A Supreme Court-appointed panel has recommended a 10-year moratorium on all field trials of Genetically Modified (GM) food crops, including Bt Cotton. In its interim report, the Technical Expert Committee (TEC), appointed by the Supreme Court, said, the present regulatory system and protocol for conducting the field trials were unsatisfactory and inadequate, requiring major changes, restructuring and strengthening.

The report said, its recommendation is based on the current overall status of food safety evaluation of Bt transgenic including the data on Bt Cotton and Bt Brinjal examined by the TEC and in accordance with the precautionary principle.

Our correspondent reports, the suggestion for a moratorium on field trial have been welcomed by environmentalists. NGO Greenpeace said that the moratorium is necessitated by the potential harm of GM crops to human health, that of livestock and biodiversity and the possibility of field trials to contaminate regular crops and food supply.