Masipag News & Views

GMO FOOD LABELING LAW, FILED IN THE PHILIPPINES
Report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Twelve years in jail or a fine of up to P100,000 if you fail to label your product: 'Genetically Engineered.'

A bill has been filed Tuesday by Marikina Representative Del de Guzman requiring for mandatory labeling of genetically modified organism (GMO) food and food products. Offenders will be fined and sent to jail.

'It came to my attention that there are products available in local supermarkets that were sent to Hongkong for laboratory testing and were found out to contain GMOs,' said de Guzman.

Early this year, the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace revealed that 11 popular food products had been tested positive for GMO contamination. In June a new round of testing found GMOs in Nestle's infant product Cerelac Wheat.

'Since the safety of GMOs has not been established conclusively, I felt it was necessary to pass a law that will require food and food products to be appropirately labeled,' de Guzman said in a faxed statement to the Inquirer.

House Bill No 1647 or Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act will require mandatory labeling of 'all food and food products containing genetically-modified organisms, as well as those produced by genetic engineering technologies.'

Under the proposed bill, violators could be imprisoned for not less than six years but not more than 12 years, or a fine of not less than P50,000 but not more than P100,000, or both at the discretion of the court.

'If the offender is an alien, he shall, after service of sentence, be immediately deported without need of any further proceedings,' read the proposed bill.

'I believe the bill will give meaning to the right of our people and even foreigners living in the country to know if what they eat have been modified by modern biotechnology,' said de Guzman. '(Consumers ought to) know the contents of the food items they buy and then decide for themselves.'

Responding to industry claims GMO will ensure food security, de Guzman said: 'The fact however is that global food production is one-and-one-half times more than what is necessary to feed the burgeoning global population.'

'Worse, the promise held out by genetically-engineered food and food products may turn out to be more harmful to human health than their perceived benefits,' he said.

Mandatory labeling laws exist in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Norway, Czech Republic, Latvia, Israel, Taiwan, Mexico and 15 countries in the Europian Union.

'In many of the world's largest food markets such as Europe, japan, Brazil and North america, supermarkets have cleared genetically engineered frood from their shelves, and global food companies have removed GE ingredients from their products,' said Greenpeace. (MNV)

[Masipag News & Views is an occasional information release of the Farmer Scientist Partnership for Development (MASIPAG). This report, in whole or in part, could be freely published.]

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