Saturday

Bt Brinjals – A fraud on Indian origin Vegetable

Genetic Engineers Cook up Brinjal- Political caterers serve the dishes – Corporates are at bill and cash – People to eat injury and death-Scientists are buried alive – “Eat and Die” A Planet Hotel & Back yard Grave

More than 1200 varieties of brinjals have evolved naturally all over this planet. But now the man who is about to clone himself is testing his intelligent designs with animals and vegetation. Poor brinjal has caught his greedy imagination.

Brinjal plant at garden

Brinjal originated from India. This vegetable is cultivated in 5,10,000 hectares yielding 8.2 million tonnes annually. It is used everyday in Indian kitchens. Can the corporate business ignore such a vast market to make big money ? They have come up with Genetically Modified Brinjal ( Bt Brinjal) with the sole aim of high yield and huge profit. They say that Bt Brinjal requires no pesticide and therefore is not injurious to human body as if natural brinjal is to be discarded for health hazards.

stuffed brinjal curry at kitchen

Indians consume this vegetable as soup, curried, steamed, barbequed, boiled and whatever way it may be cooked to suit their tastes. Particularly Kathirikkaa Sambar is most sought after for rice and idly. Kathrikka kothsu is also another side dish for idly. Ennaik kathrikka a tasty fry of brinjal in gingelly oil is one of the mouth watering item.

Beware, from the gourmets and connoisseurs of delicious food to poor woman/man who cook and eat for hunger – the Indian stomach is selected as an international laboratory to test this Bt.Brinjal.

The genetically modified brinjal is banned in European union. But the recent statements by Indian minister of State for Environment and the Tamil Nadu state agriculture minister appear to promote the production and consumption of Bt Brinjal. We are left to wonder whether Indians are anyway less human than Europeans and that Science varies according to Geography? There is a suspicion that Indian politicians are influenced by the external forces who conspire to achieve a double benefit of making profit in Brinjal seed exports and testing the GM varieties of vegetables on poor Indians.

A common variety at market

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee {GEAC) under the control of Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests is responsible to regulate research, testing and for commercial release of GM crops, foods and organisms. In 2006 the Government granted permission to the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Limited (MAHYCO), acting under license from the global seed giant Monsanto, to carry out field trials for Bt-brinjal in India. This decision itself was against Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which discourages the genetic modification of crops in their land of origin. The protocol was a part of an international treaty adopted in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 to protect biodiversity. Therefore doubts are raised about experimenting with Brinjal in its home ground India.

Nature lovers and Greenpeace activists have gone for independent verification of scientific data on the effects of Bt Brinjal on consumers. A France based Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering has studied ‘Effects on Health and Environment of Transgenic (genetically modified) Bt Brinjal’.  The report submitted to GEAC has concluded that the commercial release of Bt Brinjal should be forbidden.

After feeding Bt Brinjals to animals the ill effects noticed are reported as below

Cow Milk -Composition changed
Goats- Time taken for blood clot modified( prothrombin)
Broiler Chicken – Feed intake modified
Fish – average feed conversion and efficiency ratios changed
Rabbits- Less consumption
Rats – Diarrhea, higher water consumption, liver weight decrease

In a major finding, it was noticed that Bt brinjal produces a protein which can induce resistance to kanamycin, an antibiotic commonly used in the treatment of human beings

But The Environment Ministry has scheduled a series of public consultations on this issue. The dates and places are Kolkatta – January 13 , Bhubaneshwar – January 16, Ahmedabad -January 19, Hyderabad – January 22, Bangalore January 23 , Nagpur -January 27, Chandigarh -January 30.

In the first public consultation held at Kolkatta the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Mr. Jairam Ramesh was present. The Times of India reported that two thirds of the gathering rejected the introduction of Bt Brinjal in the country and who were in favour were mostly farmers. But the same meeting was covered by the Hindu newspaper which reported that the meeting was disrupted twice with a few farmers’ groups vociferously challenging the comments made in favour of Bt brinjal by two scientists.

Such contradictions can crop up if the public involved in consultation have no knowledge of the scientific facts. What is the use of consulting a farmer who knows nothing about genetic engineering?

