Tech | February 06, 2010 | 24 comments

GMOs contaminate the world- and no one here cares

source: http://www.gmwatch.org/

Image
JanforGore
Ever felt that the approval of GM crops and foods by GM 'regulators' across the world has lacked transparency, due democratic process, and scientific rigour?

Then take a look at India for a lesson in how we can begin to take back the power we've given away to corporations and their bought-and-owned politicians and scientists.

Over the past week we've put onto our website (http://www.gmwatch.org/ - Latest News) a stack of documents from independent scientists and other experts submitted to the Indian government, commenting on its Expert Committee's (EC II) recent approval for commercialisation of GM Bt brinjal (aubergine/eggplant).

The approval process appeared to be based on junk science generated by the GM company Mahyco (a subsidiary of Monsanto), who created the GM Bt brinjal in question. Their data was not made fully public or independently evaluated.

When the approval announcement met with public outcry, the Minister for the Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, intervened and launched a public consultation and review process.

In response, a group of citizens, independent scientists, and other experts stepped into the knowledge gap to shine a light on the questions and problems around Bt brinjal that Mahyco and its friends in the Indian government didn't want the public to know about.

For example, Aruna Rodrigues (lead petitioner in the GM Public Interest Lawsuit in the Supreme Court), with members of civil society, has set up an Independent Scientific Peer Review Panel in an extra-governmental process to do the job that the 'regulator' failed to do.

We'll continue to put more documents up as they come in.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Tech,   Green,   Current Tonight,   3 more
  2. tags:
    World News,  Climate Change,  India,  Activism,  28 more
  3.     
    |

24 comments // GMOs contaminate the world- and no one here cares

  • JanforGore
  • hunzedog
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • hunzedog:

      Thanks hunzedog, but that would never work. I would never want that, and anyway, they'd probably make sure to bump me off real fast before I kicked them all to the curb. What my fantasy really is, is to be able to walk into their board room with the thousands of people who helped us be able to buy 51% of their stock to take over their company and then turn it into an organic seed company that specializes in rebuilding soil and rewarding farmers for protecting the environment while they all await trial for crimes against nature and humanity. And of course, refreshments would be served at that meeting too... BT popcorn and Round Up cocktails. ;-).

    • 2 years ago
  • animaladvocate
    • +1
      animaladvocate  

    • I care-I care A LOT! I have recently found out about this and I am extremely concerned. It's hard to do anything when everyone is lying anyway. They aren't labeled and every product can be a ticking time bomb and I don't have the *right* to know it?!? I am doing what I can to avoid these scary, unnatural monsters. Thanks for posting this!

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • Thargor19
    • +1
      Thargor19  

    • I care Jan! Keep up the great work bringing awareness to those who might not receive it elsewhere. I always have and always will fight Monsanto's tyrannical empire alongside you!

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • Nephwrack
    • 0
      Nephwrack  

    • acting like no one cares and making blanket statements don't win people over to a cause jan. plenty of us care and a lot of us are for organic farming. we get it. gmos and monsanto=bad. organic farming=good. stop acting like you're the only one who gives a flying rat poop about gmo's, please. it just comes off as preachy.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Nephwrack:

      You obviously didn't read my post explaining the reason for my title. Next time try.

      From my second post:

      "And yes, I do know some here do care, but I figured I would change the title because the last time this title was put up about another topic, it got acknowledgement from the News section and its own post. I just wonder at what point this will all have to go before the media actually recognizes this as the important issue it is. Some deaths to give them a good headline? When farmers have to wear hazmet suits to farm?"

      And the last thing I need here is to be preached to. Everyone else in this thread seemed to be able to grasp the concept of this post and the title...except you.

    • 2 years ago
  • Nephwrack
  • underthebus
  • VoyagerFilms
    • +1
      VoyagerFilms  

    • Thank you again Jan. You are right, this is a very important issue. I loved that movie, hard to believe things like that take place, but they really do.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • lamborghini
  • JanforGore
  • csmonut
    • +1
      csmonut  

    • Great site, gmwatch.org. Wish I had visited it before.
      I had the fortunate, or not, experience to watch Food, Inc. the other night. And...while I knew what was going on, it was frightening to watch. It brought it "home", so to speak.
      Sad, sad, times.
      I am even more committed to getting out the story of Monsanto and their ilk. They need to be stopped and people need to get really pissed.
      Just wish the "Tea Party" people would put their energy to good use.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • csmonut:

      Yes. Planting food was once a natural beautiful experience that gave us abundance with a close relationship to the Earth. Once we allowed corporate influence to place a value on the commoditization of our entire society, this is what we got. We can no longer sustain this way of life and have one.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://current.com/items/89752146_fighting-gmo-contamination-around-the-world.ht...

