Very interesting discussion on GM crops and their
effects by a Canadian Desi Scientist:

http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/
mar/02/slide-show-1-how-bt-brinjal-can-kill-indian-agriculture.htm#contentTop

How Bt brinjal can kill Indian agriculture

Shobha Warrier in Chennai


Dr Shiv Chopra, the 75-year-old, Canada-based
microbiologist and well known human rights activist,
was in India recently in connection with the release
of his latest book, Corrupt To The Core - Memoirs Of
A Health Canada Whistleblower, which is about how
corruption in government endangers public food supply.

In the last 49 years that he has been living in Canada,
Chopra and other fellow scientists have waged many a
battle against successive Canadian federal ministries
of health and helped protect food supply. One of his
major successes was the banning of the Bovine Growth
Hormone in Canada and in the European Union in 1999.

According to him, the five substances that are unsafe
are hormones, antibiotics, slaughterhouse waste,
genetically modified organisms and pesticides.

In an interview with rediff.com, Chopra talks about the
frightening scenarios ahead for Indian agriculture, the
dangers of GM seeds and food safety.
You have spoken at various platforms all over the world
against genetically modified crops. Are they harmful
to human beings, animals and other plants?

There is evidence that they are harmful. GMOs
(genetically modified organisms), first of all, do
not bring any benefit to either health or the economy
in terms of increasing production.

Those who support use of GMO say they increase
production, but they don't say that it is only because
pesticides are attached to them. They kill insects
which normally share some of nature's bounty.

You create seeds that are genetically dependent on
some kind of pesticide and that pesticide will kill any kind of life.

For example, if you have a herbicide like Roundup,
and that Roundup is owned by Monsanto, it will kill
absolutely anything that is green in sight; grass, trees,
plants, anything that is green and in soil. Except the
crop that I want to grow, everything else will be killed.

What they do not want to tell is what has been
destroyed and left in the plant. When you kill plants,
on the plant there are insects, worms and nitrogen
fixing bacteria; all that gets destroyed. This is happening
year after year. If one herbicide stops working, they
come up with another one. So, it is bad for the soil,
other plants and those who consume it.

It was reported that these pesticide-herbicide injected
seeds affect the nearby farms where there are no GMOs...

Yes, wind will blow seeds from one farm to another.
Then, Monsanto will send their inspectors who threaten
the farmers for growing their seeds when the seeds
reached the farm having been blown by wind.

Then, Monsanto will say, either you pay me for using our
seeds or I will take you to court. There are several such
cases reported in the United States and Canada where
they have taken farmers to court and ruined their lives
Is it because these multinational companies like Monsanto
are so powerful that we do not hear many scientists or
politicians talking about the harmful effects of GMOs?

Absolutely! This is why I call my latest book Corrupt To
The Core. It is not just Monsanto owned by Pfizer; it is
only that it is the company that has the nastiest name,
but there are other companies doing the same thing.

If it is harmful to flora and fauna, is it not harmful to
human beings who consume these crops?

Of course, it is! But nobody asks that question. Do you
think the scientists do not know this? It is because the
whole thing has become so corrupt in the hands of these companies.

In my book, I quote from a speech given in Canada in
1990 by a Monsanto executive. He said, 'MNCs will
soon rule the world through intellectual property rights
(IPR). We can take over the White House, the Parliament
of England, France, Japan and Germany, and once we do
that, we will see that China and India would come along
and then we can take Africa for granted.'

I quoted this from a published paper in 1990. This is
precisely what has happened.

Governments are being taken over by multinationals and
governments are no longer listening to people and not
working in public interest.
Is India the new attraction because a majority of the
population is involved in farming?

First of all, America is not run by the American people
any more; it is being run by these multinational corporations.

America and the other G-8 countries are on the verge of
becoming bankrupt. America is a saturated economy, owes
so much money to the world and is still burning a billion
dollars a day on war and there is no hope of any recovery.
Naturally, their next target will be countries like India.

Why did they choose Bt brinjal to market first in India: a
simple vegetable that many people do not even like?

