Seven hours after chaining themselves at Bayer's door, the activists brave the weather and wait for Bayer's response - 5:45pm
The largest, most urgent question still remains unanswered.
Considering that Bayer is discrediting the information provided
by the DBT, the onus is upon them to prove that they have nothing
to do with ProAgro's (100% subsidiary of Bayer) request for
permission to conduct field trials with Cry9C in cabbage and
cauliflower.
On 30th September, six activists chained themselves to the
company's headquarters in Mumbai, alleging that 'Bayer poisons our
food.' Greenpeace presented documentary evidence obtained from the
Department of Biotechnology (DBT), to prove that ProAgro, a 100%
subsidiary of Bayer, was using the controversial Cry9C gene in
Indian cabbage and cauliflower.
Eleven hours after the protest began, Bayer's only response was
to issue a statement denying it had any involvement with the Cry9C
gene, then contradicting itself by stating that 'the trials were
conducted in a contained environment and were harvested well before
flowering. Since these research trials never went to the phase of
development or commercial production the question of biosafety
assessment does not arise."
"
""It
is highly irresponsible and hard to believe, that senior company
officials with five days' preparation time are unable to provide
basic information on what GM research the company has undertaken!"
said Divya Raghunandan, Campaigner, Greenpeace India. "Since they
have asked us for the questions, we are sending them in once again.
It remains to be seen whether they will actually follow through on
this promise."
Greenpeace calls upon all concerned individuals, members of the
press and consumers to ask Bayer:
1. What GM Crops is the company working on presently?
2. The company is known to have conducted Genetic Engineering
research with mustard, tomato, brinjal, cabbage and cauliflower.
What is the status of each of these projects?
3. What specific locations did the company conduct field trials
in?
4. Whether bio-safety assessments were conducted, and if so,
what were the results of the same?
5. For projects that have been abandoned, what are the company's
reasons for doing so? What disposal process of genetic material was
followed in order to avoid genetic contamination?
For further information, please contact:
Divya Raghunandan, Campaigner, Greenpeace India: +919845535406
Namrata Chowdhary, Media Officer, Greenpeace India:
+919810850092
Footnote 1 - The Cry9C gene protein is notorious for being a
suspected human allergen. The United States Environmental
Protection Agency acknowledged this risk and refused to certify a
version of corn genetically modified with this gene as fit for
human consumption.