Agrochemicals, energy plants and GMO crops killing Bathinda residents

Guru Nanak Dev coal plant

By Rady Ananda

Home to two coal power plants, a fertilizer plant, and a large oil refinery, the city of Bathinda in Punjab, India is making people sick.  Forty percent of the population (nearly 90,000 people) suffers from respiratory ailments. The area also suffers from a host of other diseases including cancer, at a rate triple that of other areas, which has been linked to agrochemicals.

New Study: Bt gene retards growth, causes sterility in GM crops

First planted in the U.S. by Monsanto and in China by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1997, transgenic crops using the Bacillus thuringiensis gene that makes the Cry1Ac protein include cotton, rice, corn (maize), tomatoes, and soybean, which are grown in 19 nations. See chart at bottom. ~Ed.

By The Telegraph
Calcultta, India

Gene alarm on GM crops

New Delhi, June 2: Indian scientists have discovered that the genetic modification of plants with a gene already used in crops worldwide may severely damage the plants, a surprising finding that may stir a debate on current crop biotechnology science.

The scientists at the University of Delhi have shown that inserting a bacterial gene that makes a protein named Cry1Ac into genomes of plants appears to cause developmental defects, growth retardation and sterility in the plants.