A coalition of several farmer groups and NGOs under the aegis of GM Free Karnataka held a meeting on Sunday and urged the state government to take a firm stand and say no to the genetically-modified Bt brinjal.
The groups, including , Sahaja Samruddha, Environment Support Group, Bhoomi, Dhanya, Annadana and SOIL, signed a memorandum in this regard and they plan to hand it over to the chief minister in a few days. Karnataka is yet to formally reject Bt brinjal.
The coalition discussed the challenges thrown up by genetically-modified food. The biggest challenge they felt was making the consumers aware of the consequences of GM food.
“Instead of spending 20-25% of their income on medication, consumers can use safe food, organic food which will take care of their family’s health. Our main focus is to make people aware of the varieties of vegetables which will no more be available once the modified gene enters the environment. Even the medicinal qualities of different varieties of these organic foods will be lost forever,” said Sangita Sharma, director of Annadana.
The coalition is taking out a swaraj bus yatra from Goa. It will reach Karnataka on August 22 and travel across the state for three days.
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