The campaign against pest-resistant Bt brinjal in Bangladesh appears to have shifted into a new gear, as the powerful anti-GMO lobby in Dhaka gathers its forces in an all-out attempt to prevent farmers being able to grow brinjal without pesticides in the next growing season.
At a press conference in Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on 31 August entitled ‘Stop the cultivation and marketing of Bt brinjal immediately’ representatives a group of anti-GMO campaigning organisations made numerous unsubstantiated and unscientific claims about Bt brinjal. They appear to be demanding the removal of farmer choice over which brinjal varieties to grow in the future, via the prohibition of genetically-modified brinjal varieties which do not require large use of pesticides.
The Bt brinjal project partners are determined not to be put off by the vociferous anti-GMO scare campaign against this project. Next month the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute aims to release Bt brinjal seedlings to 100 farmers over wider areas of Bangladesh, to further evaluate performance and to assess the continued ability of this crop to reduce pesticides dependence in an important area of Bangladeshi agriculture.
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Read the full, original article: Anti-GMO groups continue campaign of misinformation against pesticide-reducing Bt brinjal in Bangladesh
