Whatever the arguments around the health risks of consuming genetically-modified food, the conditions under which many GM crop farmers have to toil means this is an issue for anyone who cares about the impact of their purchasing choices. An estimated 270,000 small-hold farmers in the Philippines are being forced to grow GM corn and ending up in debt as a result. These are the findings of a recent study by CI member IBON and MASIPAG, a farmer-led network of people's organisations, non-government organisations and scientists. The farmers are at the mercy of seed suppliers and lenders who are one-in-the-same in the country.

Dumaguete City is being eyed as venue for the Visayas forum against the genetically-modified golden rice targeted to hit the Philippine commercial market by 2013. Greenpeace Southeast Asia Sustainable Agriculture campaigner Danny Ocampo said Dumaguete is an ideal setting for the forum because of the strong tendency of local sectors towards organic farming, and since the city and Negros Oriental are known for their anti-GMO stance. There have been moves to oppose or ban the entry of genetically-engineered corn and eggplant to the province, Ocampo also said.

Greenpeace is demanding a halt to field trials of genetically modified ”golden rice” in Nueva Ecija, Ilocos Norte and Camarines Sur, out of fear the crop was carrying environmental and health risks. The nongovernmental organization said field trials of the artificially enriched rice, which was proposed as a solution to vitamin A deficiency among children, were ongoing in the three provinces at the behest of the International Rice Research Institute, and the Philippine Rice Research Institute. ”Open field trials of golden rice are now currently ongoing in Nueva Ecija, Ilocos Norte and Camarines Sur, exposing conventional rice crops—the country's staple—to GMO [genetically modified organism] contamination,” the group said in a statement.

THE international environmental group Greenpeace expressed alarm over the experimental feeding of the genetically modified ”golden rice” to 24 children in China. According to Greenpeace, there's a big possibility that the proponents of the project will eventually use Filipino children as their guinea pig for the on-going golden rice project. [...] ”It is incredibly disturbing to think that an American research body, in a serious breach of scientific and medical ethics, used children as guinea pigs for genetically engineered food, despite a clear directive against this very experiment issued by Chinese authorities in 2008,” said Fang Lifeng, Sustainable Agriculture campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.

A very low-key field testing of genetically modified ”Golden Rice” in two Camarines Sur towns has stirred debate between organic farmers and farming advocates and those conducting the tests. Representatives of Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (Masipag) and CamSur Organic Agriculture and Industrial Development Inc. (Camsoaid) raised alarm over the field tests, saying the genetically modified rice variety could contaminate traditional rice varieties in farms near the testing sites in the towns of Pili and Tigaon. [...] Dr. Antonio Alfonso, plant molecular biologist and head of Philippine Rice projects to test GMOs [...] said grains of Golden Rice were planted on a 950-square-meter area each in Pili and Tigaon last March and were harvested in June yielding about three sacks of grains per field test area. He said samples were taken for further study. Most of the harvest, he said, was destroyed.

Field trials and commercializing genetically engineered crops to address food security and raise farmer income will continue to be pursued by the government, an official said. Dr. Candida B. Adalla, the Department of Agriculture's biotech program head, also noted in a forum here last week that by integrating technology such as genetic engineering in farming, crops can be improved, become pest-resistant, adapt to climate change and could become nutritious. [...] Despite the Writ of Kalikasan case filed against her group, a court relief to protect the environment, Ms. Adalla shared that the Agriculture department will not stop field trials on genetically engineered crops pending a stay order.

On Friday biotechnology experts, local agriculture officers and students witnessed the 15th harvesting of the genetically modified Bt eggplant, showing similar high consistency as in three other tests elsewhere in the country in warding off attacks by the main damaging pest, the fruit-and-shoot borer. The field test inside the University of Southern Mindanao campus would conduct three more harvests until July 10 to wrap up the first round of transplanting of the hybrid-eggplant variety, said Dr. Concepcion Bravo, the co-project leader and the former chairman of the USM Department of Entomology.

Various groups against genetically modified organisms on Friday urged the Supreme Court to issue a temporary environment protection order to stop the continuous field testing of BT talong by the government. [...] "We praise the Supreme Court for acting swiftly on the petition of the people to stop the Bacillus thuringiensis eggplant field testing. Through the issuance of the Writ of Kalikasan, it has temporarily stopped the new application of permits to field test Bt talong," Dr. Chito Medina, national Coordinator of farmer-scientis group MASIPAG, said.

International environmental group Greenpeace is confident that the Supreme Court will permanently ban the field testing of genetically modified organism, particularly the BT talong (eggplant). ”The Writ of Kalikasan is not an ordinary procedure at dahil sa decision sa SC we can now openly discuss this issue,” said Lawyer Zelda Soriano, political adviser of the Greenpeace-Southeast Asia, at a media briefing in Quezon City on Friday. Soriano said the respondents, officials and scientists of the UP Los Banos and other proponents of BT talong field testing, will be summoned by the SC to present ”all possible defenses” to argue that it is ”safe and not negative to the environment.”

”The current field trials are being responsibly and safely undertaken together with scientific organizations and partner state universities in compliance with the biosafety requirements and guidelines approved by national regulatory bodies such as the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines and the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture,” said Dr. Rex Victor Cruz, UP Los Banos Chancellor. Cruz was reacting on the Writ of Kalikasan and writ of continuing mandamus issued by the Supreme Court, temporarily stopping the field trials of genetically-modified organism, particularly of BT talong in the country.