INDIA GM CROP

No labelling laws yet

Hyderabad: The safety of Genetically Modified crops and Bt toxins is still in doubt and yet no labelling laws have been implemented so far in India, to allow the consumer to make an informed choice. As a result, a consumer cannot tell whether he/she is buying a GM or a non-GM product.

Moreover, though the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) has recommended that field trials be discontinued, experts say there is ample chance that we are already consuming GM food.
Cottonseed oil, which is extracted from the seed of Bt cotton, is widely consumed and used as a constituent in several blended edible oils. Food products imported from the United States like soya and maize are invariably GM modified. 

Dr P.M. Bhargava, founder director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, said he never uses oils which have cottonseed oil as a constituent, and all food products imported from the United States “for the safety of my family.”

“We are definitely eating GM food, no doubt about it. Almost every food product from the US has some GM content. Unfortunately, we don’t even have a laboratory to test for GM contents. If we test all food products in the market for transgenic content, half of them will fail,” Dr Bhargava said.

P. Chandrasekhara Reddy, vice president (Sales and Marketing), GEF India, owners of Freedom Refined Sunflower oil, said that cottonseed oil is definitely used by some brands as a constituent in edible blended oils. “It is not directly edible but is used by some brands in blended edible oils, though not in a great proportion, but definitely as an important constituent,” Reddy said.

Rules for blended edible oils don’t allow constituent oils to be less that 20 per cent, which means consumption is pretty high. The representative of a major bioseed company this newspaper spoke to admitted that consumption of cottonseed oil is indirect consumption of transgenic food.

It is essential that laws mandating the labelling of any product with transgenic content should be in force, so consumers can choose whether or not to consume transgenic food. “We brought this to the government’s notice but no action has been taken by them,” Dr Bhargava said. Dr Narsimha Reddy of the Chetana Society also said that labelling laws should have come into force by now but haven’t.

Genetically modified crops are said to increase yield and guard against certain crop diseases, but the effect on human health has not been tested sufficiently. In its eagerness to increase agricultural production, the government may be compromising our health and has not even allowed us to make an informed choice.

Animal deaths due to Bt cotton neglected: TEC

The Supreme Court appointed Technical Expert Committee criticised the scientific community for its alleged reluctance to investigate death of animals fed Bt cotton leaves in AP.

In its report, TEC termed the closure of investigation on reported animal deaths as “sub-standard regulatory oversight and even negligence”.

The TEC also said that evidence attributing the animal deaths to Bt toxins didn’t elicit “a responsible and science-based response from the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation and the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee”.

In its report, the TEC gave four counts of proof against the investigation reports of the scientific agencies submitted by Dr Sagari Ramdas. The TEC cited a letter from the then incumbent director of Animal Husbandry, AP, Dr L. Gopal. The letter said the Bt cotton samples were sent to four different laboratories and the reports had proved the deaths were due to other reasons.

However, evidence showed that the reports of the laboratories, including the city-based Veterinary and Biological Research Institute and the AP Forensic Science Laboratory, were contradicting each other.

Dr Ramdas said evidence provided by the agencies refuting that the animal deaths were caused due to Bt toxins “would not stand any kind of international scientific scrutiny as they are based on incomplete testing protocols.” Deccan Chronicle