India: Indefinite moratorium on GM field trials recommended

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/indefinite-ban-gm-field-trials-recommended

 Latha Jishnu @ljishnu 

Date:Jul 22, 2013

Supreme Court’s expert panel of scientists for ban on herbicide tolerant crops for India

Illustration: Divya

A committee of technical experts comprising scientists from top public research laboratories and academic institutions set up by the Supreme Court last year has changed the 10-year  moratorium on field trials of Bt transgenics that it recommended in October 2012 to what appears to be an indefinite moratorium on food crops in its final report.

Based on “the examination/study of the safety dossiers, it is apparent that there are major gaps in the regulatory system. These need to be addressed before issues related to tests can be meaningfully considered. Till such time it would not be advisable to conduct more field trials,” the experts say in their final report without specifying any time frame.