Beware of BT Brinjals

8/9/2019 Beware of BT Brinjals

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Beware ofBT Brinjals

Science without conscience is but ruin of the soul wrote FrancoisRabelais. We allow all types of havocs, to wreck the population, out of

both ignorance and indifference. After the havoc takes place we give

juicy explanations, have debates and start the blame game. The verythought of allowing untested BT Brinjals sends shivers down the

collective spine of innocent millions who would be consuming itunaware of the possible dangers it can have on the health.

Bureaucrats are either chicken hearted or operate with childish

knowledge, media lacks the gall to oppose for fear of losingadvertisement revenue from the perpetrators of these activities, at

least scientist must extricate themselves from the shell of academicismand provide a welcome antidote by boldly spelling out the possible

health hazards. Now that we have information explosion, let us use the

full potential of our limbic brains and prevent the havoc instead ofsearching for cures and culprits after the havoc.

We have clear cut right not to allowBT Brinjals it as per

1] Cartagena Protocol, which demands an extra-cautious approach for

testing GM varieties in regions where the crop originated.

1a] Peru, where potato originated, and Mexico, original home of corn,have a ban on genetic testing of these two. This comes from the fear

that the alien gene, mostly sourced from other species, could escape(in some instances it indeed has) from the modified varieties, and

contaminate the crops entire natural genetic diversity

2] Brinjal originated in INDIA-

2a] I.S. Bisht, a principal scientist at the Delhi-based National Bureauof Plant Genetic Resources, asserts that Solanum melongena L (the

botanical name for brinjal) originated in the wild in India and adjoiningareasa view seconded by noted food historian K.T. Achaya, who also

states that brinjal is an indigenous vegetable that originated from a

wild ancestor. The bureau has acquired and conserved as many as2,500 varieties of brinjal, 95 per cent of them from India.

2b] 4th century BC brinjal recipe from Ettuthogai, an ancient

Tamil text: Smear green brinjal with gingelly oil. Roast it on charcoaland then peel it. Mash it when cold. Heat some more gingelly oil. Add

mustard seeds, curry leaves, crushed pepper corns, ginger powder and


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chopped fresh ginger. Finally, add the mashed brinjal and cook brieflytill well-blended. (Courtesy: Jacob Aruni)

2c] the history of the popular Sode Matha temple, in Karnatakas

Udupi district, is inseparable from the vegetable. Poisoned, Lord

Hayavadana asked for a naivedyam prepared from a special type ofbrinjal called gulla. That variety is now widely known as mattu gulla,the former being the name of the village where it was first cultivated

2d] Brinjal is even older than Sanskrit, which had to borrow the word

vartaka and vrntaka from the Munda language

3] Greatness of Brinjal. Dr. James S. McLester, well-knownprofessor of medicine at the University of Alabama and one of the

pioneers in treating nutritional deficiencies, says: "If a man would

enjoy sustained vigor and would experience his normal expectancy ...he must eat a liberal quantity of good protein." Good protein means, of

course, a complete protein-one containing all 10 essential amino acidsand Brinjal has almost all the essential amino acids Arginine, Lysine,

Tryptophan, Phenylalanine, Methonine, Crystine, Theonine, Cystine,

Threonine, Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine.

4] Brinjal is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant, with a

concentration of 100 ng/g (or 0.01 mg/100g.

5] Brinjal is high in histamines. A few proteins and at least onesecondary metabolite have been identified as potential allergens.

These three factors essential amino acids, nicotine and histaminesmake any gene inserted into BRINJAL really deadly to the person who

consumes it as it can get into the vital body organs and cause damageto health much faster.

6] Genes inserted into GM food survive digestive processes and are

transferred into the human body. They are known to have transferredthemselves into intestinal bacteria too. Bt toxin had caused powerful

immune responses and abnormal cell growth in mice. It has also been

shown that all the Cry proteins in Bt crops have amino acid sequencesimilar to known allergens and are hence potential allergens.

7] Bt brinjal has been modified to produce an


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unknown chimeric insecticide toxin containing Cry1Ab and Cry1Acmodified sequences

Bt brinjal produces into the vegetable cells a protein

inducing resistance towards at least kanamycin, a well known

antibiotic

Bt toxins have never been authorized as such for mammalianconsumption.

Artificial ones should not be either, before a more serious

assessment.

