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  • From: <fdnokes@hotmail.com>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>, <bdnow@yahoogroups.com>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fw: [cban e-News] Victory: GM eggplant halted in India - allegationsthat Monsanto "faked" data
  • Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:27:32 -0800

apologies for cross posting.
enjoy the news.
Frances

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Lucy Sharratt - CBAN Coordinator" <coordinator@cban.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 5:26 AM
To: <cban-e-news@cban.ca>
Subject: [cban e-News] Victory: GM eggplant halted in India - allegationsthat Monsanto "faked" data

After widespread resistance from activists, environmentalists, NGOs, state governments and certain political parties, the Government of India has placed a temporary moratorium on the commercialization of Monsanto's bt brinjal (eggplant) until further health studies are done - what was meant to be the first commercialized GM vegetable in the world! (there is GM squash grown in the US but on a really small scale)

This decision comes despite a visit by Nina Federoff, advisor on Science and Technology to Hillary Clinton, who went to India to try and influence the government's decision. The GM eggplant was a huge media and political issue in India.

"This is a great victory for every one of us. Also for the unknowns who supported across the sea. This is a victory for the people of third world countries who are always subjected for subjugation for corporate profits. There are hundreds and thousands of unknown faces in this fight. Every one of them has contributed in this momentous victory. But this is not the end. Our togetherness should continue until we win back our agriculture, food from the clutches of the corporates." - R. Selvam, Pudhu Nilavu Organic farm, Thalavumalai, Arachaloor, Erode District, Tamil Nadu

The eggplant (brinjal) was engineered to be insect resistant - expressing Bt toxins to kill pests and would have been the first Bt vegetable since Monsanto's Bt potato was approved in Canada and the US - the GM potato barely made it to stores and is no longer on the market due to consumer resistance in Canada and across the world.
GM eggplant approval would have paved the way for GM rice approvals in India.
Bangladesh and the Philippines were also waiting to hear what India decided before they made their own decision on GM eggplant.

We will see if Monsanto will still pursue their application in India or, as they did in the EU with a GM high lysine corn already approved in Canada, they will withdraw it so new safety studies are not done.

Please find below some of the news stories. Best regards, Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network www.cban.ca

********

India halts release of GM aubergine

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 February 2010 18.55 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/09/india-halts-genetically-modified-aubergine
Environment minister imposes six-month moratorium on launch to allow for further research

The Indian minister for the environment today imposed a six-month moratorium on the launch of a genetically modified variety of aubergine, known locally as brinjal, saying that further scientific research was needed before permission could be given for its commercial cultivation.

Jairam Ramesh said he had taken note of "tremendous opposition" from state governments within India, broad public resistance and the lack of a scientific consensus. "This would be the first GM vegetable crop anywhere in the world so I have been very sensitive and I have arrived at this decision which is responsible to science and responsible to society," he said tonight.

The decision was welcomed by campaigners. "It is an excellent precedent," said the Environment Support Group. "No minister before has ever subjected such an important decision to such public and scientific review."

Opponents had argued that the mass cultivation of the new variety – known as Bt Brinjal after the initials of the bacterium inserted into the plant to boost its resistance to insects – would damage the 2,000 or more existing types of aubergine grown in India. Many also raised concerns about potential human health hazards.

The involvement of the American multinational Monsanto – which part- owns the Indian company that developed the new strain – also stoked the argument over the potential costs and benefits of the new aubergine, with an alliance of left and rightwing politicians arguing that Indian sovereignty was under threat. Activists today hailed the decision as a "victory over American imperialism".

The Indian government found itself in a delicate position after a government panel last year supported the introduction of Bt Brinjal, even though most of the major states in which the 8m-tonne annual aubergine crop in India is grown had said that they would not permit it. The six-month delay for further research is a useful way for Ramesh, a rising reformist minister who played a crucial role in brokering a political accord at the Copenhagen conference on global warming, to sidestep a difficult political battle and to avoid a public row with other ministers who support the launch of Bt Brinjal.

Lobbyists for GM foods were disappointed. "It is unfortunate that India's 1.4 million farmers will not yet be able to enjoy the benefits of biotech brinjal," said Denise Dewar of Croplife, the global industry association for plant biotechnology, which includes Monsanto among its members. "As a staple crop, biotech brinjal could also benefit millions of Indian consumers, who would have improved product quality and greater choice in the marketplace."

