By Rey Anthony Chiu
Philippine Information Agency
Bohol Correspondent
On the same day millions of people responded to the United Nation’s call for people to “stand up against extreme poverty,†Boholanos spread another campaign through a catchy slogan during the World Food Day activities here, October 17.
Organized by Bohol Initiators of Sustainable Agriculture Development [BISAD], World Food Day here came in a form of an Evening of Boholano Cultural expressions as organizers put a slogan that may have hit a funny bone. But that is nothing funny for local farmers here who are alarmed over the entry in the country of yet another genetically modified organism [GMO] in the LLRice 62.
In Bohol, where the country’s pioneering anti-GMO ordinance is crafted, farmers have been traditionally growing at least 3000 local rice varieties to produce a competitive rice that is organically grown yet disease and pest resistant and one that pose no environmental and health hazards.
Threatened because of the GMO LLRice 62, or commonly known as Liberty Rice developed by BayerCrop Science underwent genetic modification, farmers raise the human and environmental hazards of a herbicide called glufosinate ammonium.
The herbicide actually kills the red rice, which at one time in the US, grows with the white Bengal Rice.
So, “the LLRice 62 [white rice] was made to make it resistant to the herbicide as it kills the red rice, which is America’s commercial variety,†states a brochure distributed during a farmers’ gathering at the Plaza Rizal Wednesday.
Having been banned when stringent organic measures were imposed in Europe, the GMO rice were found contaminating the Philippine rice supplies bought from the US, as with the entry of the Uncle Sam Texas long grain rice which has been displayed in Philippine supermarkets, Searice leaked.
Boholano farmers have been growing the red rice as traditional food here and the un-announced entry of LLRice 6 could actually exterminate the red rice varieties, pressed Paul Borja of the Searice, an NGO assisting local farmers keep Bohol’s rice heritage.
Moreover, local farmer organizers have posed the risk of human and environmental hazards of the herbicide and its effects to animal nervous system and the human deaths in Japan, as they alleged.
“We hope to be able to organize the farmers to pressure the government and the Agriculture Department to come up with a definitive stand against GMO,†shared Engr. Vicente Loquellano, executive director of another NGO under the BISAD during an interview.
According to a technical officer of the Searice, Prosperidad Abonite, their advocacy is now into information dissemination on the Anti-GMO Ordinance campaign and the truth about GMO to students in schools and formal institutions.
This way, we hope to pressure local legislators to stir up reaction against GMO, she bared.
This is despite the fact that the Department of Agriculture (DA) is standing by the national policy on modern biotechnology and rejected the call for support to a total GMO ban.
Agriculture Undersecretary Bernie G. Fondevilla has politely rejected Negros Occidental Governor Joseph Marañon thru a letter, saying it runs counter to the national policy of promoting the safe and responsible use of modern biotechnology.
Maranon earlier asked the DA to support the province's campaign to promote the province as an organic-food island.
Fondevilla cited the national policy issued by President Arroyo on July 16, 2001, which "promotes the safe and responsible use of modern biotechnology as one of several means to achieve and sustain food security, equitable access to health services, sustainable and safe environment, and industry development."
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