Tag Archives: Bt Brinjal

A talk with Dr. Shiv Chopra on GMO

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Dr. Shiv Chopra

Dr. Shiv Chopra

Dr. Shiv Chopra is a Canadian icon, a food and health scientist that was fired for doing a good job in health Canada, in resisting incursion of questionable food and agri-products patented by foreign corporations that did not meet required safety criteria.

He has explained his long service with health Canada, and circumstances under which he and his colleagues were fired for whistle-blowing, in a book – Corrupt To The Core, memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblower.

Myself and Teresa Lynn of Port Coquitlam got Dr. Shiv Chopra on a conference call this morning, on April 25, 2013, and recorded the conversation. It was almost an hour long. Since it covered a lot more ground than just GMO, and since people do not usually have patience to listen through an hour of talk, I had to edit it and split the discussion into sections, and keep the GMO sections together to create a 21 minute podcast.

The take away lesson from Dr. Chopra for us was, just like the Occupy movement going on everywhere, we should occupy our health and our food chain and tell the Govt and the Corporations to leave our food and our body, alone.

Another take away lesson was – Economy and GDP is fine, but food should be out of the economic design where profit trumps good living and good health. Make money somewhere else. Leave our food alone.

You can listen to the Podcast at the bottom of this page. Alternately, you can also find this, and other podcasts from this blog at iTunes. Type “Tonu” in the search field in iTunes, which is my pet name, and the name attached to this blog, and hence the Podcast. iTunes will show a number of items in result. Scroll down to the Podcast section, and you should find Tonu – Tony Mitra, among a handful of podcasts.

Memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblower
Memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblower

You can either listen to this and other podcasts directly from there, or you can subscribe to it, and get it into your computer, or iPod or iPhone etc.

Your comments are welcome. If you do not have an account with WordPress blogging, you can get one. Alternately, you can send me an email at tonu@tonu.org, or tony.mitra@gmail.com or tonu@me.com

Thanks.

A talk with Rajesh Krishnan of Greenpeace India

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Rajesh Krishnan, Greenpeace, India

On April 18, 2013, I spoke with Mr. Rajesh Krishnan, to learn about the current situation with GMO crops in India, from the perspective of Greenpeace.

Rajesh Krishnan is a sustainable agriculture campaigner at Greenpeace India.

The 29 minute conversation is included in the podcast link at the bottom of this page. A brief summary given below:

