NEW BIOTECH REGULATOR BILL IS ANTI-PEOPLE , WILL STIFLE ANTI-GM VOICES

NEW BIOTECH REGULATOR BILL IS ANTI-PEOPLE , WILL STIFLE ANTI-GM VOICES:
“INDIA NEEDS A NATIONAL BIOSAFETY PROTECTION AUTHORITY”

Chandigarh, February 16, 2010: Terming the proposed Biotech Regulator Bill (Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill) as a wrong bill by the wrong people for the wrong reasons, several groups across the country called for the setting up of a National Biosafety Protection Authority.

The Supreme Court observer in Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), Dr Pushpa Bhargava objected to the fact that the proposed Authority is to be housed under the Department of Biotechnology/Ministry of Science & Technology and said that this in itself is objectionable conflict of interest. “The latest version of the Biotech Regulator Bill in India 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 in the country. Further, modern biotechnology is a vast field comprising of more than thirty distinct areas including immuno-technology, stem cell technologies, nano-biotechnology etc., whereas this proposed Biotech Regulator appears to look at just Genetic Engineering. To call it a regulator for modern biotechnology is misleading and only shows the ignorance of the people who drafted this Bill”, pointed out Dr Bhargava, Founder-Director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.

There was serious objection to the inclusion of a Section in the proposed Bill which says “whoever, without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public about safety of GMOs and products thereof shall be punished” with imprisonment and fine! “This is meant to harass civil society groups and scientists who are voicing their concern on this technology and who is to decide on “misleading”, on what basis?”, asked Dr Bhargava. Rather than penalize those who intend to release GMOs without conclusive safety proven, clauses like this are being inserted to harass concerned voices, he said.

“This Biotech Regulator Bill is being pushed by the Department of Biotechnology, a department with the mandate to promote GM crops. It is trying to take advantage of the current debate in the country around Bt Brinjal (a first-of-its-kind Genetically Modified vegetable with a bacterial gene in it) and push its own agenda in the form of this Bill. The nation-wide debate that Bt Brinjal initiated had actually shown the dire need for a regulator who Indians can trust to protect their health and environment – we need a National Biosafety Protection Authority and not another ‘facilitator’ for the industry. The wide-ranging people’s voices all over the country now show that any attempt to allow backdoor entry of Bt Brinjal or other GMOs through BRAI or some such institution will be resisted. The proposed statute also tries to stifle the legitimate authority of state governments over Agriculture and vests decision-making in the hands of just a few technical people whereas the issue of GMOs in our food and farming systems has many facets beyond the purely technical”, said Kavitha Kuruganti of Kheti Virasat Mission.

The Government of India was reminded that the 2004 Task Force Report on Agricultural Biotechnology had highlighted the need for the following in any biotechnology regulatory policy: “the safety of the environment, the well being of farming families, the ecological and economic sustainability of farming systems, the health and nutrition security of consumers, safeguarding of home and external trade and the biosecurity of the nation”. These important aspects or cornerstones do not find any place in the draft Bill sought to be introduced.

Umendra Dutt of Alliance for GM-Free & Safe Foods, Punjab, said that the proposed legislation, instead of expressly having clauses on information disclosure, that too before decision-making takes place for independent/public scrutiny, has brought in clauses on retaining Confidential Commercial Information. As past experience in India has shown with the Right to Information struggle to bring out the biosafety data on Bt Brinjal, this cannot be left to the discretion of the officials in the Authority and all product development and biosafety-related information has to be pro-actively disclosed and placed in the public domain before decision-making.

On Risk Assessment procedures as laid down in the proposed legislation, it’s pointed out that ‘risk assessment should consist not only of an independent, scientific, transparent evaluation of the biosafety dossier submitted by the crop/product developer including mandatory public scrutiny but also independent testing for further verification of results. Any proposed Authority should have the testing capabilities established for this. Dr Bhargava has already submitted a blueprint for the setting up of such a laboratory and the government should proceed to implement this as part of the National Biosafety Protection Authority’.

A set of issues with the current Bill is annexed and it is hoped that Members of Parliament will ensure that a National Biosafety Protection Authority is set up soon in this country to ensure the sustainable development interests of all Indians.

