Farmers protest against Monsanto's GM corn
October 18, 2012
The fate of genetically modified (GM) food crops in India
has been virtually sealed.
After the damning report of the parliamentary committee on
agriculture, a panel of technical experts appointed by the Supreme Court has
recommended a 10-year moratorium on field trials of all GM food and termination
of all ongoing trials of transgenic crops.
The panel also wants safety dossiers of all GM crops
approved for trials and those in the pipeline to be reviewed by independent
biosafety experts, in the light of 'several cases of ignoring problematic
aspects of safety data'.
If necessary, international experts should be involved in
this exercise. The apex court had specifically sought technical opinion on
continuation of open field trials.
At present, several food crops are being tested in open
fields by an array of Indian and multinational companies.
All such trials will have to end if the court accepts
recommendations of the technical panel which was appointed with concurrence of
the government.
Jairam Ramesh as environment minister had imposed an
indefinite moratorium on the commercial release of the first transgenic food
crop, Bt brinjal, in February 2010.
This is the first time a technical panel has specified the
period of moratorium as 10 years.
'Ten years is a reasonable length of time for
restructuring,' the panel said. Representatives of both pro and anti-GM lobbies
were heard by the panel.
The committee's recommendations fly in the face of the stand
taken by the scientific advisory committee to the PM in favour of the current
regulatory system.
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