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Article: ENVIRONMENT: DESPITE WARNINGS, INDIA BENT ON PURSUING GM CROPS
- Article from:
- Inter Press Service English News Wire
- Article date:
- September 30, 2002
- Author:
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NEW DELHI, Sep. 27 (IPS) -- Dire warnings by food security
experts and crop failures have not deterred India from going ahead
with plans to allow farmers to grow genetically modified (GM) food
crops that are developed indigenously, as well as from seeds
supplied by transnational firms.
In March this year, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee
(GEAC) under the Ministry of Environment and Forests cleared for
commercial planting Bt cotton.
These are cotton seeds spliced with genes taken from the
bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is deadly to the
bollworm pest.
GEAC cleared Bt cotton, developed by the U.S. seed giant
Monsanto, in spite of the legal ...