Converting the dream of chemical free Punjab into reality

It is unfortunate that Punjab with the total area of 2.5% of area of the country consumes 18% of the pesticides consumed in the country – exclaimed one of the participants of the training camp on natural farming (Kudrati Kheti). This aptly describes the reason behind emergence of Kheti Virasat Mission and what they have achieved in the last 4 years of their existence was quite evident all through the 3 days of the training camp.

With participants coming from Gujrat, Haryana and Rajasthan, the state level training camp really turned into a national level one. The experts on the issue who attended and passed on their teachings included Dr. Omprakash Rupela (former principal scientist ICRI SAT India), Shri Dipak Suchade , expert in Natueco farming – a practice of organic farming from Devas, MP and Dr Raghunath expert in Non Pesticidal Management NPM from Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad.

I think the camp provided a wonderful platform for experts to pass on their knowledge and farmers to discuss their doubts and learn new techniques. The audience comprised of a big range of small farmers with about a quarter acre (primarily from Gujrat) to large farmers owning more than 100 acres. In that context, I believe that the questions that came up broadly represented the complete class of farmers across India.

There was both passion and discontent floating around amongst the farmer participants. Some of them were really passionate about natural farming aligning with the philosophy of poison free Punjab. On the other hand there were also few who were discontent with the produce they were getting and the question – Jhaad kitna aaya (How much was the produce?) was the first one to come in any session and response to any energetic farmer’s experience telling. Such a mix was a true evidence of genuine evidence of hard work put in by KVM people in convincing these farmers to practice organic farming (even if it is on a smaller percentage of their big land holding) and also bringing such critical issues to the forefront in a common audience. Till the time such issues are resolved widespread adoption seems unlikely and the only way to resolve it is through a dialogue and not putting it behind the agenda during these public camps. Kudos to KVM people for their effort so far.

Dipak Jee was probably one of the most passionate person in the camp – every time he demonstrated the different steps involved in the process of Natueco farming, he will get completely immersed and the pleasure was quite apparent on his face and his activities. He patiently addressed some tough, into the face questions from farmers giving convincing answers almost all the time. Wherever he went too deep into philosophical ideology behind natural farming, Dr. Rupela chipped in with his wonderful Punjabi extending those justifications on practical grounds and sometimes even with scientific explanations. They formed a very fantastic team together.

The amount of effort that went into the planning and organization was quite evident. The sessions seemed to be hand picked so as to cover all the major issues – ranging from introductory sessions, practical demonstrations of the technique of Natueco farming, interactive question and answer sessions to addressing the marketing challenges through success stories of independent farmers were all very relevant, involved the audience and lead to quite a lot of healthy discussions.

The idea of comparative studies of Dr Rupela wherein he wanted some of the farmers to come forward to take up two plots of 1 acre each with organic farming practiced in one and chemical in another seemed really bright. The ultimate objective being to demonstrate practically the benefits of organic farming on the specific soil structure of Punjab and to test a conglomerate of organic farming approaches that can be practiced on such a small piece of land. It was quite interesting to see that the number of farmers that came forward for such a study were more than what Shri Rupela wanted.

Finally, such a successful camp wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of the team of KVM. They made all the prior arrangements for the successful coordination, pitched in at the right moments to steer the direction back to the topic whenever it was digressing, involved the whole community of audience, tried to address the language barrier amongst the audience and the speakers and plethora of other small and big activities. It was all done quite successfully. An interesting and differentiating factor was that the organization runs primarily in a Sangat mode - extending the Sikh philosophy of getting personal funds from the donors and members while not buying into the large funds from big organizations. Any support to the organization, small or big, surely goes a long way in converting the dream of chemical free Punjab into reality.

Organic groundnuts, organic kinnoo and processed rose water other amazing stuff was on offer for the palates all through the three days which told their own story of success of the chosen few who have dedicatedly pursued organic farming with the right approach. Their taste will linger on, together with the taste of the deep discussions held all through the camp, for a long time to come.

The author is currently Assistant Professor at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. He is interested in exploring how technology (particularly widely available mobile networks) can be used to help in rural setting. He is greatful to Umendra jee for their invitation to attend the training camp and giving him an opportunity to be amongst the farmers and interact with them to understand the issues involved first hand. If you have any ideas about how technology can benefit you, please send a note to him. He will be very interested in getting ideas on ground wherein technology can be used for the masses instead of the selected few.