Are you going to consume the poisonous Bt Brinjal?

[Guest guest]

Good Day Brothers and Sisters,Its Tuesday, 19th January 2010Are you going to consume the poisonous Bt Brinjal?

 

Do you know that the toxic Bt Brinjal (a genetically engineered food

crop)

has been approved by the regulatory authority the Genetic

Engineering

Approval Committee (GEAC)?

 

Do you know that in another

three months or so the Government of India

too may approve it? And then

this highly toxic vegetable will be on your plate,

ready to be eaten!

 

What is Bt Brinjal?

What is Bt Brinjal? Why is it toxic? Why are concerned citizen from the

 

world over protesting against it? Why are countries unwilling to deal

 

with such crop?

 

Majority of countries around the world have not allowed

it.

 

Bt Brinjal is a Genetically Engineered (GE) crop which has been

engineered

at the genetic level. A toxin producing gene from the soil

bacterium

Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) has been inserted into the genome

of the plant.

This is to make the entire plant, including the fruit,

toxic so that a pest called

fruit and stem borer dies on consuming the

plant.

 

The brinjal plant is now toxic for the pest.

 

Is it toxic for the human

beings who consume it?

 

You will be alarmed to know that the GE

vegetable could be highly toxic

for both animals and humans. Another

crop with the same technology

is now being cultivated in many parts of

India and that is Bt Cotton.

It is being illegally cultivated in Orissa

even though the Government of Orissa

has not yet given permission for

Bt Cotton cultivation.

 

Animal Deaths

All over India in cotton growing areas domestic animals like goat,

sheep,

cows and buffaloes have fallen sick or died after grazing on Bt

Cotton fields.

It is not a food crop but yet farmers and mill-workers

who have come in contact

with the crop have developed severe allergies,

skin rashes, difficulty in breathing,

red burning and itching eyes

etc., as per reports from the states.

 

Bt Brinjal is a food crop whose seeds are manufactured using the same

process

as in Bt Cotton. Its seeds are being promoted for approval by

the company

which has manufactured them. However the company's own

safety data

and report have been scrutinized by independent scientists

who have declared

on the basis of the information perused that Bt

Brinjal is unsafe

for human consumption.

 

The study team led by Prof. Gilles-Eric Séralini of Committee for

 

Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN),

 

France concluded that Bt brinjal release into the environment, for

food,

feed or cultures, may present a serious risk for human and animal

health

and the release should be forbidden.

 

Laboratory studies

Laboratory studies upon rats and mice conducted by independent

scientists

have proved that animals after eating GE food have come down

with serious illnesses.

The immune system is affected, there has been

stunted growth, change in size

of internal organs, ulcers in stomach,

infertility etc.

 

The brinjal in Orissa

The inevitable risk of contamination will threaten the 100 or more

brinjal

varieties in Orissa. In the state people consume a lot of the

vegetable relished

in various cooking methods. It is consumed almost

daily.

 

In land under vegetable cultivation in Orissa brinjal commands

the highest

22% share showing the popularity of the crop. It is

cultivated in all districts

of the state the major districts being

Keonjhar, Kalahandi and Mayurbhanj.

 

In India the brinjal has a 4000

year old history and some varieties are used

by ayurvedic practitioners

as medicine. Allowing commercial cultivation of

Brinjal will

irreversibly damage the biodiversity of the crop and make all brinjal

toxic.

 

Do alternatives exist?

The brinjal is being made toxic to kill a pest. Are there not safer

alternatives?

In Orissa the OUAT Department of Entomology has informed

through RTI

that a combination of chemical and bio-pesticides called

 

Integrated Pest Management is able to kill the fruit and stem borer.

 

 

This is a far better alternative than Bt Brinjal.

 

What the experts say

Experts like Dr Pushpa M Bhargava, Founder and Former Director,

Centre

for Cellular and Molecular Biology have demanded that long term

feeding

studies are required. He wants ten years of testing on mice

to assess

the harm done across generations. He has also rightly pointed

out that

GE seeds should be considered as an option only

if there are no other

alternatives.

 

If the Indian government approves it, Bt Brinjal will become the first

 

genetically engineered popular food crop to be commercially released

 

anywhere in the world with the toxic Bt gene in it and that too in a

country

which is the centre of origin of brinjal.

 

Issued for private circulation by : Living Farms,

Tankapani Road, Bhubaneswar.

Phone 0674-2430176--------- --------- --------- --------- --------

Your comments and feedbacks always welcome .. Rahul, at Cybugle as well as at bruntno1 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ----

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With best wishes,

 

 

 

Love you all

 

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