Insisting on the potential threats of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to human health and the environment, environmental groups on Monday urged Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala to scrap the government’s plan to commercialise “golden rice.”
The protesters said Alcala, an organic-farming practitioner and advocate, should consider the potential threats of releasing the genetically modified rice variety currently being field-tested by scientists in the Philippines.
Led by Greenpeace, members of the Kasarian-Kalayaan Inc, Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment and Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya staged a picket in front of the Department of Agriculture (DA) office in Quezon City, expressing their sentiments and fear against the commercialisation of “golden rice.”
The protesters, carrying baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables rich in beta-carotene, insisted that GMOs are unsafe and the promised benefits of golden rice, a genetically engineered rice variety rich in beta-carotene, are an illusion.
They argued that viable, working solutions to eradicate vitamin A deficiency (VAD) already exist, proving that genetically modified golden rice is unnecessary given its inherent risks to human health and the environment.
Golden rice, the protesters said, is being marketed in developing countries like the Philippines as a quick-fix solution to eradicate blindness among children and solve world hunger, but they claimed that despite the hype and decades of research and development, GMO proponents still do not have scientific proof that golden rice will, indeed, solve VAD.
“Secretary Alcala needs to see the truth that golden rice is the wrong approach and a risky distraction to the real solutions to combat VAD and malnutrition,” Daniel Ocampo, sustainable agriculture campaigner for Greenpeace Philippines, said in a statement.
He said the Philippines has local crops, like sweet potato, that contain five times more beta-carotene than golden rice. In fact, he argued there are plenty of fruits and vegetables that are affordable, easily available and undoubtedly rich sources of beta-carotene and other nutrients which the government can promote to combat VAD.
“It just doesn’t make sense for the Philippines to grow golden rice, or any GMO for that matter,” he said.
Ocampo said a balanced Filipino diet should be sourced from a variety of food groups.
He cited the 2008 National Nutrition Survey in the Philippines that revealed how VAD incidence in the country has significantly decreased owing to successful government-program interventions based on vitamin A supplementation, food fortification and the promotion of diverse diets.
Ocampo called on the DA to look into long-term solutions to encourage people to diversify their diets with food grown in a system of ecological farming, instead of advocating false solutions like golden rice.
“We want to remind Secretary Alcala that golden rice will ultimately kill all initiatives leading to integrated and diversified organic-farming systems, which are the sources of natural vitamin A and other nutrients,” said Rene Cerilla, Pakisama president.
By promoting GMOs, the DA undermines all efforts to implement the National Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, which Secretary Alcala championed while he was in Congress,” Cerilla said.
They want Alcala to stop the field trials and scrap the plan to commercialise golden rice in the Philippines.
“The DA should not allow itself to become conduits for GMOs. Should the DA secretary fail to protect the Filipinos from further GMO invasion, President Aquino should see to it that our agricultural practices and financial resources support ecological practices as envisioned by the National Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, instead of an industry-driven system of GMOs and pesticides,” he said.
Greenpeace is known to oppose the commercialization of GMO in the Philippines. In 2003 its campaign against the commercialization of Bacillus thuringensis (Bt) corn failed after government regulators decided that it is safe.
Currently, Greenpeace claimed victory in securing a permanent injunction order against the field testing of Bt eggplant, pending resolution of its petition to ban the genetically engineered eggplant variety from being commercially released in the Philippines. Bt corn and Bt eggplant are genetically engineered with Bt, a soil bacterium that kills insects. For Bt corn, it repels the Asian corn borer, while Bt eggplant repels shoot borer. Both pests can potentially wipe out an entire corn and eggplant plantation in a matter of days.
