Anti-Genetic Engineering Activism in India Targets Bt Brinjal
Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco) sought the permission of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of India, for large-scale open field trials of eight Bt brinjal hybrids. This threw the anti-tech activists in India into a tizzy. ‘Position papers on Bt brinjal’, spiced with a lot of pseudo-science have been widely circulated, demanding GEAC’s ban of all transgenics in India. The GEAC placed the biosecurity data provided by Mahyco on their website for public comment. The propaganda machinery has now drafted, anti-GE experts/scientists from the US, UK and New Zealand.
Brinjal (aubergine, egg plant, Solanum melongena) is a vegetable in Asia and Europe. The original Persian/Arabic name al-bAdhinjAn, gave rise to, a) with the al, the French name ‘aubergine’ derived from Catalan alberg
Tags: agriculture, biotechnology, genetics, India