New Delhi : The Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security has called for a five-year freeze on field trials and commercial release of genetically modified crops and products against the backdrop of the Indian National Science Congress' session here promoting biotechnology in a big way.Mr Devinder Sharma, the forum's president, said ''there still is enormous uncertainty whether the proposed testing of genetically modified crops in the country would either harm the health of the country or damage its ecosystem.''He said it was strange that at a time when one of the biggest problems confronting the country was tackling the scourge of environmental pollution, agricultural scientists were trying to push in genetic engineering to introduce dangerous and hitherto unknown forms of biological pollution.``What is little understood is that while the supreme court can order shifting of polluting industrial units, there is no mechanism to recall the biological pollutants from the atmosphere,'' Mr Sharma added.
He cited a study of Dr Arpad Pusztai of the Roswell Institute of Scotland, among others, where the scientist found that rats fed with genetically engineered potato, sustained damage to the immune system and showed signs of cancer. The damaging impact of genetically engineered crops on human health is being deliberately pushed under the carpet, he claimed.
``There is no crisis on the food front that demands the application of an unproven and unsafe technology. The Indian National Science Congress is merely playing to the tune of the biotechnology industry, at the cost of the country's food, nutrition and environmental security'', he added.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
