minister Jairam Ramesh walked in at around 11 am. The minister made it very clear that he came to Nagpur to find out the impacts of Bt cotton, even though he didn’t want to compare Bt cotton with Bt Brinjal.

Farmers were given the chance to speak first. Ghanshyam Chopde, a natural farmer from Vidharbha was the first to speak. He set the tone with a strong discourse against Bt Brinjal. Shalini Sudhagar, who came with two widows whose husbands committed suicide after the failure of Bt Cotton, spoke next. The entire hall went silent while she gave her speech.

Among the prominent farmer leaders, Vijay Jawandhia and Avinash Kakkade opposed the introduction of Bt Brinjal while Sharad Joshi supported it. Farmer group discussion was mainly focused around Bt Cotton. Majority of the farmers equated Bt cotton with farmer distress and suicides. Altogether 21 farmers spoke out of which only 7 spoke in favour of Bt Brinjal.

The scientists spoke next. The corporate scientists and few ICAR scientists spoke in favour of Bt Brinjal. Generally they were trying to counter the arguments against Bt. But they were given contradicted by scientists like Prof. Nimbalkar, Prof Tharakate, Prof Thakare and Ashok Bang.

Civil groups, consumer forums and government officials were next in line. Chhattisgarh government’s official delegation opposed the introduction of Bt Brinjals and the Vidharbha Industries Association’s representative made it clear that these technologies should be treated with caution and hence should not be introduced in haste. Only 6 out of 19 people who spoke in this session supported the introduction of Bt Brinjal.

After the consultation, Jairam Ramesh spoke to the media and confirmed that he had received official letters from Chief Ministers of Orissa, Bihar, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Kerala asking for a moratorium on GM crops. West Bengal CM also opposed hasty introduction of Bt Brinjals.

The minster also listened to the concerns of the people who could not enter the consultation venue. Overall, Bt Brinjals received a negative response in Nagpur.

Signing off
Team Nagpur

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Our Bt Brinjal awareness drive kicked off at Futala Lake in Nagpur on Sunday. The entire idea was to do something to make people take notice of the issue and attend the consultations scheduled on 27th January.

Volunteers inform people about the harmful impacts of Bt Brinjal in Nagpur

As a part of our activity we hired a road side food cart owned by Baba Thakur, who has been selling food in the area for the psat 10 years, to serve brinjal pakodas. As soon as we told him about Bt Brinjal he said, “I will not serve GM food, and will do whatever I can to stop the entry of these foods into our food systems.” He decided to play his part in the mission to stop the entry of genetically modified food by treating the Sunday evening crowd to hot brinjal pakodas.

Several women and kids also joined the activity organized by Greenpeace India and YUVA, Nagpur to raise awareness about Bt Brinjal and its impact. Donning Brinjal costumes they moved around serving hot pakodas and handing over leaflets. Eight year old Atharva Tapas, a std III student of Narayana Vidyalam , youngest among the “desi brinjals”, was the focal point of attraction. Everyone was so impressed by his enthusiasm and knowledge on the topic.

The activity was long and fruitful and set a good precedent for the consultations scheduled on Wednesday. We will keep you updated about the results of the consultations. Keep an eye on this space.

Signing off,

Team Nagpur.

The brinjal pakoda cart with anti-Bt Brinjal messages in Nagpur

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On 19th January we held a public engagement activity at the Erragadda Rythu Bazaar. This is one of the biggest vegetable markets in Hyderabad and buyers and vendors flock this market in large numbers everyday.

Our goal was to talk to the vendors about the Bt Brinjal issue and make sure they are aware of the problems with Bt Brinjal. We started on our little activity by dispersing in groups of two or three to talk to brinjal vendors.

Vendor at the bazar showing his support against Bt Brinjal

Among the various interactions we had, our volunteers spoke to a farmer whose cow had fallen sick after eating Bt Cotton leaves. As soon as he heard about Bt Brinjal, he vehemently opposed the introduction and wanted to show his opposition by tying a headband. Another couple we interacted with wanted to spread more awareness about the issue among friends and relatives.

After two hours, when we felt had spoken to almost all the brinjal sellers, we had a small de-briefing with the volunteers. We were pleased to find out that they were more than happy to participate in the public consultation and would also help us in recruiting more people to attend it.

