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Care India blamed for supplying GM food, action sought

BS Agriculture Editor

Gene Campaign, a ginger group working for preservation of bio-resources, has charged the international voluntary organisation Care India with bringing genetically modified food into the country clandestinely and supplying it under the Integrated Child Development Services.

In a statement on Thursday, Gene Campaign convenor Suman Sahai demanded that punitive action be taken against the Care India for violating the country's law.

Maintaining that India is a GM-free country, Sahai said that GM crops are neither allowed to be cultivated nor imported in any form.

"Care India's mixing the banned GM foods in its food aid programme is not the result of careless contamination, which might even be pardoned, but a willful and knowing decision, in deliberate contravention of Indian Law," she stated and demanded that it should not go unpunished.

She also cited the defence offered by Care India country director Tom Alcedo that "there is no understanding about the long term effects of GM foods" and that such food is sold in the US.

Sahai counters this argument by claiming that the consumers in Europe and the US have boycotted GM foods because of fear of adverse effect on environment and human health. Many governments have set up commissions to examine the safety aspects of GM foods precisely because there are concerns.

"How can this agency expose vulnerable children to an uncertain and perhaps even dangerous food?," she said.

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