The West Bengal government claimed it has received information regarding “infiltration” of commercial seeds of Bt-Brinjal, a genetically modified (GM) food crop, from Bangladesh.
“We have heard that in Bengal districts bordering Bangladesh, seeds of Bt-Brinjal have been found. We will not introduce GMs now and definitely not without proper study,” Bose told reporters here.
Bangladesh has gone ahead with commercial release of the genetically modified vegetable Bt-Brinjal – a variant engineered by inserting a gene from soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, that produces an insecticidal toxin.
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In India, the previous government had ordered a freeze on field trials of GM food crops but the current government recently gave the go-ahead to field trials of two varieties of genetically modified (GM) brinjal and mustard.
Read full original article: Commercial Bt-Brinjal seeds ‘infiltrating’ Bengal from Bangladesh
