In this paper, assess the impacts of genetically modified eggplant, Bt brinjal, on economic and health outcomes in Bangladesh using a cluster randomized controlled design. Bt brinjal cultivation reduces the cost of pesticide use by 47 percent. This is driven by reductions in the use of pesticides with adverse ecological …
Recent approval of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India for commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal led to an expression of a variety of opinions in the popular media. Biotech News asked some of India’s most respected scientific personalities to comment on …
The Environment Minister, Mr. Jairam Ramesh chaired the first in a series of nationwide consultations on the issue of BT Brinjal at Kolkata. Organised by the MoEF and CEE this consultation aims at giving the public a forum where meaningful debate on the issue can take place before a final …
A coalition of organizations opposed to genetically modified food in India has written to the minister of state for environment and forests seeking withdrawal of clearance given to Bt brinjal. The Coalition for GM-free India alleged the expert committee that cleared the genetically modified brinjal for commercial cultivation in the …
The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) cleared Bt brinjal for commercialization on 14 October 2009. The activists are up in arms terming the approval as a shame. The government has chosen to go slow and states that it would consult the stakeholders before making a decision on the release. It …
As eight states have said no to Union government's plan to approve Bt Brinjal, this timely booklet by Greenpeace details its impacts on environment & health and opposes the commercial release of this GM Crop. Greenpeace believes that GMOs should not be released into the environment as there is no …
The issues relating to Genetically Modified Crops have generated intense public debate, engaging the attention of the Government, the farming community and the civil society. Though it has been widely claimed that genetically engineered foods will go a long way in tackling food security issues of the 21 st century, …
Brinjal commonly known as eggplant, aubergine or guinea squash, is an important vegetable crop of tropical and temperate parts of the world. It is a good source of vitamins and minerals, especially iron. Besides being used as an important vegetable, eggplant has been exploited extensively in traditional medicine.
With environmental clearance from the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in place, Bt-Brinjal has taken an important step towards its widespread cultivation. As is expected, a variety of views, supportive as well as those advocating caution have been expressed regarding the introduction of …
Lobbying for and against the GM food peaks in the run up to the final clearanceEven as it appears that brinjal is set to become the first genetically modified (GM) food to be approved for commercial production in India, lobbying against the final nod by the government has reached a …
Comments by Doug Gurian-Sherman on the Report of the Expert Committee (EC-II) on Bt Brinjal Event EE-1 (developed by: M/s Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd. (Mahyco) and partners, and submitted to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi, October 8 2009).
This document has been written in response to Mahyco's dossier in the public domain and a request for an appraisal of the data by lead petitioner in the Supreme Court of India, Aruna Rodrigues. This review concentrates on the food safety evaluation done by Mahyco as reported in Chapter 7 …
The dossiers submitted by Mahyco in support of their application for commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) Bt brinjal raise serious concerns. Bt brinjal has been modified to produce an unknown chimeric insecticide toxin containing Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac modified sequences. In the toxicity tests on target and non-target insects, this chimeric …
This comprehensive review of all aspects of cultivation of brinjal in India summarises the development and regulatory status in India of biotech Bt brinjal hybrids. Bt brinjal was approved in India for experimental seed production in 2008-2009 and is under consideration for commercial release. This Brief is a comprehensive review …
Six outstanding issues sum up just how faulty and perfunctory the Regulator's approach to bio-safety has been. Even the current inadequate norms for safety testing have NOT been applied to GM food crops like Bt okra and Bt brinjal before they were field tested. A. In No case has there …
