Kirankumar Vissa of AID-India and Dr. G.V. Ramanjaneyulu of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), in a joint statement released on February 9, considered the Government’s ban on Bt Brinjal “a victory for India’s food sovereignty” and called upon the Government to “take immediate steps to prevent subversion of the moratorium”.
“On behalf of all concerned farmers, consumers and scientists, we heartily welcome the historic decision by Minister Shri Jairam Ramesh to impose a moratorium on Bt Brinjal. This is a victory for India’s food sovereignty, preserving the control of seeds and food in the hands of our farmers and consumers instead of a few multinational corporations like Monsanto. This is also a victory for our democracy because of the broad-based public consultation process through which this decision was arrived at, after taking the opinions of people of various backgrounds and areas of expertise and most importantly people who would be affected by the decision – both farmers and consumers. We hope that this will set a precedent for taking decisions on critical issues with public impact,” said the statement.
“The Minister’s report has highlighted the experience of 6 lakh farmers in Andhra Pradesh who are practising Non-Pesticidal Management methods, growing a variety of crops including cotton and brinjal without using any chemical pesticides, and has concluded that effective alternatives exist to address the pesticide problem and there is no urgency to introduce Bt Brinjal for this purpose. It is also an eminent decision in favour of consumer health concerns because it adopts the precautionary principle and requires that chronic toxicity tests and other long-term tests should be done to establish the bio-safety to the satisfaction of the public. In the International Year of Biodiversity, the concerns about protection of biodiversity have been given due importance.
“It is important to note that the decision is based on sound scientific grounds, based on the opinions of many eminent scientists and experts, and well-supported and scientifically argued in the report released by the Minister. We thank the Andhra Pradesh government and the Vice Chancellors of the Agricultural University and Horticultural University, and all the other states and public universities who have written against the introduction of Bt Brinjal, upholding their responsibility to the citizens. Most importantly, we thank all the thousands of farmers, farmer organisations, scientists, doctors, consumer groups, people’s movements, civil society organisations and citizens of all backgrounds who enthusiastically participated in the consultations making the best use of the opportunity,” it added.
In light of the important concerns expressed in the Minister’s report which formed the basis for the decision, the signatories to the statement demanded the following steps in addition to the recommendations on Bt Brinjal:
1. A comprehensive independent study should be immediately initiated on Bt Cotton, which assesses the ecological impact, pesticide usage, impact on animal health and the health impact of cottonseed oil.
2. Immediate steps should be taken to prevent the illegal distribution of Bt Brinjal seeds by the companies and to confiscate the seeds kept for commercialization, in order to prevent an unauthorized environmental release.
They also congratulated Mr. Jairam Ramesh for upholding the best principles of democracy as well as science, in making the Bt Brinjal decision, and hoped that farmers and farmer organisations across India will take this opportunity to shift to more sustainable methods of cultivation, and that the scientific community took a critical view of all aspects of Genetically Modified crops and promoted ecologically sustainable approaches to agriculture.