Are you going to consume the poisonous Bt Brinjal?

[Guest guest]

Are 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.

 

 

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