A significant victory but people need to watch carefully – Monsanto and its allies – have deep pockets and want to control your food!
The battle over testing of genetically modified crops in India took a new turn this week with the Bharatiya Janata party-led government putting field trials on hold.
The move reverses the previous Congress party-led government’s push for GM trials, which had resulted in approvals in the past few months for rice, maize, wheat and chickpea crops. Trials are the first step towards sale and plantation of GM seeds in India.
The BJP, which came to power in May, took a stand against GM crop trials in its election manifesto.
But this week’s announcement came after the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (Forum for National Awakening) and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (Indian Farmers Association) , two grassroots groups affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist outfit that supports the BJP, met environment minister Prakash Javdekar on Tuesday to reiterate their opposition to holding GM trials.
The groups expressed concern about the potentially unknown effects on health and biodiversity as well as about the longer-term prospect of putting food production in the hands of a few multinational companies. “If a country’s food production becomes overly dependent on seeds and other inputs from a handful of such companies, will it not compromise its food security?” said the Manch in a press statement.
The biotech industry responded with dismay to the news. Stocks of Monsanto India slipped. An association of leading biotech companies in India criticised the government’s decision as “anti-science, anti-domestic research recommendations which seem motivated to kill the biotechnology sector in India.” Field trials are necessary, proponents say, to test the efficacy of seeds in real-world conditions.
But the introduction of GM crops has always been controversial in India. Opposition ranges across political lines, and many states, worried about contamination, refuse to allow field trials within their borders. Bt cotton is the only commercially available GM crop in India.
via India puts GM crop trials on hold | Environment | The Guardian.





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