Fwd: [ND-CSA] Urgent: Immediate action required

[Mayank Rungta]

FYI

---------- Forwarded message ---------

Dear all,

Please read the attached notification. 

We wanted to inform you about an important issue that was brought to our notice by our activist friends who are working more closely with farmers and policies that impact all of us. The issue at hand is a proposed GM field trial for maize being planned in Karnataka. We have drafted an objection to be sent as a response to the Govt of Karnataka.  If you agree with the message please express your objections before 5pm tomorrow. In order to not make it look like this a mindless opposition campaign, we request that each of you recraft the letter below in your own words and email to the indicated email-id. This needs to reach them tomorrow - my apologies for the last minute pressure.

*****

To:

 

The Principal Secretary to Govt (Ecology & Environment),

Department of Forest, Ecology & Environment,

Room No. 709, 7th Floor,

Multi Storied Building, 4th Stage,

Dr Ambedkar Veedhi, Bengaluru. 

Email: secye...@karnataka.gov.in  

 

Sub: Objection for conducting Confined Field Trials of GMOs in Karnataka

 

Reference: Advertisement No. FEE/42/ENV/2019 (DIPR/DDU/LC/1537/2021-22)

 

Dear Madam/Sir,

 

We understand from the above referenced advertisement in newspapers that M/s Rallis India Limited had submitted an application dated 03.07.2021 seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Karnataka State Government to conduct ‘confined field trials’, and the Government of Karnataka is seeking comments/objections from public on the same. We write this letter in response to that. We stonrgly object to the grant of NOC to these trials of GMOs in Karnataka, for this application of Rallis India Limited, and against any other current and future applications. 

We summarize our objections below: 

 

1. GM Technology in food and farming systems is a failed technology. Globally, country after country after initial field trails, have found the technology unsafe and rolled back their practices. It is a failed technology. Even in India, several state governments have rejected field trials for GM crops. (Kerela, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Odissa, Bihar, West Bengaletc.)
2. GM Technology in our food and farming systems results in seriously adverse impact to human and environmental health. It has been seen that GM Technology increases pesticide residues in our crops. It is bordering on insanity to think that we can extensively apply herbicides and pesticides on fields and crops and think that these poisons will not make their way into the soil and into the plant matter that is being grown. 
3. GM Technology if adopted will destroy our 10,000 year old seed heritage – the one thing that is extraorinarily important to preseve. It will also destroy one of the most ancient of human practices – farmers saving a small part of any harvest for the seeds for the following season. With GM, large corporations will control the seeds and farmers will have to go back each season to buy seeds from them.
4. Field trials with GM have been seen to be extrmely risky. Genetic engineering is a living technology that is irreversible and uncontrollable when released into the environment. The organism, especially in the plant kingdom, has a tendency to spread and contaminate on its own (through pollination), and it is not a controllable technology. Therefore, ‘confined field trials’ are not actually confined. 
5. Specifically on GM maize field trials of Rallis India – There are no details available from the Karnataka Government on the exact GMO in question here, it is clear that both Bt maize and Herbicide Tolerant Maize will only lead to greater chemical usage in farming. Specific to Bt maize, evidence exists to show that pest resistance, secondary pest resurgence, impact on non-target organisms and increase in chemical usage is the outcome of such crops. 

 

We therefore reject the proposal for any confined field trials in Karnataka, of Rallis India’s GMOs or any other entity.  We demand that the Karnataka government does not accord any NOC to such field trials. Thank you.

 

Sincerely