Alert! GM Foods Continue to Enter India.

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http://www.financialexpress.com/news/screening-a-must-to-check-gm-food-entry/472731/0 Screening a must to check GM food entry’

Jai KrishnaPosted online: Jun 08, 2009 at 2344 hrs

 

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the nodal

agency on genetically modified (GM) food, has in its last monthly

meeting had given a “no objection certificate†to Doritos corn chips, a

processed food product that had, not so long ago, been proven to

contain GM corn. The recent approval came after the GEAC had a hearing

on the product following its detainment by the Director General of

Foreign Trade (DGFT) at Nhava Sheva Port in Mumbai on the grounds of

suspicion of it containing GM food.

This detention by the DGFT as stated in the GEAC meeting

minutes was uploaded on their website on May 31, 2009, was based on a

representation made by Greenpeace in this regard in the months

following May 2008 when Greenpeace India had made public the scientific

results of laboratory tests credibly done by an independent laboratory

(GeneScan laboratories, Germany) on Doritos chips packets (purchased

from markets in South Delhi). These tested samples were found to

contain GM corn varieties, MON 863 and NK 603.

What makes the current GEAC approval especially shocking is

that it was given without any testing, and hence no scientific evidence

of the product being GM-free, but instead, on a written confirmation

from the importer that the product did not contain GM corn.

This clearly makes a mockery of GEAC's regular claim that no

GMOs (genetically modified organisms) have ever entered the country,

that there have been adequate measures taken to prevent unintentional

entry of GMOs and that there is an "appropriate" domestic regulatory

system with public participation.

In 2006-07 alone, India received close to 2500 tonne of

non-oil soya products- about 48% of which was from the US, which has a

large quantity of GM soya without any labeling and segregation law in

place. The same year, grain imports of corn were about 2800 tonne, and

more than 72% of it was from Argentina and the US, both the countries

produce a large quantity of GM corn.

The latest approval of Doritos consignment by the GEAC is therefore a link in the chain, instead of being an isolated event.

This is feeding to the fear, and quite reasonably, among safe

food activists that the country is getting colossal quantities of GM

food dumps. India has an almost non-existent system of screening for GM

food at our ports. There is also a lack of awareness among the port

authorities, the Customs and Excise Board and the Directorate of

Foreign Trade on GM food and Living Modified Organisms (LMO) and the

laws that are associated to it.

This calls for an entire system that needs to be activated to

use the provisions of the Cartagena protocol for bio-safety that India

ratified in 2003, and is in force since 2005, to demand information

from the countries of import. There are close to 15 major sea ports and

about 11 international airports in the country and we can imagine the

scale of threat that needs to be fought.

—(The author is a sustainable agriculture campaigner, Greenpeace) These (scientific) studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food consumption including infertility, immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, dysregulation of genes associated with cholesterol synthesis,insulin regulation, cell signaling, and protein formation, and changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and gastrointestinal system. Because GM foods pose a serious health risk, the AAEM believes that it is imperative to adopt the precautionary principle. - American Academy of Environmental Medicine.

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