Is India ready for genetically modified food?

Other stories in the section:

Dial M for Marriage: Indian match-making goes mobile

Online matchmakers tie up with cell phone providers to find the eligible match.

• Saving mangroves: Chennai student wins UN award

• Mocha man preferred over macho man says survey

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Bhiwani to Beijing: Lessons from a journey

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Brinjals commit suicide for Greenpeace cause
• Gene tweaked but is this brinjal safe to eat?
• Greenpeace alert on genetically modified food in India

Keywords: Brinjal, Genetically Modified Food

New Delhi: Debate over the genetically modified food has been raised time and again.

The question that surfaces is whether India is ready for genetically modified food in India.

Experts say the systems to monitor and test GM food are grossly inadequate in India. However, if granted approval by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, Bt brinjal would be the first genetically modified vegetable anywhere in the world.

“India is ignoring the precautionary principle," says activist, Greenpeace, Rajesh Krishnan.

However, these are not the only issues and it is not just activists’ who are protesting, Dr Pushpa Bhargava, who is special invitee by the Supreme Court to the GEAC to lend transparency to the functioning, has shot off a stinging letter to the GEAC. The letter says, “There is enormous evidence which calls for a total review of India's experience with Bt cotton. "The two experiments done to check allergenicity and toxicity for BT brinjal are grossly inadequate.”

The letter also says, “One may, therefore, ask if all these tests and analysis have been done for Bt Brinjal and Bt Okra. This would need a highly specialized and reliable laboratory and it is not safe to permit any open field trial of any transgenic food material."

“Have we invested in monitoring mechanisms? The answer is no,” says Secretary, Department of Bio Technology, Dr. MK Bahn.

Concerns regarding GM food have been growing the world over and almost 182 countries have declared themselves GM free.

“They tested the 1863 corn, fed rats with corn and discovered problems in the liver and kidney of rats,” says Greenpeace activist, Rajesh Krishnan.

However, the Department of Bio-technology is unfazed. “We are in favour of Genetically Modified food,” says minister, Kapil Sibal.

Bt brinjal is the first in the line in a long list of food crop. However, Bt okra and Bt rice are likely to follow.