8] I would like to add here a very meaningful letter written by ascientist with conscience to the MINISTER concerned on this issue:-

Na ruteh shrantasya sakhayay devaha-God does not help inactive people- Rig Veda (4.33.11)

SUNDARAMURTHY V.T,Sri Vaishnava Sri

23, Maniyakarar Street, Veerakeralam, Coimbatore-641 007, Tamil Nadu,India

E- Mail :< [email protected] > Phone: 0422-2473853

October 23/24, 2009

ToHonorable Shri.Jairam Ramesh,Union Minister,Ministry of Environment & Forests,Paryavaran Bhavan,CGO Complex, Lodhi Road,

New Delhi - 110 003E-Mail: Hon.Shri .Jairam Ramesh ,

Respected Sir.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Pranam JII salute and bow my head Sir for having taken a decision notto hurry up with a transgenic crop and having given anopportunity to the public and stake holders to open their

minds to give their unbiased views on such crops.Sir your earlier statement that GM crop is acceptable butGM food is not is the best one made by keeping the healthof 120 cores of Indian and finest bio diversity of our countryin the mind. As one of the citizens of this Nobel Country withthe base intelligence I submit the following for your kindnotice.

The Genetic improvement of crops by conventional and

biotechnology approaches involves the addition of geneticvariation to varieties and cause changes in the plant genomethat result in unintended effects on crop traits. But thescreening processes help to have the varieties with desirabletraits.The dwarf gene in wheat and Rice besides makingthem highly fertiliser responsive laid the foundation forGreen revolution and prevented starvation death of billionpeople around the world particularly the Indian subcontinent.Thanks to Dr.Norman Borlaug. The fertilizer

responsiveness made the mankind to over do in the systemto cause an irreversible damage to the Agro system.Similarly with cotton where we advocated the use ofpesticides saying that they have Tonic effects and increasethe productivity. But over, indiscriminate use led intocollapse of the system with unintended health hazards tohuman beings. These are all due to existence of very littleknowledge on the biochemistry and changed plantmetabolism under these situation and mono culture which

replaced the existing polycrop system in those days.

The 21 stTechnological Century provides us various tools to study and assess

the biological mechanism with ease. The Chinese group of scientists have

elicited how the Bt- gene has modified the nitrogen metabolism and

increased the free amino acid, soluble protein, nitrate reductase and the

glutamic-pyruvic transaminase activity in cotton (Chen, D.H. et al.Field


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Crops Res. 87: 235- 244 2004). Such of these basic informations will aid for

developing appropriate agronomy which may not go against the wellbeing of

the system and will help to keep our system intact to some extent.

The transfer of genes into plants is one of the breeding

methods like hybridization and mutagenesis and cannot beignored or discarded as this mode help to transfer specificgene into the matrix of the plant cell for getting a desiredeffect with in short time span. The advance made in the fieldof gene transfer enabled the mankind to introduce the Bt-gene to the crop easily (Perlak, F.J et al..Proce. Natl.Acad.Sci, USA 91: 7217-7221, 1994) and get quick benefitas against other methods. But there are some known andunknown implications that are woven with this method and

crops developed.

It has been conclusively established that the BT materialexudes Bt proteins through roots into the soil and getsaccumulated to interact with the soil fauna. The insecticidaltoxin binds tightly to clays and humic acids and persisting invarious soils for at least 234 days like DDT. We tookseveral decades to ban the use of DDT in our India as it hascaused several irrevocable Ecological and health hazards.

The same effects are likely to descend to our dynamic agrosystem with transgenic crops.They besides creating theecological problems that are associated with monocultureagriculture may result in cumulative effects of toxins in soils.The Scientists of Indian Institute of Agriculture Reseach(IARI), New Delhi have brought to light that the transgeniccrop (Bt) has reduced the total mineral-N+ NO3 -N) in soilby 14 % and enhanced P besides reducing Dehydrogenaseactivity, and respiration of our own soil indicating that there

is reduced activity of soil microflora (B. Sarkar et al., J.Agronomy & Crop Science194, 2008.). About seventy five percent of total area undercotton in our country is under the transgenic materials andwe do not know what is happening in our soil in these areasin our system. If the soil ecosystem and its species dynamic


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are affected it is difficult even to imagine what type ofcatastrophe will embrace our country and her finestbiodiversity.

