1.Concerns raised over GM food trials in AP
2.SEEDS OF DEATH VS. SEEDS OF LIFE

EXCERPTS: More than 40,000 farmers have committed suicide over the past decade in India -- although the more accurate term would be homicide, or genocide. More than 90 percent of farmers who committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh and Vidharbha in the 2005 cotton season had planted Bt cotton. (item 2)

"we have found that there are a lot of biosafety violations. These include contamination of the supply chain, people selling untested products in the local markets and farmers consuming it without knowing what it is."

Like in the case of Bt Bhindi, the state government says that it has neither been informed nor was it aware of any such trails. (item 1)
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1.Concerns raised over GM food trials in AP
Tejeswi Pratima
NDTV, March 9, 2006 (Hyderabad) http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Concerns+raised+over+GM+food+trials+in+AP&id=85564&category=National

After Bt Cotton and Bt Bhindi, it is now the turn of Bt Rice and Bt Brinjal to stir a hornet's nest.

The increasing varieties of GM food crops under trials in Andhra Pradesh could have grave health hazards.

In December, NDTV reported on the genetically modified Bt Bhindi being grown in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. This was in gross violation of biosafety norms.

More trials

Now the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture informs that seed company Mayhco also conducted field trails for Bt Brinjal and Bt Rice in Kurnool and Ranga Reddy districts in the Kharif season of 2004.

"In all three cases we have found that there are a lot of biosafety violations," said Kavitha Karuganti, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

"These include contamination of the supply chain, people selling untested products in the local markets and farmers consuming it without knowing what it is," she added.

Like in the case of Bt Bhindi, the state government says that it has neither been informed nor was it aware of any such trails.

"It is the duty of the GESC to inform the state government, more particularly the agriculture department and the university before they start trials," said N Raghuveera Reddy, Agriculture Minister, Andhra Pradesh.

"Only then it will be possible for us to send our extension officers on the job," he added.

Policy missing

While a concrete policy for GM food crops has still not been formulated, the very fact that such trials are being allowed in farmer's fields and not on company campuses or green houses is a very serious concern.

Though limited trails are being allowed, the possibility of these seeds being used again by the farmers who have no idea of the possible health hazards cannot be ruled out.
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2.SEEDS OF DEATH VS. SEEDS OF LIFE
Vandana Shiva [abstract only]
http://www.ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=32438

MARCH 2006 (IPS) - When the 8th Conference of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity takes place in Brazil (March 20-31), the homicidal seeds of the biotechnology industry will be at the top of the agenda, writes Vandana Shiva, author and international campaigner for women and the environment who received the Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1993.

In this analysis, Shiva writes that these seeds kill biodiversity, farmers, and people's freedom -- for example, Monsanto's Bt cotton, which has already pushed thousands of Indian farmers into debt, despair, and death. Bt cotton is based on what has been dubbed ''Terminator Technology'', which makes genetically engineered plants produce sterile seeds.

High costs of cultivation and low returns from genetically modified seeds have trapped Indian peasants in considerable debt from which they are escaping by taking their lives. More than 40,000 farmers have committed suicide over the past decade in India -- although the more accurate term would be homicide, or genocide. More than 90 percent of farmers who committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh and Vidharbha in the 2005 cotton season had planted Bt cotton.

The Feb. 7 WTO ruling against the European Union's moratorium on genetically modified organisms sends the message that citizens' freedom to choose the crops they grow and the foods they eat has no place in a world where rules are created for the freedom of corporations to trade and profit.

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