New Delhi

Gene Campaign hails court decision on import of genetically modified foods

NEW DELHI: The Gene Campaign on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision striking down a 2007 Union Environment and Forests Ministry notification that removed regulation over the import of genetically modified (GM) foods.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has blocked the Environment Ministry notification, provisionally till September 30, 2008.

According to the August 23, 2007 notification of the Environment Ministry, importers were not required to take permission from the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) before importing GM foods.

With this step, the country could be flooded with dangerous GM foods of unknown origin, a statement issued by Suman Sahai, convenor of the Gene Campaign, said here.

Ad hoc government actions like the arbitrary withdrawal of the regulatory oversight over the entry of GM foods were incomprehensible, Ms. Sahai said.

Scientific evidence was growing that genetically engineered foods could cause serious damage to health. The food testing systems needed to be upgraded to make them more stringent and comprehensive.

It was sheer madness that the government would move to withdraw all opportunities to test and regulate the ‘novel’ foods, she said.

To block the flooding of Indian markets with untested, unlabelled, possibly dangerous GM foods, the Gene Campaign had filed a public interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court on October 3, 2007 to strike down the notification issued by the Environment Ministry.

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