HOT DEBATE International experts claim French specialist Gilles-Eric
Séralini's work, used by Jairam Ramesh to justify his decision, is
flawed.
A vital study
cited by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to justify his decision to
disallow the commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal in India, is flawed,
claim top European scientists. India's decision has sparked a major
debate in European academic circles.
While making his
announcement on Tuesday, Ramesh referred to the findings of
France-based Caen University professor Gilles-Eric Séralini and his
team, which had branded Bt brinjal India's first genetically modified
(GM) food crop "unsafe". HT, in December 2008, had been the first to
report on Seralini's study. Other experts, however, now claim that
Séralini was unduly influenced by the renowned international NGO
Greenpeace with its aggressive green agenda which sponsored the study,
and never carried out a peer-reviewed laboratory study on the GM crops
he called hazardous, including Bt maize and Bt brinjal, its gene or
seeds.
The European
Food Safety Association, a risk assessment body, last month trashed
Séralini's findings on Monsanto's MON 863, a variety of Bt maize.
"Séralini only
gave theoretical comments on publicly available biosafety data on Bt
brinjal. He never carried out an independent study. He never had
access to the Bt gene of either maize or brinjal," Marc Van Montagu,
the inventor of recombinant DNA technology in plants on which Bt
brinjal is based told HT from the Belgian university city of Gent. A
number of scientists, including Montagu, are now planning to write to
Indian politicians, refuting Séralini claims. "We want Indian
politicians and the public to take a decision on sound scientific
bases, not influenced by biased information. Neither nature nor human
health are effected by BT!," their soon-to-be-released letter says.
Environment
minister Jairam Ramesh told Hindustan Times he would like Séralini's
paper to be peer-reviewed.
"I would welcome
a peer review. But Séralini was only one scientist I had quoted," he
said.
However, of the
eight foreign scientists cited by the minister, only Séralini's
findings relate to health hazards. "Séralini never did any study on Bt
brinjal itself. Bt brinjal seeds were never exported to France. All
Séralini did was interpret Bt brinjal safety data in a biased way,"
said Arjula Reddy, co-chairman of the Genetic Engineering Approval
Committee told Hindustan Times from Hyderabad.
Séralini could
not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts
