BT crops: Scientists appeal to SC to reject expert panel report

They say TEC has submitted a highly prejudiced report by using information only from sources that support their point of view

A clutch of global and Indian scientists have appealed to the Supreme Court of India not to accept the recommendations of the five-member Technical Expert Committee which has called for a moratorium on field trials of BT crops on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

The Court is expected to give its final verdict soon.

In a statement issued today, the scientists have said that the recommendations by the TEC go against the established mainstream science on GM crops’ safety and utility.

They added that it is astounding that in spite of endorsement from leading scientific bodies and academies of the world and regulatory agencies, the TEC has submitted a highly prejudiced report by using information only from sources that support their point of view.

“It is tragic that the TEC has completely lost scientific objectivity by drawing heavily from the discarded international agricultural assessment (IAASTD) that has not been accepted by even a single country in the world.

IAASTD report is completely bereft of any objective science” as noted by NATURE’s editorial, one of the worlds’s leading and most respected scientific journals,” the statement said.

The appeal has been signed by Shanthu Shantharam, Biosafety Institute of the Iowa State University, G Padmanabhan, Former Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Klaus Ammann, Former Professor of Plant Sciences from the University of Bern, Switzerland, Desh Pal Verma, Department of Molecular Genetics, Ohio State University.