Written by Elizabeth Renter, Natural Society, http://naturalsociety.com/help-bangladesh-stop-gmos/

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:

“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.

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.”

Show your support for global GMO-annihilation by signing and sharing in their  fight.

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