Activists present the GM free Brinjal Bouquet to MLAs in the State to protest against GM food crop commercialisation and research in TN.
Armed with brinjal bouquets and gift notes, the 15 activists met
the 150 MLAs while they were leaving for the assembly, at the MLA
hostel in the government estate campus and gifted them symbolically
the last set of GM free Brinjal available.
The protest comes in the context of the Central Government
preparing to commercialise Bt.Brinjal, the first GM food crop in
the country, within 2 months. "TNAU, Coimbatore has been
aggressively researching GM food crops. Many eminent scientists
like Dr. Bhargava, special invitee of the Supreme Court in the
genetic engineering approval committee and Dr. Gilles Eric
Seralini, from University of Caen, France have said that Bt Brinjal
may present a serious risk for human and animal health and the
release should be forbidden" stated Jai Krishna, Sustainable
Agriculture campaigner, Greenpeace.
Vettavalam Manikandan of the Tamil Nadu farmers association, who
was part of the campaign said that States like Kerala have already
taken a stand to ban GM crops and states like Uttarkhand, Nagaland
have declared themselves organic. "Tamil Nadu lags behind in
protecting its consumers and farmers. Considering the risks
involved in this outdated technology, TN should immediately ban
trials of GM crops" he added.
The TamilNadu Agricultural University is presently conducting
trials of Bt Maize belonging to Monsanto in its campus, inspite of
a recent Austrian Government Research study proving that this
particular variety of maize could cause reproductive disorders. The
University's interest towards the farmers welfare has been
questioned many times in the last two years with farmers'
organizations even branding the University as "Owned by
Monsanto".
"With the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University choosing a
contractual job of conducting field trials for the Agri Biotech
giant, Monsanto, over research for farmers benefit, they are
squandering public resources and taxpayers money towards the profit
of foreign companies. We have no option other than to ask our
elected representatives to regulate the University and stop all
field trials" said Jai Krishna.
The activists from the Safe Food alliance demanded that the MLAs
ensure that:
1. All GM crop approvals and field trials be stopped
immediately.
2. Genetically engineered foods be subject to long term and
intergenerational tests before an open air field trial is permitted
in Tamil Nadu.
3. State agricultural universities (SAU) disengage any
partnership research on GM crops with any private companies.
4. Medicinal Herbs, staple crops like rice and other culturally
significant crops should be declared as NOT to be genetically
engineered.
For further information, contact
Jai krishna, 0 98455 91992
Vettavalam Manikandan, 98411 60057
Sundararajan, 98402 46661