bt brinjal should not be permitted..................

SOME FACTS ABOUT BT BRINJAL..............

Simply speaking, Bt Brinjal is a brinjal that is created out of inserting a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis into Brinjal. The insertion of the gene into the Brinjal cell has been done through an Agrobacterium-mediated vector, along with other genes like promoters, markers etc.

SOME REASON FOR WHICH I FEEL IT SHOULD NOT BE PERMITED

1. GM crops are created by the unnatural insertion of foreign genes into host DNA of a plant, which leads to numerous unpredictable changes that are potentially dangerous for health. Bt Brinjal has been artificially created by insertion of a bacterial gene (Bacillus thuringiensis-Bt) to produce a toxin 24X7 inside the Plant which may creat potential danger to health after eating that brinjals.

2^ND

2. There are many unaddressed questions with regard to the very need of this Bt Brinjal. The National Agricultural Research System as well as many practicing farmers has a vast knowledge on successful and economically viable pest management without the use of any synthetic pesticides. In the face of such alternatives, it is not clear why the GM option is being pushed. Further, no one can argue that Bt Brinjal would be an answer to the hunger crisis!

3. Health implications of Bt Brinjal—No independent research to prove the safety of Bt Brinjal exists. All decision-making happened based on the crop-developer’s data. This Bt Brinjal also contains anti-biotic resistant genes and poses serious public health concerns with the possibility of ‘horizontal gene transfer for which analyses of the crop developer’s biosafety data concluded that this Bt Brinjal is unsafe and unfit for human consumption.

4. Further, from various studies, GM foods are known to cause allergies, immune system changes, damage to organs like kidneys and liver, affect growth and metabolism and impact reproductive health adversely.

5. If Bt Brinjal is approved, we, as consumers, will have no way of knowing whether the brinjal we consume daily is GM or not, as all brinjals in the market will look the same. This will be a violation of every consumer’s right to know, right to safe food and right to choose which food she/he wants to eat.

Further, labeling cannot be a solution for India where the majority of consumption is of unpackaged foods in the open market and from local mandis.

6. Bt Brinjal has not been assessed for its impact on Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM). Brinjal and related species are used widely in Ayurveda and other medicinal systems. One can hence not predict whether the entry of Bt Brinjal would make ISM medicines/practices ineffective or even toxic!

For all these above reasons i can strongly advocate that this kind of brinjal should not be permitted in the country like India which otherwise known as the 2^nd largest brinjal producers in the world

Thank You..............................