The Hindu : National : GMOs review meeting open to independent scientists

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GMOs review meeting open to independent scientists

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 .

Concerns about the lack of adherence to risk assessment protocols and the absence of long-term tests to determine the effect of GM crops on people’s health were raised before the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) by P.M. Bhargava, former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, after he was appointed a special invitee to the body by the Supreme Court in February.

But, he told The Hindu on Wednesday, the committee had agreed to a review, organised by P.L. Gautam, Deputy Director-General (Crop Science), Indian Council of Agricultural Research, of India’s experience of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), including that of Bt cotton. The meeting would be open to independent scientists and members of civil society, he said.

The debate on GM foods, particularly in the light of arguments being made in their advantage to meet the demand for food, ought to be brought into the public arena, Dr. Bhargava said.

“I have no problem with GMOs,” he said, pointing out the contribution of his own laboratory to the development of some of the science. But, he said, just as there were stringent clinical trials for drugs so the risks of GMOs need to be assessed, particularly since once released into the environment they could not be recalled.

He said that as a scientist he was not able to make proper assessments because sufficient data from trials upon which conclusions were based had not been made available. He added that so far he had not seen evidence of proper tests for cancer inducing properties, the most simple of which is a four-day test on animals.

The GEAC has requested Dr. Bhargava to put together a blueprint for a potential national laboratory that would be equipped with the latest techniques to independently verify tests. This laboratory would also be able to detect GM strains in food imports as a matter of routine.

The GEAC is currently examining the conclusions of an independent German laboratory that found two GM strains in a potato chip sample picked up by Greenpeace from a supermarket in Delhi, but the sample may have to be sent out of the country because of lack of expertise.

Imports of GM food or animal feed are currently illegal unless sanctioned by the GEAC. Only two food imports have been approved, according to a Ministry of Environment and Food response to an RTI submission: refined vegetable soybean oil and crude degummed soybean oil, by Catholic Relief Services and Care India as food aid in 2002.

The GEAC has discussed setting a threshold for GM contamination levels in processed food but it will not be able to take a decision until after September 10, when a February direction putting into abeyance the GEAC decisions on processed food imports expires.

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