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Bt Brinjal gets GEAC nodBacillus thuringiensis brinja popularly
known as bt brinjal,
may be allowed to be grown commercially in India very shortly
because the committee consti tuted to study and recommend that
whether bt brinjal be grown in India or not,has given its nod.
acillus thuringiensis brinja popularly known as bt brinjal, may
beallowed to be grown commercially in India very shortly because
thecommittee constituted to study and recommend that whether bt
brinjal be grown in India or not, has given its nod. Bt brinjal
which iscreated by injecting a gene called CRY 1 Ac from a bacteria
called bacillus
thuringiensis found in the soil. The committee, Genetically
EngineeringApproval Committee (GEAC) has given its report to the
government andhas suggested that growing bt brinjal by Indian
farmers would not beeither detrimental to environment or human
health. Sources suggest thatthe special committee set up by
Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company(Mahyco), a local seed company
which has been supplies technology by aUS firm called Monsanto
alleged free of cost, has given some inputs toGEAC on the basis of
which this report has been prepared and submittedto the government.
Mahyco is developing bt brinjal in India and now wantsit to be
allowed to be grown commercially in this country.
B
If the environment ministry accepts the recommendations and
allowsgrowing bt brinjal in India, it would affect lives and
incomes of about 1.4million farmers who grow brinjal on about 5.5
lakh hectare of land andproduce 82 lakh metric tons (MT) annually.
Nobody right now, knows thatwhether this affect would be for good
or for bad.
Mahyco claims that bt brinjal is resistant to pests and
therefore if this isgrown farmers will have to depend less on use
of pesticides andinsecticides, it would lessen the cost of
production, the company claims.
There was huge hue and cry by many environmentalists including
one
Greenpeace India on the possible use of this genetically
manufactured(GM) food. The environmentalists are critical mainly on
two grounds.
FEARS AND HAZARDS- First and the foremost fear is related to
itseffects and side effects on health. The GM foods affect
adversely our bodyimmune system, many health experts claim. They
provide some data alsoon the basis of scientific experiments and
inferences drawn after that.Greenpeace India engaged Prof
Gilles-Eric Seralini, one French scientist,who made some
experiments with bt brinjal. Prof said in his assessmentthat bt
brinjal produces a protein in the cells of these GM vegetables
whichinduces anti-biotic resistance. This means that consumption of
the btbrinjal would decrease human resistance and even use of
anti-biotic drugs
8/14/2019 Bt Brinjal; will it be acceptable in India
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during medical treatment would either not respond or respond
feebly andhuman would be prone more easily to diseases. The
scientist also claimsthat bt brinjal contains less calories as
compared to generic brinjal and theclaim made by Monsanto is not
correct vis-a-vis its high calories value. Onthe basis of
experiments, Mr. Seralini suggests that use of bt brinjal
wouldcause problems related to kidney and liver. It also effect on
blood clottingtime etc, the report suggests. Referring to the
results derived from theexperiments done on lactating mothers, the
report says that consumptionof bt brinjal drastically affects the
secretion of milk from the lactatingmothers and deprive baby of the
inherent and birthright of havingadequate milk from mothers breast.
It may cause diseases like swollenface, itching skins, allergies
etc also.
There are some more environmental damages which are likely to
occur asclaimed by many environmentalists. They apprehend that
after eating up
pollen grains of the bt brinjal many moths and butterfly would
die and mayled to their extinction.
POINTS IN FAVOUR- deriving experiences and data from the
cultivation of bt cotton in India, the advocates for bt brinjal
suggest that commercial useof this variety would help India grow
more vegetables to feed its growingpopulation. They say that now bt
cotton which was used in India oncommercial basis in 2002 has
changed Indias cotton growing scenario.Now bt cotton is grown on 17
million acres of land and India has becamesecond largest producer
of cotton and it comes at top only after China.
The votaries opine that less use of pesticides would on the one
handlessen the cost of production which would in a way help farmers
earnmore and on the other hand it would help lessen the pollution
also.
Growth of bt cotton in India has also been a horrible
experience. The largenumber of bt cotton growing farmers have
committed suicides.Experiences also suggest that once the farmers
start growing GM foods,the supply of seeds are regulated and made
more costly. The biggesthandicap for the farmer is that in these GM
cultivating farmers have todepend permanently on the MNCs because
in generic variety farmersderive and keep seeds from the produce
itself, whereas in GM or bt variety
the seeds purchased can be sown only for once and unlike the
genericvariety, seeds cannot be processed and extracted from the
produce. Thusthe farmers are linked permanently and made dependent
for the rest of period on the MNCs who manufacture such seeds. This
has been true in btcotton and is one of the most important reasons
for farmers to commitsuicide. This travesty and contradiction have
to be borne by Indians incoming time because it is also true that
unless we increase the production,we will not be able to feed our
ever growing population. The world hungerreport released recently
alarmed the world that if situation goesunchecked and unprepared
the number of hungry people which has
already reached to 1 billion levels, would further go up. Use of
GM
