Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics – Page 2

Bt brinjal on “life support” in Bangladesh

22Nov

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Bt brinjal on “life support” in Bangladesh

GMWATCH A policy research group has concluded that the GM crop was a “miserable failure” in its second year of cultivation. Claire Robinson reports https://gmwatch.org/en/news/latest-news/16535 Bt brinjal (eggplant) has proved a “miserable failure” in its second year of cultivation in Bangladesh, according to a new report by the development policy research group, UBINIG. Unimpressed by claims that Bt brinjal has proved a boon to farmers, the group conducted its own field investigations and concluded that this GM crop is on “life support”. The UBINIG investigators obtained a list of 110 farmers growing Bt brinjal made by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), which is managing the Bt brinjal project in the country in collaboration with Cornell University. UBINI...

6Nov

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Bt Brinjal Is Under ‘LIFE SUPPORT’

UBINIG EXPERIENCES OF FARMERS IN SECOND ROUND FIELD CULTIVATION INTRODUCTION This is UBINIG’s report on the second round field cultivation of Btbrinjal, an ongoing monitoring of the unethical promotion of GMOs. There are evidences that in the previous field cultivation, the Btbrinjal promoters completely ignored the scientific precautionary ethics and international protocols and principles with regard to the release of GMOs in the environment, particularly in a biodiverse agro-ecological condition posing serious threat of bio-pollution and health hazards. (Please see ‘Farmers are cheated in Btbrinjal ‘field cultivation’ and other stories at www.ubinig.org) For the second round field cultivation, UBINIG research team has collected information from all the 19 districts that ...

‘Bagary Baingan’ on the menu of Modi: Was it Bt. Brinjal?

8Jun

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

‘Bagary Baingan’ on the menu of Modi: Was it Bt. Brinjal?

Farida Akhter Indian Prime Minister Norendra Modi’s eventful two-day visit ended on the 7th June, 2015 in Bangladesh. Mr. Prime Minister is a vegetarian and therefore as a host Bangladesh government, particularly Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself took special care to select different kinds of vegetarian foods. The Hindustan Times reported on 7 June, 2015 titled “100 veg dishes for Modi” including special daal, khichdi, dhokla and Bangladesh’s special sweets. In The NDTV news it was elaborated further, such as for starters, there was a Gujarati speciality - Kaman Dhokla, accompanied with a yoghurt corriander chutney. For main course there were the north Indian favourites like Paneer Butter Masala, Vegetable Shammi Kebabs and Dal Tadka. The menu also served some Bengali specia...

Turning Bt. Brinjal failure into a propaganda of success

25May

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Turning Bt. Brinjal failure into a propaganda of success

Farida Akhter Since the beginning of the Bangladesh government clearance for field cultivation of GM food crop Bt. Brinjal, it has been a scandal. The genetically engineered crop failed miserably in the chosen farmers fields of Bangladesh, despite the careful selection and training of the farmers. Promoters of GMO adopted more scandalous options. They refused to review the experiment by the normative standard of strict scientific experiment and the international ethical standard of precautionery principle obligatory for potential hazards from GMOs. Instead the promoters took more aggressive attempts to carry out propaganda based on false claims. The article of Mark Lynas, introduced as a researcher at the Cornell Alliance for Science, published on April 24, 2015 in New York Times i...

Bt. Brinjal: Forced cultivation and poor performance!

16Mar

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Bt. Brinjal: Forced cultivation and poor performance!

UBINIG Bangladesh is one of the unfortunate countries in Asia, where GM food crops are being forced for introduction without properly following the precautionery principle to protect biological environment and health and proper rules as laid down by international obligations and domestic bindings, particularly related to Biosafety. Genetically modified Bt. Brinjal is one such crop which is a very common vegetable across class, culture and geographical location, and also known to be in the centre of origin, yet the government has approved it for field cultivation in October, 2013 through the national gene bank run by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI). Despite concerns raised by various farmers groups and environmental groups, the first trial of Bt. Brinjal started in...

