by Ivien Prinze Fetalino | Reprimo
The Philippines is the first country to approve commercial propagation of Golden Rice on the 21st of July this year. This could be the next green (or gene) revolution, yet uproar against the genetic breakthrough still happens in this modern age.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Philippines is Asia’s leader in biotechnology. The first Asian country to approve commercial propagation of Bt maize in 2002 and the first in the world for Golden Rice. Based on a documentation by the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), Bt maize received a cold welcome from the public. Critics warned of potential dangers to health and the environment, which led to lawsuits filed against institutions that develop or distribute GMOs. Attacks at field trials by anti-GMO activists were also reported. Meanwhile, farmers saw elevated farm outputs, thus GM corn fields expanded from 10,000 hectares to 700,000 hectares in a decade.
The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a time of health crisis but of a hunger crisis as well. Now that 3.9 million Filipinos are unemployed as of August 2021 and the economy experiences a decline due to the rise of a climate emergency, food security is considered as a serious challenge. Genetic modification is a timely strategy but it faces continued opposition by organizations such as Greenpeace Philippines, an independent environmental formation that proposes ecological agriculture and promotes crop diversity and organic farming , as a solution to the crisis, all-the-while disregarding the cultivation of GM crops. According to their campaigns, GMOs are unsafe to eat, can contaminate the environment and may weaken sustainable agricultural practices.
While conventional agriculture benefits from chemical fertilizers that lead to high crop yields, ecological agriculture mainly uses organic fertilizers to nurture the soil despite lower yields. In a rapidly growing population, organic farms must consistently expand to raise their yields—a foreseen environmental dilemma. The need for new arable lands will only increase the need to transform forests into farm areas, and high input of animal manure fertilizer will promote farming livestock and will contribute 14.5% of degradative global greenhouse gases. With over 115 million Filipinos to feed after four years as projected by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), organic farming is a luxury we cannot afford especially when agricultural lands are lost to industrialization and some suffer from acidic soil due to heavy chemicals.
Genetic modification should instead be campaigned further as a leading way to ensure food security in the agricultural sector. It can be considered as a complement to organic farming since GM crops require less land while still maximizing plant yield and minimizing losses due to plant diseases or pests. Moreover, reduced need for chemical input and water supply benefits farmers, consumers and the environment. as it reduces the production cost so that farmers can generate higher incomes while consumers can save money on food prices. It also promotes public health and protects the condition of the environment by releasing less greenhouse gases. Lastly, a 2011 study suggests that GMOs can increase biodiversity through adoption of conservation tillage and reduced use of insecticides and herbicides.
GM foods are as safe as conventional foods, based on biosafety assessments and long-term studies. In fact, Golden Rice is more nutritious than conventional rice because it contains high amount of beta carotene, a precursor of Vitamin A. On the other hand, the possible cross-contamination of GMO and non-GMO crops can be minimized through strategies in planting schedule, pollination timing and location of GMO and non-GMO fields.
Our lush green fields are fading into barren lands and forests are cleared into farmlands amidst a climate and hunger crisis. If you support a vibrant planet, then support GMOs!
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