Can the politicians conduct consultation meetings with the public for Newtons laws of motion? It is absurd. If the competent persons in the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee {GEAC) or the unqualified politicians decide these scientific issues based on reasons other than science, it will go wrong. Patriotic and concerned people who follow such issues with keen interest and knowledge could not repose any confidence on the Government.

Particularly the Minister of State for Environment Mr Jairam Ramesh has justified neither Environment nor Agriculture in his tenure in this portfolio. This IIT educated Mechanical engineer and the founder of business school at Hyderabad should be immediately shifted to some other portfolio like industries where he can show his expertise.

“I am not an agent of Monsanto, although that allegation has been levelled against me,”Mr.Jairam Ramesh

Mr. Jairam Ramesh while visiting the Bhopal Union Carbide factory recently, in the presence of media men, took a fistful of mud from the premises and said ‘look here, I am not affected.’ . He could do a chemical analysis of soil by his bare hand while the real reports indicate the soil and water at Bhopal are still in a polluted condition after 25 years of the tragedy of poisonous gas leakage in that factory which killed thousands of people and crippled many more.

Earlier Mr Jairam Ramesh was criticized in Tamil Nadu for granting permission to Kerala Government for a survey to construct a new dam in the upstream of the existing dam across Mullai Periyar river, while a case on this inter state river dispute is pending in the Supreme Court. Mr Ramesh knows very well that the proposed dam construction will submerge thousands of hectares of forest with flora and fauna and also reduce the cultivable agricultural area in Tamil Nadu by restricting the quantum of water for irrigation.

Expanding irrigation area and cultivating more brinjal of traditional variety to get high yield for catering future brinjal needs of population is the right attitude which cannot be expected from a person like Mr. Jairam Ramesh who has demonstrated that his core strength and priorities are not matching with Environment and Agriculture.

On the other hand, the Former Union health minister and a medical professional Dr. Anbumani Ramdoss has opposed introduction of GM brinjal into the country stating that insufficient research had been done by the joint venture between MAHYCO and Monsanto about the safety of consumers and impacts on farmers and has requested for a moratorium on all GM crop releases for at least 10 years and until all pending issues are resolved and questions answered. This sounds reasonable. For 10 more years we can continue to eat the available 1200 varieties and give a trial time for the 1201th variety.

Brinjal flower

Why not we wait for just one more decade to ascertain the benefits of Bt brinjal for the safety of our future generation of many millennia ? Until then let the natural brinjal flowers bloom to beautify this planet and satisfy our taste.

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Habit of refusing unacceptable food
Ensures no disaster to the life.

ThiruValluvar 945

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Related poem by Malarthamil published in a magazine in 1999

NOTHING

Your hurricane drilled your atom,
Chased away all those electrons spinning
Made two pizzas out of protons, digested,
And reduced neutrons to nil, finally
You are left with nothing.

Your extra heat exploded the beaker
Splashing acid and glass on the face,
Now you are skin burnt and unrecognised
By anyone you know so far.
And even by yourself.

Your research monkey entered the
DNA garlands, cracked the
Peace loving genes and cells,
Challenging the nature or god

Sure you are going to grow a tail,
A back evolution, believe me,
I am the neo Darwin, ushering
Our drowning towards nothing
Even before the doomsday

Published and collected in http://malarthamizh.wordpress.com

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Barbeque Big Brinjal curry – A Reciepe by Dr. Mahalakshmi
1.Take a big brinjal also called elephant brinjal (ensure it is not a Bt Brinjal). It may weigh from 300 to 400 gm. Apply few drops of oil around it.
2. Heat it in Barbeque grill or in gas stove with low flame. Fry the brinjal until it is done uniformly. You can test it by inserting a fork.
3.Cool and Peel off the burnt skin.
4. Smash it.
5. Extract tamarind water 100 ml from a 5 cm dia tamarind ball.
6. Mix smashed brinjal with tamarind extract.
7.Heat 3 table spoon of any cooking oil in a pan.
8.Add cut onion one number, half tea spoon mustard, curry leaf , half tea spoon dhall, two green chillies and asaftoeda in oil and fry until onion is done.
9.Put the brinjal tamarind mix in oil and cook it until the water dries/ say for 5 minutes.
10.Tasty barbeque brinjal curry is ready to serve with rice and sambar.
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No to Bt Brinjal