Ban GMO rice, Greenpeace asks Senate

MANILA, Philippines - Environmental group Greenpeace asked the Senate to ban the sale of genetically modified organism (GMO) rice, as it opened a photo exhibit highlighting the importance of rice. The group cited the importance of rice to Filipino culture, saying this is why it must be protected from risky genetic modification. "Greenpeace is here at the Senate to lobby our senators to enact a legislation to protect our most important staple food from the inherent risks of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is an unproven, unpredictable and unnecessary technology. The resulting genetically-modified food crops threaten human health, the environment, and farmers' livelihoods," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Genetic Engineering Campaigner Daniel Ocampo, in a statement on the group's Web site (www.greenpeace.org.ph). He said that while a genetically modified organism would never occur in the natural world, the new organism created becomes a living experiment. "It is unpredictable and its long term effects on the environment and human health are unknown," he said. Greenpeace has been actively campaigning against the commercialization of GMOs in the country. It is currently questioning the Department of Agriculture's (DA) regulation process for GMO crops, which, aside from being unconstitutional, lacks transparency and appears to be heavily influenced by corporate interests rather than the protection of consumers and farmers. During the past few years, Greenpeace voiced growing alarm how the regulatory bodies for GMO crops, the DA as well as the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), have never rejected an application of a GMO despite documented cases on questions of their safety and rejection by other countries, even by countries where they were developed. Last year, Greenpeace also released a report, which details how almost all key personalities involved in regulating the entry of GMOs in the Philippines are members of pro-GMO lobby groups funded by multinational GMO corporations. "In the six years since GMOs have been approved in the country, the DA has been approving GMOs at a rate of almost one every month, without adequate public consultation or information," it said. "Greenpeace believes that rice is now under threat. Currently no GMO rice is authorized for commercialization in the Philippines but the environment group has documented that such experimental rice from the United States has entered the country's food chain at least twice in the past three years," it added. It said the DA has denied both instances but has refused to conduct stringent testing on the said US rice. The GMO rice strain in the US rice was the result of an abandoned experiment, and its contamination of rice stocks created a major scandal that prompted countries to reject US rice imports in 2006 and 2007. "The Philippines is a center for rice biodiversity and rice is our most important food. The clear message then is that the government must reject GMOs and instead look toward a future of farming and food production grounded on the principles of sustainability, protection of biodiversity, and providing all people access to safe and nutritious food," said Ocampo. - GMANews.TV