New Delhi: Sarson Satyagraha, a broad platform of hundreds of organisations representing farmers, consumers, scientists and others that has been at the forefront of resisting the approval of GM mustard in India has condemned the green signal provided by GEAC to herbicide tolerant GM mustard today.
Tag Archives: #NoGMMustard
RSS’ economic wing questions NITI Aayog’s contribution and difference it has made in 2 years
While reviewing NITI Aayog's work in the areas of agriculture, GM seed, health care and poverty alleviation, the RSS affiliate made scathing remarks.
Many studies on genetic modification biased because of authors’ links to companies
NEW DELHI: Researchers have found that a large share of scientific studies on genetically modified (GM) crops were tainted by conflicts of interest, mostly because of having an employee of a GM producing company as one of the authors or having received funding from the company.
Indian state will pay farmers to go 100% organic and GMO-free
Is India on its way to becoming an entirely organic nation? Just over two years ago, in September 2014, the Indian Government launched their revolutionary Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (National Agriculture Development Program) as a way to encourage organic farming, and decrease dependence on chemical agents. In January 2015, the state of Sikkim was declared as the country’s first 100 percent organic state. Sikkim produces 800,000 tons of organic produce that’s free of harmful pesticides, chemical fertilizers and toxic GMOs — accounting for roughly 65 percent of India’s total organic produce yields.
Karnataka’s silence on GM mustard worries farmers
The Karnataka government is yet to take its stand on the heated debate over genetically-modified (GM) mustard that is raging across the country. Some major mustard-growing States such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have been emphatically opposing GM mustard and its field trials. Despite several farmers’ groups and organic farmers asking the State government to urge the Centre to not allow open field trials, there seems to have been no discussion on this by the Agriculture Department, according to senior officials.
The hidden agenda behind GM Mustard
Ignoring the assurance given to ban GM crops before it came to power, the BJP led NDA government is fast tracking the process to give clearance to genetically modified mustard seeds. The pretext is: GM mustard is developed by Deepak Pental, an Indian scientist with the support of Public Sector. It is not a product of Multinational Seed Company.
Organic standards will exclude next generation of GMOs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Organic Standards Board voted unanimously on Friday to update U.S. organic standards to exclude ingredients derived from next generation genetic engineering and gene editing.
The Corrupt GMO and Pesticides Industry
The ‘agrochemicals-agritech industry’ should not be regarded as some kind of faceless concept because that lets individuals off the hook. It is run by identifiable individuals who sell health-and environment-damaging products,co-opt scientists, control public institutions and ensure farmers are kept on a chemical treadmill. From CEOs and scientists to public officials and media/PR spin doctors, specific individuals can be identified and at some stage should be hauled into court for what amounts to ‘crimes against humanity’.
Part 2 – GM Mustard: What is wrong with the appraisal processes?
To begin with, public funds should not have been wasted on developing an herbicide tolerant (HT) genetically modified (GM) crop. Further, regulators should not have ever entertained an application for a HT crop and allowed it to come this far. It is by now established that no testing of GM mustard has been done as needed for HT crops. This is because both the crop developer and the regulators have been denying that it is an Herbicide Tolerant crop! They argue that they are not recommending it to be used as a HT crop, as though farmers are going to wait for such recommendations, if they see a “convenience factor” in using a chemical instead of employing women for removal of crop weeds. To that extent, all testing so far for environmental and health safety impacts automatically stand null and void, since the use of herbicides will certainly leave its own environmental and health effects, apart from serious socio-economic impacts.
Part 1 – GM Mustard: How reliable are the appraisal and decision-making processes?
Genetically modified (GM) crops are back in the debate in India, with the Indian Government standing on the verge of approving what could be the first transgenic food crop to be cultivated in the country – GM mustard. A technical panel within the apex regulatory body called Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) in the Environment Ministry has already given a clean chit to the environmental and health safety of this GM mustard. Following this, the GEAC put up a pre-concluded document with only summaries of biosafety studies done on GM mustard, and gave 30 days for the public to give their feedback on this sanitized document called “Assessment of Food & Environmental Safety” (AFES) of GM mustard, which is purportedly a report by its technical sub-panel which studied the 4000-odd pages of biosafety dossier submitted by the crop developer.