  1. India needs a shift in paradigm, away from industrial, input intensive, resource destroying model, to a sustainable one.
  2. Farmer suicide escalated since 1990s. To say farmer suicide have not been aggravated by GM crops would be like shutting your eyes from light. The suicide increased with industrial agriculture. With the last decade, adoption of MG crop has aggravated the need for more chemicals, more water input, more cost, and has increased the slope of the economic treadmill of the farmers. The need of pesticides have not gone down. It has increased. Along with need for more fertilizers. So GMO have increased the level of farmer distress, which was already bad since western agri-model was introduced here.
  3. Pesticide usage has had a serious impact on the environment. It kills various organisms in the soil, even beneficial ones that would themselves have attacked and controlled  pests. Pesticide spoils soil condition. The left over plant matter of the Bt. Cotton itself has also lead to harmful impact on the soil microbes, thus destroying the soil fertility.
  4. There are reports in Andhra Pradesh that sheep that browsed on the cotton plants after harvesting of Bt Cotton fields got sick or died. Animal husbandry department issued a notice advising against letting sheep graze on Bt cotton fields. But the genetically engineered crop appraisal body stated that the sheep death are not related to Bt Cotton. Several scientists have challenged this and claimed that there is not enough proof that the sheep death are not linked to Bt toxin, while circumstantial evidence points to a possible link.
  5. This may become an election issue. During the last election, the ruling party waived some farm loans as a temporary solution to farmer distress. This amounts to addressing the symptom rather than providing any real solution.
  6. The Govt is openly pushing for smaller farmers to leave farming, so that larger industrial farming can step in. But, there is no alternative employment available for the huge farming community. So they come to cities and become slum dwellers. There is evidence now that as soon as people lose their land, their food security falls drastically, and adds to the distress level of the internal migrants. It is going from bad to worse for the farmers in the country.
  7. Will there be an electoral backlash next year ? Well, there is no revolution yet from the distressed farmers – but there is a simmering swell of resistance ongoing for a while. Also, there has a very vibrant civil society that is pushing the Govt to seek long term sustainable solution to farming. This effort has cushioned the shock and in effect may be converting a potential revolution into an gradual evolution of farm policies.
  8. The moratorium on Bt. Brinjal (eggplant) has effectively stopped comercialization of all GM crops as well as its field trials, except for Bt. Cotton that is already in use.
  9. Agriculture is a federal issue according to the Indian constitution. However, provinces can say “no” to field trials. As such many provinces have complained to the federal Govt that field trials of GM crops have been started in their states without their agreement. Because of these oppositions, the central Govt has issued a directive that any application for field trial of GM crops in India would require a “no objection” certificate from the appropriate departments from the state Govt. This directive was enacted by the Govt of India in 2012. Since most provinces are showing reluctance to GM crop trials, even field trials are gradually coming to a halt.
  10. Civil society is now calling India to enact a bio-safety protection regime to safeguard India’s agriculture and environment from unintended harmful effect of badly designed GM crops. The idea is for the new law to adopt a “precautionary” approach to authorizing GM technology into the environment or the food chain.
  11. India will need continuous and sustained mass movement and public pressure to resist the enormous push by big money and corporations to take over the agriculture sector. India will need a continuous and wide ranging involvement of a lot of citizens in the country to be to maintain that public pressure to ensure food safety and biodiversity remains healthy and vibrant.
  12. There is an unfortunate situation in India were its traditional and homegrown knowledge is not given its due when compared to western imported industrial technics of agriculture. That is also why people who object to GM and industrial chemical dependent agriculture are branded as anti-science or back dated. But actually the civil society is not against science. There is a need to separate science from technology, and from tested, good technology from harmful tools. But the GMO lobby does not wish to get into those nuanced discussions. They simply paint every one raising questions as anti-science.
  13. India has moved in one decade from a place where there was no knowledge or debate on GMO to a place where there is a rising level of involvement and a very vibrant debate on GMO on agriculture. Latest is a strong group of scientists that have taken up this issue and criticizing the mindless way that the Govt of India is trying to push GMO for the benefit of corporations without regard to safety of the people.
  14. The agriculture minister, Mr. Sharad Pawar has been going around stating that if India does not adopt GM crop technology, then India’s food security may be compromised. Many different groups came out publicly opposing this view. The scientific community has come forward challenging this view and has pointed to scientific data how GM crops are not suitable for improving food security. Other civil society groups like “right to food” campaign, the farmer’s union, are all challenging that argument. It has been interesting to see how the debate on GM crop has evolved in India over the past decade, and all are now asking for a “precautionary” approach to GM crop, instead of a “promotional” approach.

Dr. Bhargava – A talk with a top Indian biologist.

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Early in the morning, my phone gave a tinkle. It was a reminder based on a calendar event I had created, to call Dr. Bhargava early my morning when it was late evening in Hyderabad  India, where he stayed.

Dr. Pushpa Bhargava

Dr Pushpa M. Bhargava is a well known man. He is founder and former director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India; former vice chair, National Knowledge Commission, Govt of India; former member, National Security Advisory Board; Nominee of the Supreme Court of India on the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee of the Govt of India.