India allowed the use of genetically modified seeds for cotton in 2002 after trials found it needed 70% less pesticide and gave 87% more crop than traditional plants. It is now grown in 39% of India's cotton area.


India drops GM food plans

India has dropped plans to release the country's first genetically modified food crop because of fears over the long-term effects on human health.

By Dean Nelson in New Delhi
Published: 12:36PM GMT 09 Feb 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/7196372/India-drops-GM-food-plans.html

The environment minister had been expected to announce the go-ahead for GM aubergine, known in India as Bt brinjal, after a government committee of scientific experts announced its backing.

Since then farmers have led a national campaign against the proposal, citing concerns over the effects of long-term human consumption and the impact on farmers who would have to buy the seeds from an Indian partner of the American biotech giant Monsanto. They claim it would leave farmers poorer and lead to more suicides.

The new variety was created to minimise crop destruction by insects and reduce pesticide use. It contains a toxic protein which kills fruit and shoot borers, which is destroyed during cooking and in the human gut.

Its approval would have paved the way for more than 50 other genetically-modified crops currently being developed.

Indian Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said more independent studies on the impact on human health were needed before it could be commercially released.

"There is no overriding urgency to introduce it ... When the public sentiments have been negative, it is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary and principle-based approach," he said.

"I will not impose a decision till such time independent scientific studies establish safety of the product from long-term view of human health."


Monsanto 'faked' data for approvals claims its ex-chief

Dinesh C. Sharma
India Today, 9 February 2010:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story?sId=83093&secid=120&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitterfeed

NEW DELHI: The debate on genetically modified (GM) brinjal [aubergine] variety continues to generate heat. Former managing director of Monsanto India, Tiruvadi Jagadisan, is the latest to join the critics of Bt brinjal, perhaps the first industry insider to do so.

Jagadisan, who worked with Monsanto for nearly two decades, including eight years as the managing director of India operations, spoke against the new variety during the public consultation held in Bangalore on Saturday.

On Monday, he elaborated by saying the company "used to fake scientific data" submitted to government regulatory agencies to get commercial approvals for its products in India.

The former Monsanto boss said government regulatory agencies with which the company used to deal with in the 1980s simply depended on data supplied by the company while giving approvals to herbicides.

"The Central Insecticide Board was supposed to give these approvals based on the location and crop-specific data from India. But it simply accepted foreign data supplied by Monsanto. They did not even have a test tube to validate the data and, at times, the data itself was faked," Jagadisan said.

"I retired from the company as I felt the management of Monsanto, USA, was exploiting our country," Jagadisan, 84, said from his home in Bangalore.

"At that time, Monsanto was getting into the seed business and I had information that a 'terminator gene' was to be incorporated in the seeds being supplied by the firm. This meant that the farmer had to buy fresh seeds from Monsanto at heavy cost every time he planted the crop," he said.

Jagadisan said the parent company also retracted from the assurance given to then minister for chemicals and fertilisers, Vasant Sathe, on setting up a manufacturing unit in collaboration with Hindustan Insecticides for the herbicide butachlor.

"The negotiations went on for over a year and in the meantime, Monsanto imported and sold large quantities of the product and made huge profits," he said.

Asked to comment on Jagadisan's allegations, a Monsanto spokesperson said: "We have full faith in the Indian regulatory system, which has its checks and measures in place to ensure accuracy and authenticity of data furnished to them." On approval of GM crops, the spokesperson said the regulatory process was stringent and "no biotech crops are allowed in the market until they undergo extensive and rigid crop safety assessments, following strict scientific protocols".



Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator
Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN)
Collaborative Campaigning for Food Sovereignty and Environmental Justice
431 Gilmour Street, Second Floor
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P 0R5
Phone: 613 241 2267 ext.6
Fax: 613 241 2506
coordinator@cban.ca
www.cban.ca

Join the Global Rejection of GE Wheat! www.cban.ca/GEwheat

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  • [permaculture] Fw: [cban e-News] Victory: GM eggplant halted in India - allegationsthat Monsanto "faked" data, fdnokes, 02/10/2010

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