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	View Edit Domain: GreenBio Title: * Body: The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the nodal agency on genetically modified (GM) food, has in its last monthly meeting had given a “no objection certificate” to Doritos corn chips, a processed food product that had, not so long ago, been proven to contain GM corn. The recent approval came after the GEAC had a hearing on the product following its detainment by the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) at Nhava Sheva Port in Mumbai on the grounds of suspicion of it containing GM food.<br /> <br /> This detention by the DGFT as stated in the GEAC meeting minutes was uploaded on their website on May 31, 2009, was based on a representation made by Greenpeace in this regard in the months following May 2008 when Greenpeace India had made public the scientific results of laboratory tests credibly done by an independent laboratory (GeneScan laboratories, Germany) on Doritos chips packets (purchased from markets in South Delhi). These tested samples were found to contain GM corn varieties, MON 863 and NK 603.<br /> <br /> What makes the current GEAC approval especially shocking is that it was given without any testing, and hence no scientific evidence of the product being GM-free, but instead, on a written confirmation from the importer that the product did not contain GM corn.<br /> <br /> This clearly makes a mockery of GEAC's regular claim that no GMOs (genetically modified organisms) have ever entered the country, that there have been adequate measures taken to prevent unintentional entry of GMOs and that there is an "appropriate" domestic regulatory system with public participation.<br /> <br /> In 2006-07 alone, India received close to 2500 tonne of non-oil soya products- about 48% of which was from the US, which has a large quantity of GM soya without any labeling and segregation law in place. The same year, grain imports of corn were about 2800 tonne, and more than 72% of it was from Argentina and the US, both the countries produce a large quantity of GM corn.<br /> <br /> The latest approval of Doritos consignment by the GEAC is therefore a link in the chain, instead of being an isolated event.<br /> <br /> This is feeding to the fear, and quite reasonably, among safe food activists that the country is getting colossal quantities of GM food dumps. India has an almost non-existent system of screening for GM food at our ports. There is also a lack of awareness among the port authorities, the Customs and Excise Board and the Directorate of Foreign Trade on GM food and Living Modified Organisms (LMO) and the laws that are associated to it.<br /> <br /> This calls for an entire system that needs to be activated to use the provisions of the Cartagena protocol for bio-safety that India ratified in 2003, and is in force since 2005, to demand information from the countries of import. There are close to 15 major sea ports and about 11 international airports in the country and we can imagine the scale of threat that needs to be fought.<br /> <br /> <em>(The author is a sustainable agriculture campaigner, Greenpeace) </em><br /> <br /> © 2009: The Indian Express Limited<br /> Captcha: Please Enter Code : * Time Zone: * Select the time zone Vocabularies Newsletter: Domain: Show summary in full view Input format Filtered HTML Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Lines and paragraphs break automatically. Full HTML Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Lines and paragraphs break automatically. news_filter Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. More information about formatting options			Related Articles After Bt Bringal, will Himachal GM Potato find acceptance? Maharashtra say no to Bt cotton seed price hike GM corn not a cause of Bt protein accumulation in soil Approvals for GM crop field-trials run into delays Regulator rejects GM groundnut Activists, NGOs urge PM to withhold biotechnology regulatory... Improving Crops from the Roots Up The real success story of GM cotton and edible cotton oil in... Approval of Brazilian Transgenic Beans Has Social Importance... Indian states clash with centre over GM trials Top GreenBio Articles

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