Should this happen in India ??!!!

Immediately after general public, several concerned scientists and farmers rejected Bt-brinjal...

Our (Indian) government is into something which is unthinkable even in a dictatorship country

The proposed BRAI (Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India) Act 2010 is going to put you in jail if you question the safety of GM Foods.

Many concerned citizens objected to one particular aspect of the bill which states “whoever, without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public about the safety of organisms and products…shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to one year and with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees or with both”.

“The Bill seems to have draconian clauses to stifle anti-GM voices in the country and is designed to be a Clearing House for GMO applications rather than to protect the health and environment of people in the country,” Dr P.M. Bhargava, Founder-Director of the Hyderabad based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and a vocal critic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) told The Hindu over phone.

Another controversial aspect of the Bill, opposed by anti-GM groups, pertains to clinical trials of GMOs and is therefore related to providing the public with “false” or misleading information.

Chapter XIIII of the BRAI Bill states that “whoever, himself or by any other person on his behalf, conducts clinical trials with organisms or products… shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to ten years and with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees or with both”.

“This is meant to harass civil society groups and scientists who are voicing their concern on this (GE /GM) technology,” said Dr. Bhargava. “There is no penalty if someone promotes GMOs without safety tests, but there is a penalty if someone wishes to inform the public about the hazards of GMOs. Besides, who is to decide on “misleading” and on what basis?” he asked.

KNOW THAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO CATCH YOU - A CIVILIAN FOR QUESTIONING THE SAFETY OF FOOD AND NOT THE TERRORIST WHO KILLS INNOCENT PEOPLE

THIS HAPPENS ONLY IN INDIA ?!...

Read the recent news items from The Hindu and India Today.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article108821.ece

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/84730/India/Govt+moots+jail+for+GM+food+critics.html

Scientific American report on how a GM Seed company (Monsanto) uses seeds to control the entire food chain (be happy that it is only human food chain !)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-seed-companies-control-gm-crop-research#comments

IMPORTANT: GM Cotton (BT Cotton) ineffective - Flash News: (despite this Govt. wants to force GM Foods on us !)

http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/06/stories/2010030664831400.htm

WHAT IS TO BE DONE ???... - WHAT ELSE, CREATE AWARENESS, PROTEST PEACEFULLY... and sign the below petition also

http://www.petitiononline.com/sackpawa/petition.html

Some info on GMO or GM /GE /Transgenic /Genetically modified, etc.

The biotech MNCs have been allowed to build a monopoly on patented genetically modified (GM) seeds, and planted them on 90 percent of India’s cotton fields in just 7 years. It is allowed to harass and intimidate farmers, not just for saving its GM seeds illegally, but for patent infringement, should a farmer choose not to grow GM crops, and the non-GM crop becomes contaminated, inevitably, by the neighbours’ GM seeds or pollen that get propagated by air, bees, butterflies, etc

In USA not only Monsanto and others have prevented GM products in the supermarket from being labelled, so no one can say whether GM food has harmed people, some US states have enacted a food libel law that forbids anyone to say bad things about GM foods that leads to loss of profit for the Biotech industry. Indian government's move to introduce BRAI Act 2010 is by itself an example of this.

There is now a substantial evidence indicating that GM /GE food is inherently hazardous. Whenever and wherever independent studies are carried out to test the effects of GM /GE foods on animals, scientists find increased illnesses, sterility or deaths; farmers and farm workers are also witnessing the same happening in the fields - this is conveniently ignored by the scientific community as Anti-science

Rustle the Leaf - comic strip

Very good collection of comic strips focusing on Environmental messages. The wit, sketches and the messages are upto the standards of Calvin & Hobbes - Well done Ponce & Wright