GMW: Farmers, environmentalists urge ban on GMOs

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GMW: Farmers, environmentalists urge ban on GMOs

" GM WATCH " <info

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 11:40:12 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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EXCERPT: " GMOs are costly experiments on our people and our environment

and bury our farmers in debts while providing more profits to companies

like Monsanto. "

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Farmers, environmentalists urge ban on GMOs

By Allen V. Estabillo

MindaNews (Philippines), 25 August 2005

http://www.mindanews.com/2005/08/25nws-gmo.htm

 

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Local farmers and environmental groups renewed

their calls to immediately ban entry and planting of

genetically-engineered (GE) crops in the country in the wake of the

recent government

approval to commercialize a new transgenic corn variety.

 

Eliezer Billanes, secretary general of the Samahan ng Magsasaka sa

Timug Kutabato, warned that the looming entry into the market of

Monstanto's " stacked-trait corn " would further expose the area's farms

and

residents to various toxins reportedly embedded in the GE corn variety.

 

" It's high time for Congress to intervene on this matter by passing a

law that would ban these products, " he told MindaNews in a phone

interview.

 

Billanes said that House Bill 2124, or the proposed GMO

(Genetically-Modified Organism)-free Food and Agriculture Act of 2004,

was gathering

dust at a committee in the House of Representatives.

 

Billanes said they have been gathering signatures to support the

passage of HB 2124 " which will ultimately make our country as

GMO-free. " The

proposed measure, filed by Anakpawis partylist Rep. Rafael Mariano,

prohibits the entry, sale, field testing, and release of crops and food

containing GMOs.

 

The bill cited that " there have been many cases discovered which should

tell us that genetically modified products could seriously harm human

beings and the environment. "

 

" The threat from genetically-engineered crops and food products is

rising in the Philippines. A number of food products sold in our

supermarkets and groceries have been found to contain GMOs, " the bill

said.

 

The Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry approved

earlier this month the commercial distribution and planting of the

" dekalb-stacked hybrid " corn, a GE product which could resist both

herbicides

and the Asiatic corn borer.

 

According to a report from the University of the Philippines Los

Banos-based Biotechnology Information Center (BIC), the new hybrid

corn seed

is practically a combination of the controversial Bacillus thuringiesis

(Bt) corn and the Roundup-Ready corn, which underwent several field

tests here and the neighboring areas.

 

Bt corn was approved for planting in the country in late 2002 while

Roundup Ready corn was introduced in the markets earlier this year.

Environmental group Greenpeace the government's approval of the new GE

corn

variety saying " the government has failed to protect Filipinos from the

onslaught of genetically modified organisms and agro-chemical companies

which promote it.

 

" The Arroyo government is intent on punishing Filipino farmers and our

environment at the behest of multinational agro-chemical companies

which only care for profits, " said Greenpeace's GE campaigner Danny

Ocampo

said in a statement e-mailed to MindaNews.

 

Ocampo said the new GE corn would threaten the food chain with

contamination and lead to further degradation of soil quality. He said

it also

meant " twice the profits " for Monsanto, which owns the patent to

" stacked-trait corn " and the glyphosate Roundup Ready herbicide.

 

In June, Greenpeace launched the report " The Economics of Bt Corn:

Whose Interest Does It Really Serve? " which showed evidence that Bt corn,

contrary to claims by Monsanto, was a financial burden to Filipino

farmers because they have to pay more for seeds and fertilizers.

 

" GMOs are costly experiments on our people and our environment and bury

our farmers in debts while providing more profits to companies like

Monsanto, " Ocampo added.

 

 

 

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