Bt Brinjal; Will It Be Acceptable In India

Bt Brinjal gets GEAC nod Bacillus thuringiensis brinja popularly known as ‘bt brinjal’, may be allowed to be grown commercially in India very shortly because the committee constituted to study and recommend that whether bt brinjal be grown in India or not, has given its nod.

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acillus thuringiensis brinja popularly known as ‘bt brinjal’, may be allowed to be grown commercially in India very shortly because the committee constituted to study and recommend that whether bt brinjal be grown in India or not, has given its nod. Bt brinjal which is created by injecting a gene called CRY 1 Ac from a bacteria called bacillus thuringiensis found in the soil. The committee, Genetically Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has given its report to the government and has suggested that growing bt brinjal by Indian farmers would not be either detrimental to environment or human health. Sources suggest that the special committee set up by Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco), a local seed company which has been supplies technology by a US firm called Monsanto alleged free of cost, has given some inputs to GEAC on the basis of which this report has been prepared and submitted to the government. Mahyco is developing bt brinjal in India and now wants it to be allowed to be grown commercially in this country. If the environment ministry accepts the recommendations and allows growing bt brinjal in India, it would affect lives and incomes of about 1.4 million farmers who grow brinjal on about 5.5 lakh hectare of land and produce 82 lakh metric tons (MT) annually. Nobody right now, knows that whether ‘this affect’ would be ‘for good or for bad’. Mahyco claims that bt brinjal is resistant to pests and therefore if this is grown farmers will have to depend less on use of pesticides and insecticides, 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 its effects and side effects on health. The GM foods affect adversely our body immune system, many health experts claim. They provide some data also on 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 assessment that bt brinjal produces a protein in the cells of these GM vegetables which induces anti-biotic resistance. This means that consumption of the bt brinjal would decrease human resistance and even use of anti-biotic drugs

during medical treatment would either not respond or respond feebly and human would be prone more easily to diseases. The scientist also claims that bt brinjal contains less calories as compared to generic brinjal and the claim made by Monsanto is not correct vis-a-vis its high calories value. On the basis of experiments, Mr. Seralini suggests that use of bt brinjal would cause problems related to kidney and liver. It also effect on blood clotting time etc, the report suggests. Referring to the results derived from the experiments done on lactating mothers, the report says that consumption of bt brinjal drastically affects the secretion of milk from the lactating mothers and deprive baby of the inherent and birthright of having adequate milk from mother’s breast. It may cause diseases like swollen face, itching skins, allergies etc also. There are some more environmental damages which are likely to occur as claimed by many environmentalists. They apprehend that after eating up pollen grains of the bt brinjal many moths and butterfly would die and may led 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 use of this variety would help India grow more vegetables to feed its growing population. They say that now bt cotton which was used in India on commercial basis in 2002 has changed India’s cotton growing scenario. Now bt cotton is grown on 17 million acres of land and India has became second largest producer of cotton and it comes at top only after China. The votaries opine that less use of pesticides would on the one hand lessen the cost of production which would in a way help farmers earn more 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 large number 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 biggest handicap for the farmer is that in these GM cultivating farmers have to depend permanently on the MNCs because in generic variety farmers derive 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 generic variety, seeds cannot be processed and extracted from the produce. Thus the farmers are linked permanently and made dependent for the rest of period on the MNCs who manufacture such seeds. This has been true in bt cotton and is one of the most important reasons for farmers to commit suicide. This travesty and contradiction have to be borne by Indians in coming 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 hunger report released recently alarmed the world that if situation goes unchecked and unprepared the number of hungry people which has already reached to 1 billion levels, would further go up. Use of GM

varieties has become a necessary evil and if we want to produce more we have to switch over to these varieties.