URGENT: Petition to PM/Sonia against GM Food.

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Go to http://iamnolabrat.com/ to sign the online petition or post/fax/email the attached petition (also included here for your reading).

 

Here is where you should post/fax/email the petitions to:Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, # 7, Race Course Road, New Delhi 110001.Phone: 011-23018939/23011156;Fax: 011-23015603, 011-23019545, 011-23016857, 011-23014255Email: pmosb, pmindia, manmohanSmt Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, UPA, # 10, Janpath, New Delhi 110011Phone: 011-23014161; 011-23012656Fax: 011-23018651; 011-23017047Email: 10janpath, soniagandhi ----------------------------

Dear Dr Manmohan Singh, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India:

 

I write to you to raise a matter of the greatest importance to our health, environment and the state of our world – Genetically Modified (GM) foods/crops in general and Bt Brinjal in particular. Given that thousands of citizens of this country including eminent scientists like Dr Pushpa Bhargava have already written to you expressing their strong concerns on this matter, I believe that you would respond to my urgent concern. Your kind self might be aware that on October 14th 2009, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has hastily cleared for commercial use the first GM food crop, Bt Brinjal, in a closed-door

manner and without sound scientific evidence to prove its safety. Bt Brinjal, if approved, would become the first ever such GM vegetable crop with the toxic Bt gene in it, anywhere in the world, to be eaten more or less directly.

There is overwhelming scientific evidence that the process of Genetic Engineering alters the nature of our food in unpredictable and irreversible ways. During animal studies including ones conducted by GM companies themselves, evidence linked GM food with infertility, organ and tissue damage, adverse effects on growth and development, decreased immunity and even ill effects on children. The nutritional composition of foods is also known to have changed.

Despite such evidence and despite the fact that a majority of countries in the world do not allow/grow GM crops/foods, Bt Brinjal has been cleared by our regulators and now awaits the decision of your government. The bio-safety of Bt Brinjal is questionable and there is no independent research to prove its safety. Independent analyses of the crop developer’s data has shown that it is unsafe for human consumption, animal feed or for a release into the environment, concerns the Expert Committee of the GEAC has refused to adequately and scientifically address. They disregarded the fact that we are the Centre of Origin/Diversity for Brinjal and no GM crop has hitherto been allowed in its Centre of Origin/Diversity anywhere.

What is more, there is also enormous positive evidence on the ground of viable ecological alternatives where neither chemical pesticides nor GM seeds are needed for pest management in farming. The question about the very need for GM crops/foods is therefore unanswered even as many GM seeds are being developed.

You have the power and responsibility, as the head of the Union Cabinet, to prevent an irreversible health and environmental catastrophe by stopping Bt Brinjal and disallowing GMOs in our food & farming and through the promotion of sustainable agricultural technologies. You can do, if you choose to, what is right for the millions who have vested their trust in your chair. Mr Prime Minister, do not test this technology on me. I AM NO LAB RAT and I refuse to eat Bt Brinjal and any other GM food. If Bt Brinjal is allowed, my right to choose what I eat and my right to safe food will be violated forever. Further, farmers will be entrapped into perpetual dependency on profit-hungry corporations, even as farming becomes unviable with ever-increasing cost of cultivation. I therefore urge you to

disallow Bt Brinjal from entering my plate and the fields of Indian farmers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FULL NAME:

 

OCCUPATION:_________________________PLACE:_________________

 

EMAIL ID:_____________________________PHONE:_________________Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

CC: Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Hon’ble Chairperson of the UPA

 

 

 

 

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PM-sonia gandhi-bt brinjal petition-oct2009.doc