Overall, it was a fruitful day. We had good conversations and captured good pictures, for the photo wall we’ll display at the consultation. After some rest we’ll start getting ready for the big day of the consultation here.

That’s all for today!

We’ll keep you updated

Hyderabad team

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Jairam Ramesh at public consultations in Ahmedabad

Over 1,200 individuals gathered at the JB Auditorium, Ahmedabad Management Association for the third round of the seven consultations, proposed by Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment and Forests. People came from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat to voice their concerns on the much debated genetically modified food crop – Bt brinjal.

In the first session, out of 28 farmers who got to speak, 18 rejected Bt brinjal. In the second session, where scientists expressed their views and feedback, an overwhelming 13 scientists out of 15 scientists who spoke, took a stand against the entry of Bt Brinjal.

The minister spoke to an audience of over 500 stakeholders inside the auditorium while another 700 stood outside, waiting to be heard.

A young student from Ahmedabad presents Jairam Ramesh with a variety of non-Bt brinjal.

‘Let me choose what I eat’, ‘We are no lab rats’, ‘GM food an attack on the environment’ were some of the messages given to the Minister as he walked into the consultation. A young student from Ahmedabad also presented Jairam Ramesh with a varied variety of non-Bt brinjal reminding him that the future of India lies in his hands.

Within minutes of the Minister walking into the room, he suggested that Ahmedabad was important because Bt Cotton was successful here. The farmers and the scientists were equivocal in their opposition to the Bt Brinjal. Some even suggested that the seed manufacturers and the GEAC members should be made to eat Bt Brinjals for two years before it was introduced to the general public.

In turn, Jairam Ramesh assured that the ministry was in no hurry to come to a conclusion, and would not take a decision in a closed room.’

These three consultations seem to have set the mood for the remaining ones. As we move ahead, we hope to hear a lot more NOs to Bt Brinjal.

Team Ahmedabad

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The college inaugurated their Eco Club on Tuesday and GM was the highlight and the first event that they are going to work on is GE food.

There were more than 250 students present & many students wanted to join this Eco club after the presentation on GE. There are 60 members in the club now.

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“How dare someone mess with our food and soil… we will not let that happen!” Voicing strong opinions and demanding their right to safe food, over 70 women of a very shocked Pragathipara Mahila Vedike joined Greenpeace in the national rally against GE food in Coorg by sending over 70 petitions to Nestle demanding that they go GM free.

After the screening of ‘Poison on a Platter’ every woman was left aghast at the effects GM food would have on their health and environment. The gathering of concerned women assured Greenpeace that they would take this further, as far as they needed to go to support this movement.

Just watching the reactions on the faces of the women, any one would have a brief resonance as to being a homemaker who felt cheated on the very food they fed their families.

More associations are awakening to the dangers of GM food and have invited Greenpeace to address their gathering in Coorg and Chikmaglur.

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It started off as any other day in Mumbai -Overclouded skies, blaring horns, busy malls, basically your average run of the mill boring morning. Until wham! A bunch of senior citizens together with Greenpeace decided to tell a very strange tale.

Imagine walking about with a tail. Sounds preposterous, doesn’t it? Now imagine your grandparents walking around with a tail! Well that’s exactly what the respected older generation did to create awareness about GE food.

What’s more, what seemed to be a worthy laugh riot at the onset…and there were many curious others staring… wondering what the whole gig was about, the activity had an undeniable seriousness behind it.

In the first ever action of its kind, Greenpeace together with this very crazy generation of yore went about the crowded malls of Mumbai’s racy suburbs wearing big brown tails, telling others to ‘Grow a tail, and to ask them how’.

We are no ancient gods and mythology aside; no one wants to have funny appendages growing in unwanted places. So why in the world would anyone want something strange in what they eat- Genetic modification of food is anything but funny, and watching the golden oldies share their energy for the safety of out future was absolutely inspiring.

The core aim was to spread awareness about GE food, which we did! Many a shocked youngster went home with a lot more than food for thought. Or perhaps, for the first time, they actually thought about their food and whether what they were eating, was GM free or not.

The pure enthusiasm of the Nana –Nanis for this activity was exhilarating! It’s wake up time and maybe we all need to get off our behinds and wear a tail. And maybe, after we all feel a tad bit unnatural, besides looking funny, we will realize what it means to be alright with eating food that’s been genetically tampered with.

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