By Vandana Shiva

Citizens have a right to health and environmental safety. Hence the existing biosafety law needs to be upheld.

While the country has been preoccupied with the Indo-US nuclear deal, there is indifference to the US-India agricultural deal, under which India is being pressurised to dismantle her biosafety regulations to put genetically engineered organisms (GMOs) on a fast track.

London,Aug. 17: A senior minister in the Labour government has attacked Prince Charles for his criticism of genetically-modified crops. The Prince of Wales had claimed earlier this week that firms developing genetically-modified crops risked environmental disaster.

Environment minister Phil Woolas challenged the prince to produce the evidence to back up his claim that genetically-modified crops were linked to climate change. Prince Charles had called genetically-modified crops a "gigantic experiment with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong."

More often than not, discussions about India's policy on genetically modified (GM) crops result in the point being made about how slow the entire process of clearances by the Genetic Engineering Approvals Committee (GEAC) is. One of the reasons for this is that the GEAC does not give credit to tests conducted overseas and insists they be carried out all over again; the alternative approach would be to say that if certain tests have already been conducted in similar agro-climatic zones overseas, the GEAC should assume the same results will obtain in India as well.

Unlike traditional breeding techniques, whereby hybrids are produced by transferring genes within varieties belonging to the same species, genetically modified crops involve transfer of genes across species. Thus in the case of Bt cotton, a gene of a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), is inserted into cotton varieties to give them resistance against bollworm pests.

Rashme Sehgal DR P.M. Bhargava, a genetic scientist widely regarded as the architect of modern biology and biotechnology in India, warns against genetically modified foods being pushed into the Indian market without proper safety trials. "A very dangerous precedent has been set in the country whereby GM foods, like Doritos corn chips, are being sold off the shelf against the law, and Bt cotton being cultivated without a comprehensive risk assessments having been conducted," Bhargava pointed out.

Sarah Hiddleston Panel agrees to participation by members of civil society also Serious issues raised before the GEAC "I have no problem with GMOs,' says Bhargava CHENNAI: The methods to determine whether GM crops undergoing tests in the country are safe are to go up for review following a meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday of the government appointed body responsible for genetically modified organisms .

while anti-gm lobby is gaining ground in Germany, France retracted its earlier stand and passed the gm crops bill allowing trials. Reports said the bill came through despite majority of the

After a controversial entry into cotton, international corporations promoting Genetically Modified crops are trying to expand their reach into food. The promised benefits would appear compelling in an era of food shortages and low productivity, but the uncertainty about their wider impact on human health and the environment underscores the need for strong biosafety regulations. Progress in strengthening biosafety has been slow. That has not, however, prevented the unregula ted spread of GM crops.

By Rashme Sehgal Scientists warn that the genetically modified (GM) foods that are set to hit the market will do so without having undergone mandatory safety assessments. Thirty-two crops are currently being researched across 111 government and 50 private institutes with 14 having entered the trial stage. These, they decry, will increase health risks to the general public. BT brinjal is expected to hit the market within the next six months without undergoing the necessary trials. Switzerland and other European countries have placed a moratorium of 12 years for all GM foods.