Some of the relevant points discussed were:

  1. Bt. Cotton : This has proven to be bad for India. There is mounting evidence of link between rising farmer suicide and Bt. Cotton. Dr. Bhargava states that he has checked his records going back several decades and in fact has the necessary documents to show the increase in farmer suicide in the Cotton farming belt started in large scale since introduction of Bt. Cotton. He further claims that the Bt. gene is a dangerous item and needs to be banned altogether. He feels optimistic that this will happen in India. However, he believes banning of Bt. Cotton will not come from the Government itself, which is focussed on promoting interest of western corporations. The change will come from public pressure, and the significant role being played by the Indian CIvil Society. This may even turn out to be an election issue next year. Dr. Bhargava further stated that the Govt. of Philippines had invited Dr. Bhargava for his views on some of the Bt. Crops such as Bt. Brinjal and had more or less followed his recommendation in rejecting it in their country.
  2. Roundup Ready crop : According to Dr. Bhargava, this is an even bigger disaster than the Bt. Cottons. But thankfully, it is not introduced in India at all, except in small experiments and field trials. Unfortunately, the Agricultural Minister of India is pushing all he can to promote Western Patented and clearly detrimental technology of GM crop for questionable scientific or ethical reasons. Nonetheless, Roundup Ready crops are a long distance away from large scale introduction in India.
  3. Bt. Brinjal : There was a major groundswell of opposition against Bt. Brinjal in India a few years ago, that prompted the then minister of environment Mr. Jairam Ramesh to investigate the pros and cons issue of the Bt. crop and put a moratorium on it, essentially banning it from India for the foreseeable future. This happened in spite of the money poured into media campaign by corporations and the support the GM crop got from most of the Government and business class. This was perhaps the first major setback for GM crop globally, and set the stage for the rest of the issues.
  4. Supreme Court Case : There is a ground breaking case unfolding in the Indian Supreme Court where top Indian scientific expert committee has advised the Court in a case against the Govt of India, about the harmful effects of GM technology. It is possible that the Supreme Court might force the hand of Govt of India in banning most of the GM crops for now.
  5. Biopiracy : There is another interesting case ongoing in a High Court, initiated by civil society individuals against the Govt of India, providing evidence that Monsanto and its partner have violated the National Biological Diversity Act (2002) by using a variety of Indian eggplant (brinjal) without obtaining the permission of Government of India for such use as required according to Indian laws to produce GM brinjal. This is in essence an act of Biopiracy. The court has seen the evidence and has agreed that the Indian law has been violated and instructed Govt of India to sue Monsanto and its partner, which the Govt is now proceeding to do, but trying to find ways to scuttle the case as far as possible.
  6. Illegal introduction of GM crop : India does not have a good laboratory that can quickly check if a crop is GM or not. Taking advantage of that, a lot of GM crops have sneaked into the Indian food chain, such as imported snacks based on GM corn, GM soya etc. This is as such illegal, but the mechanism is not in place to check it and the law regarding safeguards are not properly implemented. There is a lack of awareness on these issues.
  7. Govt Policy on GM: Unfortunately, it is now a well known fact that Indian policy is being tuned to support American interests and to solve America’s problems rather than India’s own national interest. This is so well known that even Indian politicians accept it unofficially. This too is likely to be an election issue next year. Globalization has allowed an unprecedented level of influence by foreign corporations on national policy making of many countries.
  8. Indian Civil Society: It is also an emerging fact that, in spite of corruption, illiteracy and poverty that ravages India, the Indian Civil Society is likely doing a ground breaking job and achieving better success than almost anywhere else, in fighting the menace of GM crop issue.
  9. Golden Rice: The whole issue of Golden rice is a kind of hoax. It is touted as a solution to vitamin-A deficiency in the third world. It is patented technology, but the patent holder states it is not going to claim intellectual rights on it for now. Calculations show that a man might have to eat 15 Kg of this rice every day to get his normal daily needs of Vitamin-A. This is absurd. This means Vitamin-A has to be taken in primarily from other supplementary food and not from rice, either GM or organic. The aim may be for Golden rice to push out and make extinct all other major strains of rice. Once the competition is gone, then the patent holder begins to increase price of seed and demand intelectual rights to the seed.
  10. Science Research off base : Indian Govt has been, unfortunately, tuning its science research institutions to solve American problems and not Indian problems.
  11. Food supply : The main idea of the GM seed business plan is to control the world food supply – the biggest business in the world. It is not designed to solve either hunger or poverty. It is designed to establish a stranglehold and a monopoly on the world food supply.

