Hundreds of farmers from Bharat Kisan Union carrying banners and monster corn placards reading “Monsanto GM Corn Quit India” gathered together in a peaceful protest outside the Regional Research Station of Choudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCHAU) at Kurukshetra on Thursday, to show their resentment towards open air field trials of genetically-modified (GM) corn in the state.
American multinational seed giant, Monsanto, is conducting the open field trials of its herbicide-tolerant GM corn variety in the research station here. The farmers’ protest comes close on the heels of the recommendation of the Supreme Court Technical Expert Committee (TEC) to put a 10-year moratorium on all field trials of GM crops in India owing to the potential risks involved.
It might be noted that the TEC, comprising eminent scientists in the country on the field of molecular biology and biotechnology, after doing widespread consultations with experts said that the moratorium was necessitated by the potential harm of GM crops to human health, that of livestock and biodiversity and the possibility of field trials to contaminate our regular crops and our food supply. The concern was also because of the inadequacy of the current regulatory system to assess the safety of GM crops and its ability to safely conduct field trials.
In August this year the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture comprising 32 members of Parliament cutting across party lines in its report on GM food crops, tabled in Parliament had clearly recommended the “stopping of all field trials.”
Talking to farmers about these developments Rajesh Krishnan, sustainable agriculture campaigner, Greenpeace India, said, “It is unacceptable that after repeated recommendations from such credible agencies, both legislative and judicial, our government continues to permit open releases of GM crops in the country in the name of field trials,” he further stated, “Minister of environment and forests Jayanti Natarajan under whom sits the nodal agency for open releases of GM crops, should immediately stop all open air releases of GM crop including field trials.”
