TAGBILARAN CITY –Food stakeholders here led by the advocacy group instrumental in the first anti-genetically modified organism (GMO) ordinance sound the alarm over the introduction of field tests of a genetically engineered rice in the country, which could contaminate Bohol endemic rice varieties.
At the World Food Day celebrations, October 16, Bohol Initiators for Sustainable Agricultural Development (BISAD) in Bohol put up a gallant stand to advocate for a solid block to deter the entry of golden rice, one that has been portrayed by its creators as a quick-fix solution to the country’s vitamin A deficiency.
At the gathering which commemorates the founding of the World Food Organization of the United Nations, which has held at the Atrium, food stakeholders listened as Greenpeace, a leading independent campaigning organization using peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose threats to the environment, slowly unhusked the threat of a rice genetically modified to produce vitamin A, also called beta-carotene.
Greenpeace said the complexity of the processes in genetic engineering manifested in the over 20 years it took to produce golden rice, and still its creators could not see any commercial application for the product makes it suspect for possible unexpected and unpredictable effects when consumed by man.
Exactly how is the beta carotene produced in this rice variety is still not explained, a Greenpeace volunteer said.
What happens when this clearly engineered trait in rice gets into the body?, she asks.
Already put in field tests in at least three areas in the country, the golden rice is now being test planted in Bicol and in two undisclosed areas in Northern Luzon.
In Bohol however, where an anti GMO ordinance is in place, to secure the sustainability of its native rice, the sneaky entry of golden rice can easily contaminate these native rice varieties, according to BISAD member Zen Darunday.
BISAD believes a contamination in the food supply poses health risks, she said.
BISAD also said fortifying rice with vitamin A may lead people to think that rice alone becomes a sufficient source of vitamin A, thereby narrowing their source of other vitamin sources, resulting in even more pronounced malnutrition.
Over this, BISAD joins Greenpeace in its stand opposing golden rice as a solution for vitamin A deficiency.
If required, biofortification does not require genetic engineering because non genetically engineered crops are already in the farmer’s fields and in the people’s plates, they said. (30/ed)
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