The Bt materials are known to carry unknown fragments ofRNA and DNA genetic material and new proteins, but whosebiological effects particularly toxicity and allergic action forhumans and animals are not fully brought to light. It hasbeen reported that the unintended DNA and RNA fragmentsin genetically modified maize may bring some unexpectedturbulences(Rosati et al. Plant Molecular Biology, 67: 271-281(2008), and whether the presence of these fragmentsare specific to certain Bt genes are not known. It has been

reported recently that orallyadministered DNA is known tointeract with the Immune system and if it is so what will bethe effect of food containing the unintended DNA is also notknown. Scientists have evaluated the gut and peripheralimmune response to genetically modified maize in mice andfound recurrent changes in the immune system(Finamoreet al. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 56:11533-11539, (2008) like T-cells). Such changes in the numberof a special type of lymphocytes ( T-cells are known to be

involved in the modulation of inflammatory response andassociated with asthma or with untreated food allergy inchildren. Alterations of the Immunopheno types induced bythe transgenic maize were associated with the increase insome cytokines (like Interleukin 6 (IL-6), Interleukin 13,Interleukin 12p70 and MIP-1) which are important in thehuman immune response (Finamore et al. Journal ofAgricultural and Food Chemistry 56:11533-11539, (2008). Itis note worthy that Scientists have also traced fragments of

synthetic transgenes in the blood of piglets fed withtransgene food.( Mazza et al. Transgenic Research ,14: 775-784,2005) and feared that these may interact with theimmune system .

Laboratory animals fed GM foods have developed stomachlesions, intestinal damage, and proliferative cell growth in


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the walls of the stomach and intestines. The only publishedhuman feeding experiment has revealed that the genesinserted into GM soya crops transfer into the intestinalbacteria and continue to function even after stopping to eat

GM foods and this indicates that the GM proteinscontinuously producing in the human bodies.GM soya and GM corn both contain at least one newunexpected allergen not found in natural crops.

Mice and rats fed GM food had resulted in smaller andpartially atrophied livers and in some heavier which couldsignal inflammation.

Both male and female animals displayed troublingreproductive problems when fed GM soya Over half of thebabies of mother rats fed GM soya died within three weeks,compared to 10 percent of the non-GM soy offspring. TheGM babies were smaller and were unable to conceive in asubsequent study. Male rats and mice fed GM soy hadaltered testicles, including fewer young sperm cells.(American Academy of Environmental Medicine & LIA

Foundation, Source: Examiner)

The Bt materials are known to interfere with the non targetspecies, wellbeing of predators (Hilbeck, A., M. et alEnvironmental Entomology 27, 460-487. 1998) andparasites.It is also feared that vector-mediated horizontalgene transfer and recombination to create new pathogenicorganismsThe Bt protein is moving up trophic levels of foodchain and contaminates the bee hieves.Whether our hives in

and around the major honey producing state Punjabsurrounded by 13.5 lakh hectares of cotton crop do havepollen grains of transgenic cotton is not known. It is alsoknown fact that DNA can persist in the field plot for at leasta year (Meier & Wackernagel, Transgenic Research 12, 293-304 2003)
http://www.examiner.com/http://www.examiner.com/


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It is well known fact that 500 species of insect pests havealready developed resistance to conventional insecticides,pests can also evolve resistance to Bt toxins present intransgenic crops (Altieri.M, The Ecological Impacts of

Agricultural Biotechnology, An ActionBioscience.org originalarticle,2001) despites the usage of refuge crops that isbeing recommended for cultivation of transgenic crops. Therecent report says that the transgenic cotton in tribal area ofDungarpur, in Rajasthan has been plagued by insectsincluding bollworm at varied levels.

The removal of one species of insect pest from the given econiche either by nature or man will pave the way for an

Ecological Succession of another one as evidenced earlier inour cotton system (Sundaramurthy, V.T., Outlook onAgriculture 31: 95-106, 2002). The second such Successionhas already set in our cotton growing regions where the cropis devastated by the mealy bugs. The main concern withtransgenes that confer significant biological advantages isthat they may transform wild/weed plants into new or worstweeds.

The Brinjal is native of India belongs to the familySolanaceae, has more than 2000 local varieties, more than31 improved varieties were released by IIHR, Bangalore,IARI, New Delhi, Agricultural Universities and StateAgriculture Departments (Yawalkar K.S, Vegetable Crops inIndia, 1992)cultivated on550,000 hectares in differentinteresting eco niches having different soils and fertility,temperature, rainfall and water yielding 25- 30 tonnes offruits\ha and infested by about 12 species of insects. This

vegetable meets the demand of local market and alsoexport. The shoot and fruit bores (Euzophera particella andLeucinodes orbanalis,) are the most important pests.It is agood achievement made by our scientists of the PrivateSector who developed transgenic variety to ward off theseborers. It is likely to result the same effects as that of otherBt-food crops as detailed in this mail (vide Attachment). It


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is every likely hood that some of the transgenic materialsmay go harmoniously with environment and health of livingbeings.

