Feature story - August 10, 2004
NEW DELHI, India — 10th August 2004, New Delhi: Greenpeace activists were the first to greet delegates arriving at the FICCI auditorium this morning for the inauguration of the three-day conference 'Agricultural Bio-technology - Ushering in the Second Green Revolution'. The group of activists, holding a banner that said 'Gene Revolution - You MUST be joking!' kept up a steady stream of derisive laughter to mock the conference's attempt to promote flawed and unpredictable technology like Genetic Engineering as a response to the current crisis in Indian Agriculture.
Gene Revolution? No laughing matter.
"There is no doubt that Indian agriculture is in a state of
crisis. But it is laughable that this closed-door conference should
consider GE as the solution," said Divya Raghunandan, GE
Campaigner, "World over, GE has been condemned for depending on the
outdated, over-simplistic understanding of science. For example, it
was assumed that one gene has just one function, although we now
know that a single gene can have many functions. This proves once
again that GE crops are completely unpredictable. And yet, this is
the only solution that the 'best scientific brains' of our country
can offer today?"
Greenpeace is also drawing attention to the increasing influence
wielded by profit-seeking multinationals. These multinationals are
notorious for patenting Indian wheat, contaminating soya in Brazil
and Maize in Mexico and ultimately being forced to abandon their GM
wheat. Despite this, these corporations operating through the ISAAA
find pride of place as co-organizers of this conference along with
MSSRF and FICCI . "Instead of recognizing these corporations as
having vested interests in the promotion of genetic engineering in
agriculture, an obviously-biased government is welcoming them into
advisory roles," said Divya Raghunandan.
"The real issues on the ground are no laughing matter," she
added, "Illegal Bt Cotton is rampantly out of control; we face the
very real risk of contamination of non-GM crops during field
trials; there's evidence of increasing corporate control on
agriculture furthering farmers' impoverishment; and there will be
irreversible impacts on our biodiversity if GM crops are
allowed."
For further information, please contact:
Divya Raghunandan, GE Campaigner, Greenpeace India:
+919845535406
Namrata Chowdhary, Media Officer, Greenpeace India:
+919810850092 