Exactly, that is the question. Many people don't eat brinjal,
children hate it. Still, why do you think brinjal was chosen
to be the first Bt food crop?

This is a very calculated move on their part.

Brinjal is an unimportant vegetable but it belongs to the
Solanaceae family, that also has popular vegetables like
tomatoes, potatoes and chillies. The Bt gene is capable
of spreading to other crops from the same family when it
is being blown in the wind. This way, they contaminate
the entire food and vegetable supply.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and the others have
already started talking about Bt sweetcorn and Bt
sugarcane. Although Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh
has rejected Bt brinjal for now, his colleagues are after his skin.

The prime minister has, for the first time, ordered to look
at whether Bt cotton was good or bad. Why do you do it
after all the fiasco? It should have been done earlier.
Why is it that the scientific community is not raising its
voice against GM seeds?

There is corruption everywhere. It is no different in the
US or Canada. Their jobs depend on this. Sadly, neither
the media nor the scientific journals are reporting the facts.

Your name is synonymous with food safety. Is there
food safety in any of the countries in the world?

Cuba will take the lead; their food is completely organic.
India is a mixed bag. China is very corrupt, whether it is
food or milk.

You said not only GMOs, but hormones, antibiotics, pesticides
and slaughter house wastes also have to be banned. . .

Yes. The latest is the GMOs. For the last fifty years none
of these products has been proven to be safe. It is the
responsibility of the company to prove that they are safe
because they are going to make money.

We now know that with the use of all these, not only cancer
but other chronic diseases like reproductive disorders,
neurological disorders, diabetes, and other new diseases
have reached epidemic proportions.

Because of this, the European Union, led by Denmark,
has banned three of these products (hormones, antibiotics and
slaughter house wastes) entering the food supply.

But the US and Canada say they are alright. Yet, no
country wants to buy Canadian beef. Australia and New
Zealand now export food materials free of these five
substances to the EU.
You said at a function in India that the release of Bt brinjal
will be the beginning of the end of Indian agriculture.
That's a scary statement. . .

But that is the truth. If you allow Bt brinjal to enter the
farms in India, everything will automatically becomes Bt.
Once Bt brinjal is widely grown, they do not have to introduce
Bt potato, Bt chilly and Bt tomato; the Bt gene will
automatically get into the food supply.

In no time, potato, tomato, chilli will contain the Bt gene
and there will be no ordinary tomato or potato crop that
can be grown by the farmer. Only the Bt species will
thrive. Even crops like rice and maize can get contaminated.

With only Bt seeds in the farms, all the seeds needed for
Indian agriculture will be owned by a private company
and your thousands of varieties of, say, brinjal will
automatically get wiped out. That is because you
will be forced to buy only one kind of seed.

That will be the beginning of the end of Indian agriculture.
Remember they are not in India to help India fight hunger;
they are here to make money.

How frightening is the situation for Nature and human beings?

Very frightening! The main reason America is going bankrupt
is the huge expense on healthcare. They spend 16 per cent of
their GDP on healthcare. If the new bill passes,
it will become 20 per cent. Americans do not live any
longer than other people in the world.

The fundamental question everyone asks is, what does
every living being live for? Every living being lives only
for food, the rest are all luxuries. We have started
depleting our agricultural sector. From 80 per cent
of the Indian economy, it has become 60 per cent.
Now their plan is to make it 50 per cent in ten years.

The government thinks it is a good idea as there
will be more progress in the cities. But who will
feed all these people?.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.

Vandemataram, shiv chopra, or any one else who wants to hog the limelight in India, and get into the news, hear this!

You can call us names, bankrupt, or whatever - that does not matter. I, uncle sam am still a power to reckon with. So what if the storm about the BT Brinjal ( I prefer to call it "eggplant" has died down? We know not what money can not buy in India, be it the ministers, or "scientific organizations".

We will lie low for a year and surreptitiously introduce BT brinjal under a different name. Everyone including JR & SC is " Bikao", be it for power, money or whatever. Whistle blowers wont have the whistle to blow.

Ham honge kaamyaab.

Pesticide lobby haar jaayegi, kyunki BT brinjal pesticide resistant hai. Samjhay kya?