A significant number of Filipinos remain opposed to consuming transgenic crops, which are foods derived from biotechnology. Those who are informed refer to these as genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
In contrast to other nations where GMO food products have gained acceptance, the Philippines has seen the widespread cultivation of one transgenic crop: Bt corn. This variety contains Bacillus thuringiensis, a prevalent soil bacterium that generates its own insecticidal protein.
“Bt corn was first introduced in the Philippines in 1996 on a limited trial basis only,” said the paper entitled, “Impact Assessment of Bt Corn Adoption in the Philippines.” “Between 1999 and 2002, after approval from the National Committee on Biosafety in the Philippines, field trials of Bt corn were conducted in the major corn-producing areas in the country.”
In 2002, the Department of Agriculture (DA) finally approved the commercial distribution of Bt corn. This made the Philippines as the first country in Asia to commercialize Bt corn primarily in response to the Asian corn borer.
“Corn is also a main ingredient of animal feeds, a thing already known to have triggered the industrial side of corn production in the livestock industry,” said an editorial of The PCAARRD Monitor, published by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development.
So, there’s a tendency that those who abhor eating transgenic crops may have eaten them if they ate meat that were fed by farmers with Bt corn like chicken, cattle, and goats.
The agriculture chief is not against eating biotech crops. In a news report which appeared in Manila Bulletin, Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel said GMOs are accepted in the United States and it is being regulated in some European countries.
“As long as it has been used in other countries for at least 10 years, I believe, we’re good,” Laurel was quoted as saying.
In fact, biotech crops have been eating more than that. In 1994, the FlavSavr tomato was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. It became the first genetically modified food crop to be produced and consumed in an industrialized country.
Since then, several other GM crops were commercialized: corn, soybean, cotton, canola, sugar beet, alfalfa, papaya, squash, potato, eggplant and pineapple. Soon, non-bruising apples will be available in the market. Other crops under research are rice, wheat, banana, chickpea, pigeon pea, and mustard.
“Biotech crops have now had an unblemished record of safe use and consumption for over 20 years,” said a report from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). “Future generations can benefit more from wide choices of biotech crops with improved traits for high yield and nutrition as well as safety for food use and environment.”
Now, let’s take a closer look at those organizations which fully support the transgenic crops for human consumption.
“Foods produced using genetic modification are as safe as foods produced using conventional breeding techniques,” assures the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “Genetically modified foods are as safe as other foods available on the market.”
The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) declared that different GM foods go through the global food safety process called Codex Alimentarius Risk Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology under which these foods are not found to be risky to human health.
“GM foods currently available on the international market have passed risk assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health,” said the UN health agency. “No effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved. Continuous use of risk assessments based on the Codex principles and, where appropriate, including post market monitoring, should form the basis for evaluating the safety of GM foods.”
Some years back, the premier American Medical Association issued this statement: “Bioengineered foods have been consumed for close to 20 years and during that time, no overt consequences to human health have been reported and/or substantiated in the peer-reviewed literature.”
The Royal Society of Medicine, an independent educational organization for doctors, dentists, scientists and others involved in medicine and health care in England, said: “Foods derived from GM crops have been consumed by hundreds of millions of people across the world with no ill effects (or legal cases related to human health) despite many of the consumers coming from the most litigious of countries, the United States.”
The methodology for making GM foods sounds indeed like science fiction. Scientists working in laboratories take genes from one organism – a plant, animal, bacterium or virus – and splice them to the genes of another organism (a food crop or animal) to produce genetically altered offspring that will reproduce for agricultural purposes.
Ismail Serageldin, during his time as vice-president of World Bank, sees biotechnology playing a crucial part of agriculture in the 21st century. “All possible tools that can help promote sustainable agriculture for food security must be marshaled,” he said, “and biotechnology, safely developed, could be a tremendous help.”
Through biotechnology, more crops can be grown on the planet. “At current rates of population growth, conventional techniques may soon be insufficient if farming is to keep pace with the scale of increases required in the 21st century,” wrote Victor Villalobos in an article which appeared in Ceres, a FAO publication.
“We have the technology to meet the need of the future. What we don’t have yet is the will power, the regulatory system to allow use of the technology that we need,” said Dr. Wayne Parrott of the University of Georgia-Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics.
