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Bt-Corn Ready for Harvest
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Masipag News & Views
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Sep 24, 2001 23:35 PDT
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(The article below appeared at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the
country's largest daily, and at its web page inq7.net. Comments may be
sent to: feed-@inquirer.com.ph)
BT-CORN READY FOR HARVEST
By Villamor Visaya Jr.
Inquirer News Service
September 25, 2001
CAUAYAN CITY -- The controversial Bt-corn (Bacillus thuringiensis)
plants that were tested in sites in Isabela will be ready for harvest
next month.
"In four to five weeks, we could harvest the corn plants unless strong
typhoons would directly hit the trial sites," Dr. Arnold Estrada,
Monsanto-Philippines product development manager, told the INQUIRER.
The three Bt-corn trial sites in the province are located in
1,700-square-meter lots in Barangay Villaluna here, in Barangay
Alinguigan 2nd in Ilagan town and in Barangay Carulay in Echague town.
The agricultural firm Monsanto, the proponent of the project, proposed
11 field test areas in the province but the National Committee on
Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP) initially approved only three sites.
Militant farmers’ groups assailed Monsanto for planting the Bt-corn
seeds without the Isabela provincial board’s approval. Monsanto,
however, said they have secured proper permits from the NCBP to conduct
the field trials.
Estrada said the company is expecting at least yields of 69 percent
higher than average from Bt-corn compared to the commercial hybrid corn
plants available to farmers.
"We expect that (higher yield). If there is no added benefit, there is
no reason to continue this project," he said.
Monsanto officials asked visitors to the field trial sites to bear with
the tight security check imposed by the NCBP and the Bureau of Plant
Industry Quarantine Service.
Wary over the possible uprooting of the Bt-corn plants by militant
groups opposing the project, Estrada said they have coordinated with
local policemen and village watchmen to avert any violent activities in
the field test areas.
Estrada dismissed reports that the Bt-corn is "poisonous" and
"cancer-inducing."
Commercially released GMOs (genetically modified organisms), he said,
have undergone thorough testing for toxicity, nutritional food and feed
values.
"There were a lot of studies conducted about this. In the United States
alone, three bodies--the US Department of Agriculture, the US
Environment and Protection, and the Food and Drugs Administration--have
been regulating the project. They require us to submit data for the
evaluation . . . and (the data) passed their criteria (requiring that
the project possesses) no adverse effects to the environment," he said.
Last week, at least 800 people joined a caravan in Barangay Carulay in
Echague to protest the field-testing activities.
Fr. Gregorio Uanan, Diocese of Ilagan chancellor, decried the lack of
concern of Monsanto on the Bt-corn’s supposed ill effects on public
health and environment.
Estrada said any opposition to GMO-laced crops should be supported with
scientific studies and should be given to the NCBP for consideration.
But Melchor Batalla, chair of the farmers’ group Danggayan Dagiti
Mannalon iti Isabela, said Monsanto, not the project’s opponents, should
prove that the crop is safe both to the public and the environment.
"They should be the ones to show proof that we are wrong because they
are (the ones) conducting the trial," Batalla said. (MNV)
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