Download PDF - SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center

January – March 2005 BIO LIFE
23
person for the Biotechnology Advisory Team
of the Department of Agriculture (BAT-DA),
asserted: “Biotechnology plays a vital role
in innovations on medicine, fuel production,
health services and even in food preparations.”
“Biotechnology is the wave of the future
and it would help agricultural communities
increase their production, improve their incomes
and provide consumers with nutritious
and disease resistant food products,” she
told the mayors.
Halos lamented the “resistance in some
quarters to biotechnology,” saying that the
fears raised by critics have been adequately
addressed by the scientific community and
the government.
To address their concerns, Halos said
the government, through the Department of
Agriculture, the Philippine Council for Agriculture,
Forestry and National Resources
Research and Development (PCARRD) and
the Southeast Asian Center for Graduate
Study and Media Research in Agriculture
(SEARCA), joined hands with the private
sector led by the Biotechnology Coalition of
the Philippines to set up a Biotechnology
Media and Advocacy Resource Center as
its research and advocacy arm.
In her discussion, Halos noted that “scientific
rigor has attended biotechnology research
in the country, with only Biotechnology
corn (Bt corn) securing accreditation for
commercial cultivation.”
She told mayors that “experiments with
Bt corn have yielded a wealth of information
on promoting disease-resistant crops and
higher-yielding varieties.”
Contrary to the fears raised by critics,
she assured the mayors, “Biotechnology research
has revealed that no ailments related
to biotechnology crops specifically Bt corn
cultivation have been confirmed and that
charges about super weeds arising from Bt
corn have proven to be false.”
Meanwhile Dr. Alice Ilaga, the Director
of the Biotech Implementation Unit, noted
that“when it comes to GMO’s however, there
are those who oppose and those who support
it.”
Few may realize it, but “GMO yields are
already utilized in everyday life”, she said
Earlier, Dr. Halos already published her
report confirming that “more than 1,000
canned goods already stored in grocery
shelves may already contain GMO’s.”
It is this ‘pro-anti’ stance which became
the concern of the local government units.
Catanauan Mayor Sebastian Serrano observed
that there was open resistance of
religious groups in their areas.
Serrano described the peasant farmers
as “very religious” and said that “it cannot
be avoided that priests who sternly oppose
the use of GMOs dissuade them from employing
GMO technology” Mayor Serrano
expressed disappointment over the church’s
releasing a pastoral letter against the utilization
of biotechnology.
With the separation of Church and State
in mind, the Secretary General of the LMP,
Gerardo Calderon wants to establish a concrete
organization to support biotechnology.
“In my last term of office, I want to create a
Mayor’s Development Academy so that we
can include educational programs for Biotechnology.”
said Calderon.
The government has the power to initiate
a program to decrease hunger, if not
totally dissolve it, so that it can protect future
generations from this problem, the biotechnology
advocates told the mayors.
As an official policy, and realizing the
tremendous benefits from biotechnology,
the government is urging LGUs to keep an
open mind to the option of biotechnology,
as it will help farmers become more competitive,
reduce damage to the environment
and produce foods with cutting-edge nutrition
qualities.
A research regarding Bt corn growth, for
instance, showed it can actually induce an
additional P10,000 per hectare in income.
Having larger crop yields with productive
monetary growth, biotechnology surely creates
an environment for agricultural profit.
The law is on the side of biotechnology,
mandating that agriculture must rely increasingly
on more modern technologies. President
Arroyo in an official statement stated
that “the country must promote safe and
sustainable biotechnology”.
Shutting the door to biotech because of
invalidated fears, the experts have stressed
time and time again, will produce a more
certain and certifiable outcome: massive
hunger, agricultural trade imbalances and
nutritional lapses.