The interim order issued by the Supreme Court directing the
government to publicise the results of trials on the safety of genetically
modified (GM) food items represents a breakthrough in the campaign for
biosafety regulations in India, Suman Sahai, convener of Gene Campaign said.
Talking to The Hindu, Ms. Sahai who is in the city to attend a two-day
workshop organised by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board, said the order
would be a boost for efforts to establish a better regulatory mechanism for
GM products in the country.

A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan issued
the interim order based on a public interest litigation filed by Gene
Campaign, a Delhi-based research and advocacy organisation.

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has been directed to
consider the toxicity and allerginicity of GM food items. The order asked
the government to post the relevant material on the web so that independent
experts could examine them.

Contamination hazard
The committee has also been asked to study the isolation distance of
experimental fields from neighbouring fields to prevent contamination.
In its petition, the Gene Campaign had alleged that the unregulated
release of GM grains and vegetables in the Indian environment was fraught
with danger to public health and environment. It sought to prevent the
release of GM foods without safety verification by an independent agency.

Persistent demand
?At a time when almost every other country, including the U.S., is
revising regulations on GM products, the Government of India has not
responded to persistent demand for an overhaul of the regulatory mechanism.
The existing protocol for safety tests and impact monitoring in India is
extremely inadequate despite growing scientific evidence of the impact of GM
foods on public health,? Ms. Sahai said.
?It is a pity that a country like India that is home to the biggest
staple food in the world is fooling around with genetically engineered (GE)
rice. Cultivating GE rice is a ?high risk? area for India, a major centre of
origin and diversity for rice.?

Ban in Mexico
She said Mexico had imposed a ban on not just the cultivation of GE
corn, but also research in GE corn.
?Too little is understood about what happens when foreign genes are
abruptly pushed into the genetic material of living organisms like plants.
The results are intrinsically unpredictable and there exists the potential
for damage across generations. India must not cultivate GE rice until a
solid body of research is done to understand the implications.?

Like atomic energy
Likening GM technology to atomic energy, Ms. Sahai who has a Ph.D. in
genetics and several years of teaching experience in Indian and foreign
universities, said, ?The crisis is that we will never be able to guarantee
total safety. I cannot see a day when we can remove precautions on GE
research.?
She said transparency and facilities for data scrutiny would have to
be part of the regulatory mechanism.

Sovereignty at stake
Ms. Sahai termed GE a solution in search of a problem. ?The only ones
to benefit from it are a few multinational corporations. At stake is the
food security and food sovereignty of nations. It is a shame that a country
like India has to waste so much effort in dealing with the problems caused
by this technology.?


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