Global scientists back 10-year moratorium on field trials of Bt food crops
Posted by Unknown in Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), GMO and Hybrid Crops on Wednesday 8 May 2013
They say Supreme Court-appointed panel’s recommendations reasonable
File photo shows a protest against Bt Brinjal in Hyderabad. |
Even as the
final report of the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Expert Committee
(TEC) on open field trials of genetically modified crops is awaited, 51
independent international scientists with expertise in genetic
engineering and biosafety protocols have approved the panel’s Interim
Report. The report has called for a 10-year moratorium on open field
trials of Bt food crops until adequate regulatory mechanisms and safety
standards are put in place.
With Bt brinjal
being the first-ever food crop sought to be introduced in India, its
dossier went through international appraisal and evoked much interest
throughout the world.
“The TEC report
attracted attention because of intense polarisation over the use of GM
agri-biotechnologies in food and the environment and the large number of
public and private researchers, investors and companies engaged in
developing GM crops and associated Intellectual Property Rights claims,”
the renowned GM scientists said in a statement.
Since the
Interim Report was made public, the Union Agriculture Ministry filed an
affidavit in the Supreme Court in favour of GM technology. After hearing
the Ministry, the court appointed a sixth member on the panel.
This was
opposed by Aruna Rodrigues, lead PIL petitioner, through her lawyer
Prashant Bhushan, who said that in the matter of regulation of GM crops,
the Ministry of Environment and Forests stood over the Agriculture
Ministry.
Underscoring
the need for science to operate free of commercial and political goals,
the scientists said “the review of previous approvals in India for Bt
crops left the TEC in no doubt that India was not ready to make reliable
safety judgments because of failures in procedure, inadequate attention
to development of competent and independent regulatory bodies and lack
of appropriate management of conflict of interest among scientific
consultants.”
SOUND RECOMMENDATIONS
“The TEC
provided competence and independence to achieve credibility. The science
used by the TEC is sound and its recommendations are reasonable. It has
not imposed any new rules or suggested a moratorium on research. It has
simply called for adequate standards to be established,” said the 51
signatories, including fellows of Royal Societies or National Academies
of Science, scientists representing a range of research disciplines
including plant genetic engineering and the creation of first GM food
crop, tomato, in the U.S., which was later withdrawn for health
concerns.
The TEC made 11
specific recommendations for properly regulating the development and
commercialisation of genetically modified crops in India.
“It recommended
that product testing outside of the laboratory [field trials] be
stopped until a comprehensive and effective process for such testing
could be implemented. Except for a ban on testing GM crops for which
India is a centre of biodiversity or origin, all testing can restart as
soon as the government provides a robust and proper procedure,” the
statement said.
ENDORSEMENT FROM EMINENT CITIZENS
Taking note of
the concerns expressed by the scientists, three eminent citizens — the
former Supreme Court judge, V.R. Krishna Iyer; the former Election
Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh; and the former Chief Justice of the Delhi
High Court, A.P. Shah — endorsed and forwarded their statement to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
“We involve
ourselves in the matter of open field trials motivated by the absolute
need for integrity in sound decision-making for good public policy. We
are also advised by independent, international scientists who have
joined from all corners of the globe to support the scientists of the
TEC. We endorse their statement, which may not be ignored,” they said.
In a similar
letter to Ms. Gandhi, they expressed “anxiety” over the “absence of
rigour and transparency in the regulation of GM crops which may have
irreversible impacts in the event of contamination of non-GM crops
[unlike a drug which can be recalled].”
Stressing the
need for “Precautionary Principle,” they asked the Prime Minister to
“uphold” the Interim Report of the TEC as the “only safe course of
action that must be taken, given the irreversibility of the consequences
of GMO contamination.”
The former
member of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), Pushpa
Bhargava, endorsing the TEC Interim Report as “well-argued, scientific
and fair,” has said the government denying this report implies that it
has no compunction in throwing “outstanding science” out of the window.
He has urged the Prime Minister to instruct the Ministries concerned to “gracefully accept” the TEC recommendations.
“It must be
understood that the TEC only recommended a limited time moratorium on
Bt-based products intended for use as food, and on herbicide-tolerant
crops until a full socio-economic and safety review of these products
can be completed,” Ms. Rodrigues told The Hindu.
This entry was posted on Wednesday 8 May 2013 at 05:29 and is filed under Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), GMO and Hybrid Crops. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.
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