The enemies of biotechnology will stop at nothing to prevent farmers in the developing world from growing GM crops. A few weeks ago in the Philippines, they literally uprooted progress—and put a bright future just a little bit further out of reach. Here’s what happened. Researchers affiliated with the University of the Philippines at Mindanao were trying to produce a better talong, also known as eggplant. [...] But now we’ve lost this opportunity, at least for the time being, because of a paperwork error.

North Cotabato Vice Governor Gregorio T. Ipong has declared willingness to review the province’s policy on field testing for the Bacillus thuringiensis eggplant amid inquiries that the local government has been receiving regarding the crop’s field trials. [...] ”The best way in discerning things is to always get back to how these things came about through scientific method. As an engineer, I also have to listen to the scientific results. It is not a bad idea if both sides are seen and heard,” said Ipong, according to a statement.

Government agencies and institutions that are supposed to promote organic agriculture in the Philippines are violating the law because these, too, are proponents of genetically modified organisms, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said this week. Casiño said Congress should investigate the involvement of these agencies and institutions in promoting GMOs, which critics deem harmful to humans and the environment.

Advocates of sustainable agriculture welcomed the decision of the Bureau of Plant Industry to cancel the permit to test-grow genetically modified eggplant, locally referred to as ”BT talong.” [...] In an order dated December 29 but made public by groups opposed to the propagation of genetically modified organisms on Tuesday, BPI director Clarito Barron said all Biosafety Permits for field testing were being suspended due to lack of public consultation before these were conducted.

The world appears to be on the threshold of another green revolution in rice production as a result of an intensive, 12-year partnership between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing and the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. Called ”Green Super Rice,” it is the result of a project begun in 1998, involving the painstaking crossbreeding of more than 250 different potential varieties and rice hybrids, according to Dr Jauhar Ali, a senior scientist and regional project coordinator for the Development of Green Super Rice at IRRI in Los Banos, south of Manila.

Two of seven field trials of the plant - also known as Bt brinjal - were halted last month, two weeks after local authorities in Davao City uprooted plants because researchers had not fully complied with public consultation requirements. Scientists had been hoping to complete the seven trials by the end of this year and commercialise Bt eggplant next year. But research has now been delayed by at least six months, according to Eufemio Rasco Jr, lead researcher at the University of the Philippines Mindanao.

These past few months have been a whirlwind of forums and meetings with different groups including NGOs, the church, farmers, students, women, organic traders etc. - all because of the plans to commercialise Monsanto's Bt eggplant in the Philippines by 2011 even after India has rejected it. The Philippines is a country that has a very favourable policy in approving geneticalling engineered crops. Even the regulatory process is biased towards approving them since it is not an application process but an approval process for commercial release.

The University of the Philippines (UP)-Mindanao has denied allegations of violating requirements in its field test of genetically modified eggplant which was uprooted by the city government two weeks ago. In a letter dated Dec. 28, Nilo B. Oponda, acting chancellor of the university, said the order to uproot was not ”based on violation of any of these concerns but only on an administrative lapse, i.e., the lack of posting of the public information sheet.”

The city government destroyed genetically modified eggplants being field-tested in a site at the University of the Philippines Mindanao in Barangay (village) Mintal here as people involved in the experimentation cried. The whole experimental site was completely shut down Saturday and about 1,500 Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis, eggplants, about a half of them already bearing flowers and fruits, were destroyed, city officials said.

The destroyed plants were buried in a ditch.

he uprooting of the controversial crops followed the December 13 cease-and-desist order issued by Mayor Inday Sara Duterte against the experimentation, which was highly criticized for its alleged lack of transparency.

Lawmakers from Mindanao have moved to protect the interests of consumers from serious health risks by filing a measure seeking to require the labeling of food, meat and poultry products that contain genetically engineered material. Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and his brother Maximo Rodriguez, Jr. have filed House Bill 1402 which aims to aid consumers to know their rights whether the food they purchase contains or was produced with genetically engineered material.