Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
Picture a scenario where a physician examines the genes of a foetus and tells the expectant mother that her child may turn out to be a psychopath/addict/schizophrenic/mentally retarded. The woman has 2 options: get the foetus aborted, or approach the gene boffs to cut and splice the DNA and give …
THE idea that the quality of the human race can be improved by tinkering with genes dates back to the time of Plato. In his famous work Republic, the Greek philosopher envisioned a society constantly editing its evolution towards a more polished, superior copy of itself. About 2,500 years later, …
The need to regulate the outflow of genetic resources from the country has prompted the Union government to take stop- gap measures as the ministry for environment and forests (MEF) has failed on its promise to introduce the proposed legislation on genetic resources at the monsoon session of Parliament. The …
DINOSAURS roar and gallumph across the widescreen and the world watches spellbound. Steven Spielberg"s classic film, Jurassic Park, tells the story of extinct dinosaurs brought to life in a petri dish from genetic material that is all of 65 million years old. This is fiction with a good dose of …
A POTENTIAL threat to barley and other crops is the proposal that countries pay royalties for plant genetic materials used to create commercial varieties. Even as debate continues on the issue, developing countries have stepped up their demands for such royalties, says Henry Shands, genetic resources director at the US …
A unique database on mangroves -- the Mangrove Ecosystem Information Service (MEIS) -- developed by the Centre for Research in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (CRSARD) in Madras, will be operational by December. Work on MEIS is being headed by eminent scientist M S Swaminathan. CRSARD will also set up …
CHEERS! But be warned, the champagne in your glass may actually be a genetically engineered brew. A team of French researchers at a research centre run by champagne manufacturers Moet-Hennessy-Louis Vuitton in Colombes, near Paris, has genetically engineered grapes and implanted their cells with genes that protect them against the …
It's a scam with a difference. Khem Singh Gill, vice-chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, and a noted wheat-breeder himself, is the target of allegations that PBW 34, a wheat variety he claims to have developed, may actually be India's first instance of gene theft. R K Batra, president …
SEVERAL writers have made a name for themselves by publishing dire warnings to developing countries of the dangers posed by new technology from the West. Many wind up exaggerating and making predictions that are as uncertain as those of the neighbourhood astrologer. However, Henk Hobbelink's book is a rarity as …
SERIOUS differences over biodiversity management surfaced during an Indo-British workshop held recently in New Delhi to prepare a blueprint for conservation of biodiversity in different Indian ecosystems. With the British wanting easy access to information on genetic resources and the Indians doubting the ability of "those from other cultures" to …
THE RECENT attack on the Cargill Seeds India Pvt Ltd office in Bangalore, by members of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), is evidence of the growing awareness among Indian farmers about "gene thefts" by multinational corporations (MNCs) of the genetic resources of the Third World. More such attacks can …
BIOTECHNOLOGY means a lot of things to different people. The new and the traditional coexist and reinforce each other within biotechnology -- now an established and highly interdisciplinary applied field. However, it symbolises big money, in terms of new industries, agricultural practices, patents and research grants. For scientists and academics, …
Bamboo roofs, floors, and even doors: that's the style of houses in the northeastern states, home to more than 50 per cent of the genetic resources of Indian bamboo. Of the nearly 100 species belonging to 19 genera in the country, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Assam together account for 16 …
TREE SPECIES in arid and semi-arid lands across the developing world are disappearing due to an increasing demand for fuelwood and fodder and by progressive desertification, all of which is threatening plant genetic material. Arid zone trees, especially genera prosopis and acacia, have been identified as priorities for conservation by …
THE NATIONAL Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), a giant "freezer" in New Delhi to store plant genes, is implementing a Rs 64.8-crore expansion project that will increase its storage capacity four-fold -- from 154,964 varieties at present to 600,000 varieties. The expansion, with partial assistance of about Rs 40 …
EFFORTS of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to create a gene bank appear to have stalled barely a year after steps were taken to start it. The proposal to start the gene bank was accepted at the 1990 Male meeting of SAARC and was taken up at …
ON 16 JUNE, 1980, the US Supreme Court made a historic five to four ruling, the reverberations of which are still being felt. The court held that an industrial patent could be issued to a genetically modified organism. The patent was granted to Dr Ananda Chakrabarty, an employee of the …
IN A PROGRAMME conducted by the Academy for Development of Science in Karjat in Maharashtra, farmers all over the country collected some 365 local varieties of rice in as many days. As many as 325 of these were not documented in the 60,000-long official list of the rice plant (Oryza …
THE SOUTH today is in the most vulnerable situation it has ever faced in the last 30 or 40 years. Today, more than two-thirds of the countries in this category are in a debt trap and forced to go to the North for rescheduling repayments, forced to accept structural adjustment …
THE biodiversity convention is ready for signature at the Earth Summit. But from the negotiations just concluded in Nairobi, it is clear that the South is in for a bad bargain. It stands to lose access over its biodiversity - plant and animal genetic resources - while it gains only …