Protest Against US Ambassador Promoting Bt. Brinjal in Bangladesh

21Dec

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Protest Against US Ambassador Promoting Bt. Brinjal in Bangladesh

Farida Akhter Outgoing US Ambassador to Bangladesh recently wrote an article in Dhaka Courier uncritically promoting genetically modified Bt Brinjal in a country considered belonging to the bioregion where global wealth of biodiversity originated. He often expresses his love for Bangladesh, and we, as a humble nation, never failed to acknowledge his feelings. Nevertheless, his article stands absolutely contrary to the prem (love) he often likes to explicitly project. ( See 'From Iowa to Bangladesh, technology shaping the future of agriculture'.Mr. Dan Mozena must be intelligent enough to realize that promoting GMOs has all the potential hazards to destroy our agriculture and the food systyem; It may irreversibly jeopardize the livelihood of the farming communities. ...

Bt Brinjal terror spreads in the country and crosses border

15Nov

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Bt Brinjal terror spreads in the country and crosses border

Farida Akhter The environmental, farmers and women’s groups are outraged at the news that despite the failure of the first field cultivation scheme, the government of Bangladesh has taken a programme to distribute saplings of genetically modified Bt brinjal among over 100 farmers. Dr. Rafiqul Islam Mondol, Director General of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), told The Dhaka Tribune “We selected 106 farmers in 17 districts to distribute the saplings. The distribution began in October 2014”. Each farmer is given saplings of two varieties for half bigha (16.5 decimal) land, though BARI initially decided to suggest one bigha (33 decimal of land) for each variety. (see BARI moves to pularise BtBrinjal in Dhaka Tribune ). In a protest rally held on 12 November...

BT BRINJAL COMMERCIALISATION: Alarming alliance of four M’s

4Oct

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

BT BRINJAL COMMERCIALISATION: Alarming alliance of four M’s

Farida Akhter The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institution (BARI) is a public institution under the agriculture ministry and is obliged to serve public interest. As a public research institution, its primary task is to decide research priorities that must contribute to the benefit of the farming community, enhance the formal and informal scientific knowledge base of Bangladesh and strictly protect natural, biological and intellectual property of the people of the country. Unfortunately, the institution has miserably failed to meet to its obligation and responsibility. The ill practice of using farmers in Bangladesh for cultivating the controversial GM food crop Bt brinjal on behalf of the multinational company Monsanto through the Maharasthra Hybrid Seed Company (Mah...

19Jul

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Protest against selling of Bt. Brinjal

Bt Begun Birodhi Morcha (Coalition against Bt Brinjal) Selling Without Label: Breach of Terms of Approval, Immediately stop cultivation and marketing of Bt Brinjal. Stop selling GM crops without public awareness of adverse impacts, demand by Bt Begun Birodhi Morcha (Coalition against Bt Brinjal) Bt. Begun Birodhi Morcha (Coalition against Bt Brinjal) expressed concerns over the open selling of Bt Brinjals cultivated in few districts of the country. According to the approval given for limited cultivation of Bt Brinjal at the farmers’ field it was mandatory to label Bt Brinjal at the time of selling. This in line with the international policies and demands of the consumer groups to label Genetically Modified crop for awareness of the consumers. Through labeling the consumers can ...

Bt Brinjal in the open market without labels !

13Jun

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Bt Brinjal in the open market without labels !

M. A. Sobhan BARI has miserably failed in its attempt to show that Bt brinjal is resistant to fruit and shoot borer (see the series of article in UBINIG). It should have been investigated by independent qualified geneticists, entomologists and agronomists in order to unveil the mode of inheritance and heritability of attributes linked with FSB (Leucinodes orbonalis).The BARI, claiming to be one of the most prestigious institution of Bangladesh, is now lost its vision, blindly following the political directives instead of scientific wisdom. Such mindless act of dealing with transgenic plants like Bt brinjal containing gene from Bacillus thuringiensis may create havoc for Bangladesh Agriculture. Bangladesh is an eye-opener for all, for or against GMOs, where the unholly alliance ...