<p>After seven consultation meetings—the last one was held in Bangalore on February 6— Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said he adopted a “cautious, precautionary and principle-based approach” not to allow Bt brinjal’s commercialisation till its long-term safety and environmental impact is established through an independent mechanism.<br /><br />Ramesh, however, made it clear that the moratorium should not be construed as discouraging the ongoing research on crop biotechnology.<br /><br />It also does not extend to two other Bt brinjal varieties being developed by laboratories under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).<br />“The moratorium implies rejection of this particular case of release for the time being,” Ramesh said. <br /><br />This Bt brinjal variety and hybrids were developed by Indian company Mahyco in which US company Monsanto has a minority stake along with Tamil Nadu Agriculture University and University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad.<br /><br />The minister admitted having three long meetings with noted agricultural scientist and Rajya Sabha member M S Swaminathan before arriving at the decision, which was conveyed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday morning. “The approach should be both responsible to science and responsive to society. There is no over-riding urgency from the food security aspect,” he said. <br /><br />On October 14, the country’s apex regulator, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), under the Union Environment Ministry, declared Bt brinjal safe for commercialisation after screening its data for three years and conducting a fresh evaluation under ICAR’s supervision in addition to the data supplied by the company.<br /><br />A different view<br /><br />The minister took a different view on the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee decision, giving credence to many non-governmental organisation's suspicion that the regulator was not above-board in taking key decisions and the panel had scientific limitations.<br /><br />“It does appear that the current standards by which the GEAC has formulated the decision to approve bt brinjal do not match the global regulatory norms to which India is a party to,” he said.<br /><br />Ramesh asked the GEAC to draw up “fresh protocols for specific tests” that need to be conducted to generate public confidence. Such protocols have to be devised after discussing them with veteran scientists like M S Swaminathan, P M Bhargava, G Padmanabhan, M Vijayan, Keshav Kranthi and Madhav Gadgil who aired their views on the controversy. <br /><br />Reacting to the decision, Bhargava, who has been demanding the moratorium for a long time, said it was a “courageous decision” and people should feel safe about the GM food crop before it hits the market. Many NGOs have expressed their satisfaction over the decision. Bhargava told Deccan Herald that he and “some other responsible people” wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister, informing them about the pitfalls of bt brinjal. <br /><br />Founder director of Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Bhargava said long-term toxicity tests on bt brinjal should be for the life-time of the animal on which tests would be conducted.<br /><br /></p>
<p>After seven consultation meetings—the last one was held in Bangalore on February 6— Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said he adopted a “cautious, precautionary and principle-based approach” not to allow Bt brinjal’s commercialisation till its long-term safety and environmental impact is established through an independent mechanism.<br /><br />Ramesh, however, made it clear that the moratorium should not be construed as discouraging the ongoing research on crop biotechnology.<br /><br />It also does not extend to two other Bt brinjal varieties being developed by laboratories under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).<br />“The moratorium implies rejection of this particular case of release for the time being,” Ramesh said. <br /><br />This Bt brinjal variety and hybrids were developed by Indian company Mahyco in which US company Monsanto has a minority stake along with Tamil Nadu Agriculture University and University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad.<br /><br />The minister admitted having three long meetings with noted agricultural scientist and Rajya Sabha member M S Swaminathan before arriving at the decision, which was conveyed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday morning. “The approach should be both responsible to science and responsive to society. There is no over-riding urgency from the food security aspect,” he said. <br /><br />On October 14, the country’s apex regulator, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), under the Union Environment Ministry, declared Bt brinjal safe for commercialisation after screening its data for three years and conducting a fresh evaluation under ICAR’s supervision in addition to the data supplied by the company.<br /><br />A different view<br /><br />The minister took a different view on the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee decision, giving credence to many non-governmental organisation's suspicion that the regulator was not above-board in taking key decisions and the panel had scientific limitations.<br /><br />“It does appear that the current standards by which the GEAC has formulated the decision to approve bt brinjal do not match the global regulatory norms to which India is a party to,” he said.<br /><br />Ramesh asked the GEAC to draw up “fresh protocols for specific tests” that need to be conducted to generate public confidence. Such protocols have to be devised after discussing them with veteran scientists like M S Swaminathan, P M Bhargava, G Padmanabhan, M Vijayan, Keshav Kranthi and Madhav Gadgil who aired their views on the controversy. <br /><br />Reacting to the decision, Bhargava, who has been demanding the moratorium for a long time, said it was a “courageous decision” and people should feel safe about the GM food crop before it hits the market. Many NGOs have expressed their satisfaction over the decision. Bhargava told Deccan Herald that he and “some other responsible people” wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister, informing them about the pitfalls of bt brinjal. <br /><br />Founder director of Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Bhargava said long-term toxicity tests on bt brinjal should be for the life-time of the animal on which tests would be conducted.<br /><br /></p>
