Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment
NEWS
Former Senator Jun Magsaysay and Wife one with Negros Occidental Against Golden Rice
16 April 2013
Bacolod City, Philippines – In line with this year’s Panaad sa Negros theme, “Panaad@20: Celebrating Negros as the Philippine Leader in Organic Agriculture’, local environmental group Green Alert Negros (GAN) set up a booth in Panaad stadium in Bacolod City highlighting the negative impacts of GMOs to farmers, consumers & the environment. GAN asserted that their participation in the Panaad Festival is to ensure that Negros Occidental remains a stalwart proponent in organic agriculture & the ban on Genetically Modified crops will not be lifted.
People from all walks of life including prominent political figures such as former Senator Ramon “Jun” Magsaysay Jr. with wife Marilou visited the booth of GAN & signed the Petition Against Golden Rice. By affixing their signatures to the petition against Golden Rice, former Senator Magsaysay and his wife are affirming they support Organic Agriculture in Negros and recognize the public’s right to safe food on their tables.
Former Senator Jun Magsaysay signs petition against commercialization of Golden Rice
Golden Rice is genetically modified rice and was recently hit by GAN as another invention of biotech companies which it claims are full of lies in their promises. GAN has been opposing GMOs since the propagation of Bt Corn.
The Petition against Golden Rice is part of the national call spearheaded by Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE), a regional non-government organization working on plant genetic resources conservation, development and use & farmers rights. SEARICE provided GAN various campaign materials related to GMOs and Golden Rice during the week long exhibit.
Former Negros Occidental Governor Rafael “Lito” Coscolluela also visited the boot & also signed the Petition Against Golden Rice. (Eric Gotera, Green Alert Negros.)
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