Nina Fedoroff, who advises the US Secretary of State on science and technology, heads a group of senior researchers who call today for a “radical rethink” of farm practice to meet 21st-century demand for food.

A vital study cited by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to justify his decision to disallow the commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal in India is flawed, claim top European scientists.

Several senior scientists told the The Indian Express today that they were never heard at these public hearings. “I was out-shouted by the NGO lobbies the moment I began speaking. I could not express my views. Public hearings of the sort that were arranged are not the right place where scientific issues can be discussed in an objective manner."

Tuesday's decision doesn't only affect Monsanto. It will discourage other foreign companies who want to sell biotech innovations into India, blunt the aspiration of native Indian entrepreneurs, and leave India's poor worse off as they await New Delhi's elusive "consensus."

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh could have given his citizens access to safer and cheaper brinjal—but he didn't. Why?

BRUSSELS - A European Union scientific committee failed to reach agreement on Tuesday over whether to approve three genetically modified (GMO) maize crops for import, an EU official said.