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Moderated conference on GMOs in the pipeline, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2012

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Biotech-Mod2 <[log in to unmask]>
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Biotech-Mod2 <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:20:16 +0100
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This is from Professor C Kameswara Rao, Executive Secretary, Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE), Bangalore, India.
 
The questions raised against Bt brinjal have all been answered repeatedly. I draw the attention of the Moderator and the participants to the following articles. If anyone wants, I can send pdf files of all of them.

1. Kameswara Rao, C. 2010. Moratorium on Bt brinjal. A review of the order of the Minister of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Bangalore. Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education. Pp 70 http://www.whybiotech.com/resources/tps/Moratorium_on_Bt_Brinjal.pdf (5.9 MB, accessed on November 20, 2012).
 
2. Kameswara Rao, C. 2011. Use of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) in alternative systems of medicine in India. Bangalore. Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education. Pp. 32. FBAE, Executive summary at http://plantbiotechnology.org.in/Brinjal%20alt%20syst%20med%203.pdf (430 KB, accessed on November 20, 2012).
 
3. Kameswara Rao, C., Shantharam, S. and Moses, V. (2011). Bt brinjal is an important tool for the control of fruit and shoot borer. Microbiology Today, 38: 60-61. http://mag.digitalpc.co.uk/fvx/sgm/mbt/1102/ (accessed November 20, 2012).
 
4. Ammann, K. (20120817) (August 20, 2012). The Bt Brinjal battle in India pp 21  http://www.ask-force.org/web/Brinjal/Ammann-Brinjal-Blog-revised-20120817.pdf (1 MB, accessed on November 20, 2012).
 
As regards some specific issues raised in the message of Suman Sahai (Message 35):
 
a) Food labeling: Codex Alimentarius has not taken any decision against or for labeling GM foods. Early this month, the California State (US) has rejected the proposal to label GM foods. If someone is so vehement, GM foods can be labeled on the pack, shelf rack or the shelf, the way organic foods are announced with pride. Labeling every fruit is impossible and adds heavily to consumer costs. There is yet no evidence to show that Bt brinjal is more harmful than non-Bt brinjal, either to the consumer or the environment, to warn the public.  
 
b) Liability laws: It is unwise to block marketing GM foods on that there are no liability laws, which are in fact unnecessary as the existing Indian laws are adequate to bring to book any fraudulent food or pharmaceutical product. Farmers have taken hundreds of crores (10 millions) of rupees as compensation claiming failure of Bt cotton.
 
c) Pollen flow from Bt brinjal to non-Bt brinjal: Transgenic technology does not alter the pollination or breeding behavior of any crop. The quantum of gene flow would be the same as between the isogenic and other varieties of the crop. There is a lot of evidence to show that gene flow among varieties of brinjal was negligible and this is not a scientifically valid concern.    
 
d) Centre of origin of brinjal: That India is not the centre of origin of brinjal, but only a centre of domestication, was repeatedly emphasized in the publications listed above. There is a detailed discussion in the publication by Weese, TL & Bohs, L., 2010. Eggplant origins: Out of Africa, into the Orient. Taxon, 59: 49-56.  

e) Resurfacing of new toxins: This is an utterly spurious concern. Every species of food plant belongs to a family that has species with deadly toxins. Many of the plant foods we consume can be toxic at times, which does not discourage us from consuming any of them. Bt brinjal is no more toxic than non-Bt brinjal.
 
Professor C Kameswara Rao, 
Executive Secretary, 
Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education, 
No 1, Gupta's Layout, 
Southend Road, 
Bangalore 560004, 
India  
Mobile 91-9845145777.
e-mail: pbtkrao (at) gmail.com 

[As Codex Alimentarius and labeling has been mentioned: An item on labelling of foods and food ingredients obtained through certain techniques of genetic modification/genetic engineering had been on the agenda of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling for many years. At its 39th Session, that took place on 9-13 May 2011 in Quebec City, Canada, the Committee agreed to advance the text contained in Appendix III of the Session report (title Proposed draft compilation of Codex texts relevant to labelling of foods derived from modern biotechnology) to the 34th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (4-9 July 2011, Geneva, Switzerland) where it was adopted. This "Compilation of Codex texts relevant to the labelling of foods derived from modern biotechnology" is available in English, French and Spanish from http://www.codexalimentarius.org/standards/list-of-standards/en/. The Codex Alimentarius Commission, established by FAO and WHO in 1963, develops harmonised international food standards, guidelines and codes of practice to protect the health of the consumers and ensure fair trade practices in the food trade. The Commission also promotes coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations...Moderator].

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information on this FAO Biotechnology Forum, see http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/]

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