The conversation was recorded and is given below in the Podcast. Click on the triangular play button. You may also find it in iTunes.

Dr. Bhargava has seen the above text and approves it. He can be contacted at : bhargava.pm@gmail.com

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BIOPIRACY – UNDER THE RADAR

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I do not know the man, and came upon his blog by accident. The blog was titled :

#GMOFAQ How Bt corn and Roundup Ready soy work, and why they should not scare you.

Link : http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=1135&cpage=1#comment-262275

More than the article itself, I got engrossed by the exchanges made under it by the general public, some apparently using anonymous names.

I could not resist putting up my own comments, which is preserved here in blue:

There are a lot of forces acting for and against introduction of GM crops in India.

I live in Canada but was born in India and have quite a lot of links with grassroots organizations in India involved in many fields of work mostly to do with preservation of ecology and addressing poverty related issues for the marginal people in India.

For the Indian context, there are many issues relating to GM crops and why these are resisted at the grassroots level. I shall cover in this post only one of them :

Biopiracy

Often this issue slips under the radar, under the weight of other related issues of GM crops. Basically, this recent act, coming under the Ministry of Environment and Forest, and in force since 2002 – has in its scope the following opening text :  

QUOTE

The Biological Diversity Act 2002 was born out of India’s attempt to realize the objectives enshrined in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 1992 which recognizes the sovereign rights of states to use their own Biological Resources. The Act aims at the conservation of biological resources and associated knowledge as well as facilitating access to them in a sustainable manner and through a just process For purposes of implementing the objects of the Act it establishes the National Biodiversity Authority in Chennai.

UNQUOTE

What it means, in the case of plant, animals and micro-organism families that are not imported but locally evolved, or had been imported in the long lost past and has evolved further within India to acquire region specific traits that make it suitable to the soil and the climate – including those that have been used by the folk and indigenous people of India for medicinal purposes, as tonics or as cure to some illness or injury, and those plants that are used as food, either cultivated or wildly grown, are the collective intellectual property of the nation.

This means, the genome of this biomass may not be copied or studied, or tinkered with, without explicit permission of the Government of India. 

So, studying the genome without explicit conditional permission, and then genetic ally tinkering of same and eventual patenting of any modified life form, essentially violates the Biodiversity Preservation Act of 2002. A new term has been coined to represent this violation – Biopiracy.

So, in the case of Bt.Brinjal, where 4 different types of Indian Brinjal were studied, genome sequenced and Bt.variety developed, violated the above act. This was more or less outside of the public brouhaha about if Bt. Bringal should or should not be introduced on Indian farms.

 Between 2002 and now, India has a different Govt in place, and essentially in cahoots with the GM corporations. Nonetheless, the act has not been repealed, There is enough prima facie evidence that the law has been violated. The Govt of India, according to this law, should not only ban introduction of BT. Cotton, it should sue Monsanto and its Indian partner for violation of the act and penalize them, perhaps removing their license to do any further business in India.

But, as I said, the new Govt is a different animal, and was dragging its feet on the issue. So an NGO firm has initiated a Public Interest Litigation in a provincial high court, against the Govt of India, in order to force it to sue Monsanto. The case has progressed to the stage where the court has ordered the relevant provincial authority to issue a notice to the Govt to file a case against Monsanto. A lot of strange drama is going on about it, with Govt officials involved in the case suddenly getting transferred etc.

This case is catching peoples attention. There is another one pending at the Supreme court about banning or putting a moratorium on a majority of the GM crops till various long term effects are known – being investigated by an expert committee comprising of six scientists, three on behalf of the Govt and three for the petitioners.

These two cases are sending a bit of a shiver in the whole GM wagon train, and a worry creeping in – if my grassroots friends are correct – that if the cards are not played well at this time by the GMO lobby, the whole game might be lost.

This issue – basically of Biopiracy, is the first of my many objections to the introduction of GM crops in India.

Cheers.