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...though, India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh nixed the introduction of the Bt brinjal. Ramesh, who has come under huge public pressure to ban the genetically modified vegetable, said the scientific community was not agreed on the brinjal's safety, that public opinion was against cultivation of the vegetable, and that there was "no overriding urgency or food security argument" for its introduction. He said further tests were required on the new variety, and said India needed to ramp up its genetic engineering regulatory mechanism. (See the top 10 food trends...
Ramesh's announcement raised the decibel level in an already shrill debate. Many of India's farmers say they oppose Bt brinjal because the seeds are expensive and would have to be purchased every year, rather than something they could harvest themselves from the previous year's crop...
...critics of the decision say it was taken because the minister is scared of annoying the powerful farmers' lobby. BT brinjal backers also question why Ramesh disregarded scientific evidence from field trials that indicated the brinjals are safe. That evidence had been approved by the government's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee. "This decision is certainly a big setback for biotechnology and I am afraid it will thwart further investment in agri-biotech research," says Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, head of Indian biotech firm Biocon. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries...
...Bt brinjal issue is yet another reminder of how difficult the government's balancing act is - and of the extra pressures that a democracy like India face compared to more authoritarian countries...
...beyond reproach. In the brinjal case, for instance, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee had a clear conflict of interest: it relied on data supplied by the seed developer and verified by panelists involved in genetic engineering research themselves. If a more autonomous panel had found in favor of the Bt brinjal, the government may have allowed its use. Ramesh says the moratorium period on the brinjal's introduction should be used to set up an independent regulator with the scientific capacity to take authoritative decisions on key issues...