Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

292 SESSION IV
The reason he chose Bt corn seed of Monsanto are
not the Pioneer, was because he was familiar with the
company’s conventional hybrid corn DK818 (DK
stands for Dekalb, a generation of corn seeds developed
by CP which was merged with Monsanto). According to
Jimmy, he spent only about Php9,800 as a production
cost for one crop on conventional hybrid corn and he
could generate about Php32,000 gross income from
that. Being a farmer in the midst of Green Revolution,
Jimmy did not know any other varieties except the ones
available in the market. Besides the infestation, low
yielding, a new problem came to him together with
the Bt corn was a health problem. During the planting
season, he had headaches and could not take a breath
properly.
Although he is a DA official, he still does not understand
why the DA approved and encourages farmers to use
this kind of seeds.
“I do not recommend any farmer to plant it,” he said
while looking at the leftover of Bt corn seeds he kept as
a “souvenir” for his painful memory.
Gerado Mendal, South Cotabato:
A 56-year-old corn farmer from Landan, in South
Cotabato province, first heard about Bt corn in May
2003. At that time, Monsanto invited 10 members
of Landan Co-operative which he has a membership
for a field trip of its Bt corn in Marbel, a town in the
province. Gerado was one of the field trip team.
There, he saw two plots of corn field, one was planted
with Bt corn another one was planted with conventional
hybrid-corn, which he referred to as Cargill, the
name of seed company which was already bought by
Monsanto.
“We noticed that Cargill field was not so good, the
corn did not look so healthy unlike Bt corn with were
standing in the next field.”
A pack of one kilogram of Bt corn seeds, which
Monsanto claimed it will not be attacked by corn
borer, was awarded to a farmer who had a luck from
the draw lots. For the others who did not have any luck
including Gerado, they decided to order the seeds from
the co-op which wanted its members to experience new
seeds which seemed to have better quality.
A month later, two bags of DK818YG seeds, each
contained 16 kg of seeds, were handed to Gerado at the
price of Php4,200 per bag. Together with the seeds, he
bought fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides.
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
Being a corn farmer through his life, Gerado realized
that the Bt corn seed price was truly expensive. However,
he had his own reason and good will to spend the big
money. Once he spent his time at Pioneer Hi-Bred as
a hybrid seed farm producer. Gerado was certain that
he had enough skill in breeding hybrid seed variety.
For him, Bt corn seed was a challenge to test his crop
breeding skill.
“I want to breed Bt corn seed, if it is good variety.”
However, Gerado has not yet known whether the
biotech variety can be bred by his own hands, because
he decided not to breed it. The Bt corn variety turn out
to be not attractive for him to do that.
“It is proved that it is not a good variety,” he said.
He referred to the first and only harvest of Bt corn as
a “failure” since he could only harvest 86 sacks of Bt
corn ears. An average yielding of ordinary hybrid of
“Pioneer” which he usually grows can harvest about
120 sacks. After calculating cost and gain, he found that
he lost Php3,000 for growing Bt corn per hectare.
MYSTERY ILLNESS
Kalyong, a small village in remote area of South
Cotabato, hit the headline of Philippines newspaper
in 2003 because the unknown illness spread among
the villagers. It was reported that 51 villagers had been
suffering from headaches, dizziness, vomitting, skin
irritation and diarrhea. The mysterious death of seven
horses, two buffaloes and tens of chicken were also put
in focus.
The village experienced the mysterious phenomenon
just less than two months after the five hectares of
land plots in the village were planted with Bt corn, a
genetically modified corn variety that contained a gene
of Bt bacteria to make it resistent to corn borer.
The case of Kalyong village was the very first case in the
world which reported about illness of people who stay
close to GM crop fields. However, until now there is no
proper scientific test, both at national and international
level, to study about the linkage between the GM crop
and the illness of the people.
So far, only preliminary findings of one Norwegian
scientist has been presented. In 2003, blood sample of
the villagers then were collected and sent for laboratory
test in Norway by local non-governmental organizations.