Considering its role in reducing the use of toxic pesticidesand residue before allowing the Brinjal to enter into oursystem we should have informations on the compositions offruits, such as various carbohydrates,proteins, lipids, andtheir composition, terpenes, alkaloids, nature and content offibres, presence of any new compounds or metabolites thatmay affect the general physiology of human beings, inducedrug resistance and resistance to pathogenic organisms, andits effects on the intestinal fauna.But it is safe to have a

detailed informations on the calorific value, nature of toxinsthat are produced by the inserted genes,its effects on the intake and digestion, feed conversion and efficiency ratiosand digestive disorder if any. The morphology and functionof internal organs particularly liver, haematology particularlythe prothrombin, platelet count, haemoglobin concentrationand haematocrit value, and biochemicals such as glucosetotal albumin, lactose dehydrogenase, bilirubin, alkalinephosphatase , alanine, aspartate aminotransferases ,sodium,

potassium and calcium levels, and reproduction in the testanimals. Its effect on, production and composition of milk incow also needs to be ascertained as the refuse are used asfeed in the rural areas. The data on these aspects collectedeither at different meteorological zones ( We have about 110such zones in our country) or fruits produced at these areaare to be used as the expression of genes including the alienone is controlled by temperature and nutritive status ofsoil.It is not sound to relay on data collected with the fruits

grown at one single experimental area

The reactions of this variety to other pests and soil bornediseases may also be documented at various ecologicalzones of our country.


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Honourable Sir, with your kind permission I submit to bringto your kind notice the reality that is going on in our ruralareas.

The crop brinjal is not cultivated in large areas contiguouslylike cotton. It is in small patches and so adoption ofmechanical control (pinching) measure is easy and a distinctpossibility. In the fruiting stage, only the affluent farmersapply pesticides and not the small farmers cultivating localvarieties. It is a practice even now in villages to remove theborer damaged portion of the fruit for feeding thecattle.Undamged portion is reserved for humanconsumption

We have the best diversity in this crop and loved by all.Themothers in Gudiyatham area near Vellore in Tamilnadu usedto visit her daughters not with costly presents but with abasket full or at least a few fruits ( as told to me by myfriend after submitting the mail) of local variety ofBrinjal to please them. This is a good example for the socialbinding that this crop has with the Indian population. Let usnot destroy such age old bindings in the name of science.

These crops I think need no sophisticated technology toimprove further as has been demonstrated earlier by ourscientists in the Public and Private Research Establishmentsin the country. If at all it needs any improvement let ourscientists introduce drought, saline tolerant and yieldincreasing genes. The cultivation of GM crops in severalcountries does not mean that it should be accepted in ourcountry with 120 cores of population and varied interestingbiodiversity.

Sir, since insertion of Bt gene into plant system issomewhat easier and does not involve huge budget everyone is dabbling with this materials with out making properanalysis on its impact on the system.The gene transfer isone of the finest tools that is being used to improve thequality of food materials in number of countries. They have


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succeeded in developing the carotene rich Rice variety,Flood-Tolerant Rice, Superhybrid Rice, folate rich Lettuce ,drought-resistant tomato with more lycopene andantioxidants, Grapes with quality wine, shatter-resistant

brassicas, Inserting weed genes to protect crops from globalwarming , mass production of HIV Microbicide in plants andattempts are under way to enrich food with essentialnutrients omega-3 fatty acid in tomato and okra (BharatiVidyapeeth University's Interactive Research School forHealth Affairs (IRSHA) in India). The novel approach zincfinger nuclease in Biotech is used for targeting specific genesin plants for their manipulation to get the desired effects.The Government should encourage such new approaches in

improving the quality and yield of food crops as mere foodsecurity with out conferring health security through foodmay not help the population to prosper under changingscenarios.The Government besides developing anIndependent Post -Monitoring System shouldencourage improvement in transgenic methods that willminimize risks; research to identify transgenic plant traitsthat would provide environmental benefits; research todevelop transgenic plants with such traits; research on the

environmental impacts of transgenic crops in the countryby providing adequate funds.

I end this mail by inscribing the statement made by ourbeloved

Hon. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh ji:We need to strike a balance between using the potential ofbiotechnology to meet the requirements of hungry peoplewhile addressing concerns about interfering with nature

to save Indiansas Human beings.Thanking you Sir,

With Respectful RegardsRespectfully yoursSundaramurthy V.T.


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Post Script:

I was given to understand that A Brand of GM CHIP has

entered into our south Delhi despite a ban on this.

Balayogi

[email protected]

Documents

Beware of BT Brinjals