Now, consumers can make ‘informed choice’ on buying packaged food products

Consumers in India can now make “informed choice” on whether they want to buy packaged food products that are genetically modified or contain genetically modified ingredients. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, in an extraordinary gazette notification, has made an amendment to make labelling of every package containing genetically modified food mandatory from January 1, 2013.

New Delhi Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has criticised the government for its ‘failure’ to invest in public sector-initiated biotech research in agriculture, even as he stressed the need for scientific validation of the impact of Bt cotton on the sector.

“There are serious scientific issues raised by responsible scientists on Bt cotton - yield fatigue, immunity to pests, toxicity, etc. These have to be studied carefully. The failure of the public sector Bt cotton initiative is very unfortunate and we must have a strong publicly-funded and publicly-managed biotech initiative in agriculture,

The controversy surrounding Bt brinjal, the first genetically modified food crop developed in India, has turned murkier with the National Biodiversity Authority planning to launch prosecution again

Genetically Modified (GM) seeds are the need of the hour to bolster farm production in the face of rising demand, and a way to match productivity of countries such as China and Vietnam, according to food scientists and experts here. With GM crops seen with suspicion by most, the scientists said there is an inherent lack of awareness about its advantages among people.

Emphasising the need to adopt technical know-how, Dr N. Sesikiran, director, National Institute of Nutrition, said, “Nature has evolved by continuous genetic modification.

‘Spread of the Bt gene could make brinjal a problematic weed'

An independent enquiry has revealed that the cultivation of genetically engineered (GE, also called genetically modified, or GM) Bt brinjal poses risks to the environment and possibly to human health. The occurrence of wild, weedy and also cultivated relatives presents a likelihood that the GE Bt gene will spread to these relatives but, so far, this has largely been overlooked in the risk assessments for GE Bt brinjal, it says.

CACP’s chairman on why Indian agriculture is trapped in a cycle of mediocre growth and low productivity.