Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss is now faced with a new problem of have to resolve the issue of the release of genetically-modified (GM) food crops. A group of doctors from various areas of medical therapy have urged the minister to intervene and halt the release of GM food crops likely to pose health hazards.
The group under the umbrella – Doctors for Food and Bio-safety – in a memorandum to the minister said : ?Bt brinjal is a first-of-its-kind food with the Bt gene and is allowed nowhere else in the world. Reports indicate that we are just a few months away from Bt brinjal coming on to our plates, if the biotech industry has its way. You are aware of the fact that some illegal GM food in the form of imported products have already been discovered in supermarket shelves in the country.0?
Bt Brinjal has antibiotic (neomycin and streptomycin) resistance marker genes which when consumed can cause resistance to many life-saving drugs and make them ineffective, the group said. The doctors opposed the development of GM medicinal herbs like Jivanti (holostemma adakodien), Brahmi (bacopa monniera), Ashwagandha (witharia somnifera) and Creat – kariyat or Indian chinacea (andrographis paniculata).
Ramadoss has already been cornered by NGOs when the government recently soft-pedalled on the pressures from the tobacco industry and deferred implementation of pictorial warning on tobacco products. He also earned the ire of NGOs when the proposal for mandatory labeling of GM food recommended by the expert committee of stakeholders constituted by the health ministry was not implemented and referred to the newly set up Food Safety and Standards Authority for review. .
The group of doctors which included the president of Ayurvedic Medical Association of India, VG Udayakumar; National Siddha Pharmacopeia committee, Sivaraman; president, Orissa Homeopathic Druggists Association, RN Dutta; environmental epidemiologist, SG Kabra convener, Environmental Health Action Group, GPL Singh and director, Initiative for Health, Equity and Society, Mira Shiva alleged that health ministry representatives did not regularly attend meetings of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) which approved the trials and release of several GM crops.
