the problem with bt brinjal

We grow eight million tonnes of natural brinjals in our country. In fact, in various parts of north India, brinjal is produced in excess and sometimes most of it is fed to the cows.

Once Bt brinjal is introduced and the gene is released, it is bound to contaminate the natural brinjal.

Our native brinjal has a medicinal value and once there is contamination, the medicinal value in the natural brinjal will automatically be lost. Not only brinjal, the gene will affect a lot of other plants, which contain medicinal value. Hence, it will be nothing but disastrous.

monsanto is the company which has patented bt brinjal seeds.

There is a lot to gain for Monsanto. They have 280,000 shares in the Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco).

Mahyco on its part will be marketing the seed. With so much investment by Monsanto, they are bound to push hard for the crop to be introduced. It is all about economics.

Once Bt brinal is introduced, the fruit and shoot borer will affect natural brinjal.

Once this starts to happen, the plant will naturally get affected and will be gradually eradicated.

The problem here is that these issues are to be looked into by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee.

In this case, the committee is completely bogged down by Monsanto.