DAVAO CITY – Members of the organic agriculture movement assailed the plans of the City Council Committee on Agriculture to amend the Organic Agriculture Ordinance of Davao City ostensibly to allow the field testing of the genetically modified Bt talong.
“It is ironic that the call to review the organic agriculture ordinance came after proponents of GMOs attended a city council hearing presided by Hon. Conde Baluran, Chair on the Committee on Agriculture”, said Tom Villarin, Executive Director of SIMCARRD, a non-government organization focusing on sustainable farming issues and asset reform.
Organic agriculture advocates like SIMCARRD have long maintained that Organic Agriculture and Genetically Modified crops cannot co-exist because of the danger of contamination. “They are poles apart and no win-win solution is possible. Transgenic crops kill indigenous varieties and will make OA impossible. The city hasn’t even implemented the organic ordinance, now they are already thinking of amending it. What gives?”, Villarin pointed out.
“Politicians should not fall into the myth that GMO proponents are peddling like it addresses poverty, increases productivity and solves hunger”, said Villarin. “It is a myopic argument that provides a singular solution to complex problems. Besides it is really the profit interest of modern biotechnology companies that are behind this push for expansion of GMOs”, he added.
The Mindanao PO representative to the National Organic Agricultural Board (NOAB) also decried the attempt to amend the local policy on organic agriculture. NOAB Board Member Emalyn Legal that this latest attempt will undermine the advances made by the Philippines in the support of organic agriculture. “GMOs are being rejected worldwide, “she said. “So why should the city rethink its stand just to accommodate the testing of a GM crop?”
Legal, who is also the Advocacy Officer for the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Magsasaka (PAKISAMA,) pointed out the existence of RA 10068 or what is known as the National Organic Agriculture Law should already be a guidepost for policymakers everywhere to uphold the supremacy of organic agriculture over conventional agricultural technologies like Bt technology.
“If Negros Island, Bohol and Mindoro in the Visayas can show the way in rejecting GMOs, I don’t see why Davao City cannot lead the way for other cities in making Mindanao GMO-free”, she added. (PR)