November 24, 2009

Farmer leaders representing 20 farmer organizations from various parts of the Philippines are urging the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) not to allow the importation by a private corporation of a genetically modified rice variety as food.

Bayer CropScience AG, a multinational agrochemicals company, has a pending application with the BPI to market Liberty Link 62 rice (LL62) in the country. Bayer’s application, which was made in 2006, was put on hold in 2007 when a lower court granted a petition filed by concerned individuals to disallow the importation. However, last November 9, the Court of Appeals (CA) reversed the lower court ruling, thus paving the way for the grant of Bayer’s application.

The potential risks to public health and to the environment were among the reasons cited by the farmer leaders in petitioning the BPI to keep LL62 out of the country. LL62 was developed by Bayer to be tolerant to a herbicide, whose effects when ingested or exposed to, have yet to be determined.

In a petition letter hand-delivered to BPI director Joel Rudinas on November 18, the farmers said, “Ang karamihan po sa amin ay ilang taon nang hindi gumagamit ng kemikal na abono at pestisidyo sapagkat nakita po namin na ang mga ito ay nakakasama sa lupa, tubig at sa katawan namin at ng publiko na sinusuplayan namin ng pagkain.” (“Most of us have not used chemical fertilizers and pesticides for many years because we have seen for ourselves the damage these chemicals can cause on the soil, water, and on our health and that of the public whose food needs we supply.”) The introduction of the herbicide-dependent LL62 would undermine years of painstaking work by organic farmers all over the country.

The farmer leaders also took issue with the fact that farmers were not consulted about Bayer’s application, or at least given enough information about the matter. “Hindi ito simpleng usapin ng teknolohiya kundi usapin ng bigas na siyang pangunahing pagkain ng Pilipino,” said Candido Baldapan, who represents the Bohol-based Farmers' Consultative Council (FCC). (“This goes beyond issues of technology. This concerns rice, the staple food of Filipinos.”)

While Bayer intends to import LL62 grains for consumption and for processing, the farmer leaders fear that it is a short step away from the entry of seeds of this variety. “Kung mangyari ito, hindi malayo na makontamina ang mga lokal na binhi na aming tinatangkilik at inaalagaan,” Baldapan explained. (“When this happens, it will not be long before the local varieties that we have developed and nurtured are contaminated.”)

The farmer leaders appealed to Rudinas to stop the rice importation, stressing that LL62 is not the answer to the country’s food supply problems.--by Teresa L. Debuque

Golda Hilario/Paul Borja

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