{"id":21638,"date":"2021-03-25T17:04:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T16:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/?p=21638"},"modified":"2023-05-06T10:24:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T08:24:54","slug":"bt-brinjal-alliance-for-crooked-science-corporate-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/es\/bt-brinjal-alliance-for-crooked-science-corporate-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"Bt Brinjal: Alliance for Crooked Science & Corporate Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is extracted from Navdanya International Global Citizens\u2019 Report \u201c<\/em>Gates to a Global Empire<\/em><\/a>\u201c.<\/em> The report gathers evidence and throws light on the dangers of philanthrocapitalism, which is boosting the corporate takeover of our seed, agriculture, food, knowledge and global health systems, manipulating information and eroding our democracies.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Farida Akther<\/strong>, founding Executive Director of UBINIG<\/a>, Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Brinjals, locally called Begun<\/em> (in Bangla) by the people of Bangladesh, are the most common and favourite vegetable. On 17 May 2020 the New Age, a national daily of Bangladesh, published an article of mine [Akhter, 2020] titled \u201cAubergine Story: Local varieties exist, not GMOs\u201d. In the article, I argued that in the month of Ramadan (month long fasting of the Muslim communities), the demand for brinjal (eggplant\/aubergine) is the highest, because it is the main component of the most popular Iftar<\/em> item, the Beguni<\/em>. From the rich to the poor, Iftar[1]<\/sup><\/a> is incomplete without chola-peyaju-beguni<\/em> on the plate. In the market, local varieties of brinjals were amply seen, but not Bt brinjal, although claimed by the promoters that smallholder farmers have rapidly adopted the crop, from just 20 in 2014 to more than 27,000 in 2019 across all districts of Bangladesh [Conrow, 2019].<\/p>\n

The article referred to a UBINIG quick survey over telephone in April-May 2020, with farmers in eight districts and consumers in Dhaka to investigate how farmers were faring during the COVID-19 Lockdown period with the marketing of brinjals. These were sold for prices ranging from Tk 35 to Tk 80 a kilogram on the market. In early May, at least 26 different local varieties with beautiful names, specific to their agro-ecological locations, were found on the market. The prices of HYV brinjals were between Tk 25 – 50, and that of hybrid was Tk 45\u201355 per kilogram. Commercial farmers grow the HYV varieties on a large scale while the small farming households grow local varieties on a smaller scale in their small pieces of land. Interestingly, they are readily available on the market and have a good demand. Local varieties fared much better than the high yield varieties (HYVs) and hybrid varieties.<\/p>\n

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Bt brinjal seeds (Bt brinjal 1, 2, 3 and 4) for the winter season were given to farmers in different areas during the period of December 2019 to January 2020. If the claim of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the ministry of agriculture that 27,000 smallholding farmers were cultivating Bt brinjal across all districts of the country is true, then it is reasonable to expect that the new genetically modified crop would have grown enough in quantity to be visible in the market. The markets in eight districts and in Dhaka showed no presence of any Bt brinjal in late April\u2013early May 2020. None of the sellers in the market could identify any Bt brinjal in their stock. None of the buyers interviewed in the Dhaka market could identify any aubergine which would be a GMO.<\/p>\n

Could it be that they were in the market without any label? In that case, it is a clear case of violation of approval conditions of Bt brinjal in the country. We know that in October 2013, the National Committee on Biosafety (NCB) imposed seven conditions to be followed in field cultivation of the four Bt brinjals (1,2,3 & 4) One of these conditions was labeling \u2014 if Bt brinjal is brought to the market, it must be labeled, i.e., it should be clearly stated that it is GMO. But the Director General of BARI, Dr. Rafiqul Islam Mondol only agreed to label the sacks as \u2018poison-free GM brinjal\u2019 [Akhter, 2016], which was also not followed.<\/p>\n

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Source: Bangladeshe Adhunik projuktir bt beguner jat udbhabon O utpadon projukti, BARI, USAID, ABSPII & Cornell University, 2014<\/small><\/p><\/div>\n

Culturally, farmers have the tradition of naming the brinjals they grow with beautiful local names such as Hingla begun, Batka begun, Tal-begun, Kalo-khato begun, Laoitta begun, Sailla begun, Ghritakanchan begun, Nayantara and many others. Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.<\/em>), also known as aubergine or eggplant) is one of the most common and important vegetables. It is an important solanaceous crop of the subtropics and tropics. In this rich diversity of brinjals, Bt brinjal is now a \u2018bejat<\/em>\u2019 name in the list of hundreds of diverse varieties of aubergine in the country, because these are numbered like prisoners and are called Bt brinjal 1, 2, 3 and 4. The word \u2018bejat<\/em>\u2019 expresses the displacement in the order of crop varieties implicating potential harm to agriculture, food system and culture. In \u2018bejat\u2019, the original names of source materials have disappeared. Local names of brinjals are always related to specific agro-ecological conditions where a variety could express their natural genetic traits. But Bt brinjal seeds are given to different geographical locations assuming a homogeneous agro-ecological environment where they do not belong. Now it is harder to decide where they belong, except in the gene-manipulating laboratories. Farmers cannot feel or determine any agro-ecological, culinary or cultural connections to laboratory varieties, such as for growing these brinjals. Therefore, farmers who received the seeds, having not being told the real name of the introduced Bt brinjal, called genetically engineered varieties as \u201cSarkrari Begun<\/em>\u201d or the \u201cgovernment brinjal\u201d.<\/p>\n

The genetically modified Bt brinjal has been developed by inserting a gene cry1Ac <\/em>from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis <\/em>through an Agrobacterium-<\/em>mediated gene transfer. Four Bt brinjals are distributed to farmers for field cultivation. The original names of the varieties that had been selected for transgenic manipulation are Uttara (Bt brinjal-1), Kajla (Bt brinjal 2), Nayantara (Bt brinjal 3) and ISD-006 (bt brinjal 4). These are some of the most popular commercial varieties as well and they are also grown as non-Bt varieties. There are elements of deception in Bt brinjal field trial in selecting the most popular varieties; if farmers accept any transgenic variety, it could be claimed that genetic manipulation is a commercial success. But farmers\u2019 varieties, selected over hundreds of years, are already successful and proof of the brilliance of the farmer\u2019s knowledge. Genetic manipulation is merely a trick for appropriation of farmer\u2019s knowledge.<\/p>\n