Boosting GMO Rejection: Help Bangladesh Stop GMO’s
The
people of Bangladesh are facing a serious problem as their government
recently approved the commercial cultivation of genetically modified
eggplant. Now, they need your help.
Eggplant is one of the most popular vegetables in Bangladesh, used in curries, fried, pickled, and even mashed. It’s known there as brinjal or aubergine and is truly a staple. The new GMO eggplant has been altered by injecting bacterial genes that create a toxin to control the Fruit and Shoot Borer (FSB), a common pest on brinjal. That toxin is Bacillus thuringiensis, better known as Bt. It’s used in nearly all GMO varieties and fingered as the culprit behind major organ disruption, particularly in the liver in kidneys.
While the Bangladehi government, and others who support GMO crops, believes the Bt is necessary for controlling pests, others see the lack of success with other pest-controlling GMO creations – along with all of the dangers that come along. When they say these GM-crops perform better than the conventional crops, again, they are wrong. Several studies have shown GMO crops to perform worse than their conventional and less-harmful counterparts, even transforming otherwise benign pests into major crop-damaging threats.
Understandably,
the people of Bangladesh are not pleased. They want their government to
rescind its approval and take GMO eggplant away. They’ve created a
petition online and you can help them get their government’s attention: https://www.change.org/petitions/annul-bt-brinjal-approval-in-bangladesh.
As I’m writing this post, the petition has 900 supporters. With readers from Natural Society chipping in and spreading the word, I imagine we can help them reach into the thousands.
Petition writer Farida Akhter calls for help:
Eggplant is one of the most popular vegetables in Bangladesh, used in curries, fried, pickled, and even mashed. It’s known there as brinjal or aubergine and is truly a staple. The new GMO eggplant has been altered by injecting bacterial genes that create a toxin to control the Fruit and Shoot Borer (FSB), a common pest on brinjal. That toxin is Bacillus thuringiensis, better known as Bt. It’s used in nearly all GMO varieties and fingered as the culprit behind major organ disruption, particularly in the liver in kidneys.
While the Bangladehi government, and others who support GMO crops, believes the Bt is necessary for controlling pests, others see the lack of success with other pest-controlling GMO creations – along with all of the dangers that come along. When they say these GM-crops perform better than the conventional crops, again, they are wrong. Several studies have shown GMO crops to perform worse than their conventional and less-harmful counterparts, even transforming otherwise benign pests into major crop-damaging threats.
As I’m writing this post, the petition has 900 supporters. With readers from Natural Society chipping in and spreading the word, I imagine we can help them reach into the thousands.
Petition writer Farida Akhter calls for help:
“Bt brinjal has been rejected for the many risks it poses to human health, biodiversity and environment, in countries like India and Philippines. This has been done after independent analyses of the data and claims presented by the crop developers. Bangladesh should not take up an irresponsible and irreversible experiment on its citizens by approving Bt brinjal especially when safer alternatives can be promoted with farmers.Show your support for global GMO-annihilation by signing and sharing in their fight.
We urge the government to be “responsible to science and responsive to society” as has happened in other countries where this Bt brinjal was sought to be pushed by the profit-hungry biotech industry, where the decision was against the introduction of Bt brinjal. Bangladesh should also ensure that its citizens do not become lab rats in an unaccountable experiment – we are urging the Government to annul the approval that has been given for commercial cultivation.”
Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/help-bangladesh-stop-gmos/#ixzz2n0w4WnWc
Follow us: @naturalsociety on Twitter | NaturalSociety on Facebook