      Remember the saying, 'you are what you eat.' Perhaps Monsanto will now be able to get a patent on human life itself, claiming that since we are eating GMO we are GMO. Would that be treated as apathetically as well? When they patent all of nature? Their patented crap is now blowing all over the world on organic food, trees, fields, animals, and in the lungs of those who for some reason can't explain the allegries they now have, or that cold they can't get rid of, or that cough that just hangs on...

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • http://www.gmcontaminationregister.org/
      This site shows all contamination events they were able to record. This BT brinjal event in India is important in that respect as well. It is important because if approved, it will contaminate the natural varieties of a crop essential to Indian culture. It will put farmers out of business. It may well even lead to more farmer suicides, and it will open the door to Monsanto and other lecherous companies like them to force other GM crops down their throats.This in turn hurts our environment globally, our world economy, and the lives of millions of people. This is for sure one of the hugest environmental, health, and social issues of this time.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • Fortunately for the world people in India and other countries around the world DO CARE. Shameful though how this topic is just pushed aside here on Current for the most part, and in the media in general. And yes, I do know some here do care, but I figured I would change the title because the last time this title was put up about another topic, it got acknowledgement from the News section and its own post. I just wonder at what point this will all have to go before the media actually recognizes this as the important issue it is. Some deaths to give them a good headline? When farmers have to wear hazmet suits to farm?

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • 2.Documents available so far

      Is this what Indians should be trusting? The story of the Expert Committee that recommended Bt Brinjal – Kavitha Kuruganti
      http://bit.ly/d1W17V

      Response to conclusions of the Expert Committee on Bt Brinjal - microbiologist Dr Johannes Manjrekar
      http://bit.ly/bzVN2V

      Health effects and risks of Bt foods/Conflicts of interest in Bt brinjal approval - health professionals' letter to minister
      http://bit.ly/cIsaXN

      Why Bt brinjal should not be allowed into the food supply - Immunologist and biologist Dr David Schubert
      http://bit.ly/c7cRjI

      Effects on health of transgenic Bt brinjal - CRIIGEN member Dr Joël Spiroux de Vendômois, MD
      http://bit.ly/b7dXAd

      Bt brinjal health risks - Dr Arpad Pusztai
      http://bit.ly/bFziyy

      No long-term safety research on Bt brinjal - Letter to Indian Council of Medical Research from Aruna Rodrigues
      http://bit.ly/9lVs88

      Mealy Bug Plagues Bt Cotton in India and Pakistan: The new menace that came with Bt cotton – Dr Mae-Wan Ho
      http://bit.ly/cKJ5c8

      Bt cotton and livestock: health impacts - Dr Sagari R Ramdas (paper)
      http://bit.ly/aTL1ho

      Bt cotton and livestock deaths: Letter from Sagari R Ramdas to environment minister
      http://bit.ly/cWJcYf

      Bt brinjal and absence of safety testing - addendum from Dr Sagari R Ramdas
      http://bit.ly/bO1l4Q

      Molecular characterization of Bt brinjal "inadequate", results "unpredictable" - genetic engineer Dr David Williams
      http://bit.ly/bO2f9h

      Comment on the risk assessment of Bt brinjal - Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman
      http://bit.ly/by1OFl

      Bt brinjal analysis "too poorly conducted" to assume safety - Prof Jack Heinemann - Part I
      http://bit.ly/ct9rPc

      Bt brinjal analysis "too poorly conducted" to assume safety - Prof Jack Heinemann - Part II
      http://bit.ly/cT2wrP

      Risk assessment of toxins derived from Bt - important peer reviewed study – Christoph Then
      http://bit.ly/a3ngla

      Response to Expert Committee on Bt brinjal - Kavitha Kuruganti - Part I
      http://bit.ly/agV18j

      Response to Expert Committee on Bt brinjal - Kavitha Kuruganti - Part II
      http://bit.ly/9Nt3hN

      Response to Expert Committee on Bt brinjal - Kavitha Kuruganti - Part III
      http://bit.ly/8XTbXN

      Response to Expert Committee on Bt brinjal - Kavitha Kuruganti - Part IV
      http://bit.ly/aNMOD8

      Appeal by farmers' group representative on Bt brinjal to minister
      http://bit.ly/9tyY5Q

      "GM Facts" from farmers' group representative to environment minister
      http://bit.ly/dDnfcQ

      Organic cotton contaminated by GM cotton
      http://bit.ly/bEmete

      Non-GM soy contaminated by GM cotton and export impact
      http://bit.ly/c60XoZ
      ---
      ---

    • 2 years ago
more from Tech:
from the community

top videos