India Stops Release of Genetically Modified Eggplant

by Jennifer Lawinski, Posted Feb 9th 2010 @ 4:30PM

Thomas W. Griffiths

Caving to pressure from states and environmental groups, India has put the breaks on plans to allow genetically-modified eggplants to be grown commercially, the Wall Street Journal reported.

To create the modified veggie, scientists engineered eggplant (called brinjal in India) to be more resistant to pests than normal varieties by inserting a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.

A government committee approved the move to commercialize the eggplant -- named Bt Brinjal after its scientific modification -- in October, but the Indian government overturned that decision Tuesday.

Jairam Ramesh, the country's environment minister, said there is no clear consensus among scientists on the vegetable's safety, the Times of India reported.

"There is no over-riding urgency to introduce it... When the public sentiments have been negative, it is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary and principle-based approach," Ramesh said at a press conference, the Times reported. "I will not impose a decision till such time independent scientific studies establish safety of the product from long-term view of human health."

He said the eggplant moratorium would not halt the use of biotechnology in India's agricultural sector, the Journal reported.

India's eggplant-growing states, environmental groups and consumer-health activists expressed concern that commercial farming of the modified eggplant would "adversely affect human health, the environment and the existing natural variety of eggplant in India," the Journal reported.

The modified eggplant was developed by Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd., a private seed company. Scientific tests on the eggplant begun in 2000.

India is one of the world's largest producers of eggplant.

Filed Under: New Products
Tags: eggplant, genetically modified eggplant, gmo, india stops genetically modified eggplant

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-10-2010 @8:30AM LinC said... I don't have a problem with genetically modified crops for eating, but I can understand India's reluctance. In the US, most farmers buy their seed fresh each year. In less developed countries, seed is often saved from the field for next year's crop. So if your field is cross-pollinated from an adjacent field by a GM crop, you don't know what kind of hybrid you will get. In order to protect their copyright (or whatever it's called), GM crops often are engineered to not set seed. If that trait is passed to nearby fields, you could bankrupt a poor farmer in one season if his crop doesn't provide him seeds to save for next year.
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