No independent health risk assessment was done; Farmer-scientist group MASIPAG condemns decision
The Philippines has approved GMO golden rice for commercial production. This is in spite of the fact that no independent data on the safety of this GMO for health and the environment have been published; that beta-carotene, which the rice is engineered to contain, is one of the commonest molecules in nature and numerous native plants contain high levels; and that the US FDA says that GMO golden rice doesn't contain enough beta-carotene to justify a health claim.
As Glenn Davis Stone and Dominic Glover point out, it is still unknown if the beta-carotene in GMO golden rice can even be converted to Vitamin A in the bodies of badly undernourished children. In addition, research shows that what beta-carotene there is in the rice degrades rapidly in storage. Cooking further degrades the beta-carotene.
Meanwhile, as the development of golden rice creeps along, the Philippines has managed to slash the incidence of Vitamin A deficiency by non-GMO methods.
The author of the France24 article below is clearly ignorant of these crucial facts.
1. Philippines approves GMO 'golden rice' for commercial production
2. Defend Our Rice! Farmer-scientist group condemns Golden Rice commercial propagation, calls on farmers and consumers to protest
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1. Philippines approves GMO 'golden rice' for commercial production
France24, 23/07/2021
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210723-philippines-approves-gmo-golden-rice-for-commercial-production
The Philippines became the world's first country Friday to approve the commercial production of genetically modified "golden rice" that experts hope will combat childhood blindness and save lives in the developing world.
A biosafety permit issued by government regulators paves the way for the rice - enriched with the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene to make it more nutritional - to be grown by farmers across the country, its developers said.
"It's a really significant step for our project because it means that we are past this regulatory phase and golden rice will be declared as safe as ordinary rice," Russell Reinke of the Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) told AFP ahead of the announcement.
The next step was to "take our few kilos of seed and multiply it... so it can be made more widely available", he said.
IRRI has spent two decades working with the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute to develop golden rice -- named for its bright yellow hue.
It is the first genetically modified rice approved for commercial propagation in South and Southeast Asia, officials said Friday.
Golden rice has faced strong resistance from environmental groups opposed to genetically altered food plants. At least one test field in the Philippines was attacked by activists.
Despite passing the final regulatory hurdle, the rice is still a way off appearing in food bowls.
"Limited quantities" of seed could start to be distributed to Filipino farmers in selected provinces next year, Reinke said.
Ordinary rice, a staple for hundreds of millions of people particularly in Asia, produces beta-carotene in the plant, but it is not found in the grain.
"The only change that we've made is to produce beta-carotene in the grain," Reinke said.
"The farmers will be able to grow them in exactly the same way as ordinary varieties... it doesn't need additional fertiliser or changes in management and it carries with it the benefit of improved nutrition."
Vitamin A is essential for normal growth and development, the proper functioning of the immune system, and vision.
World Health Organization data show vitamin A deficiency causes up to 500,000 cases of childhood blindness every year, with half of those dying within 12 months of losing their sight.
Nearly 17 percent of children under the age of five in the Philippines are deficient in vitamin A, according to IRRI.
"We've always said we will provide 30-50 percent of that estimated average requirement (of vitamin A), and when you add that to what is existing in the diet you push up a whole cohort of the population from insufficiency to sufficiency," Reinke said.
Golden rice was analysed by food safety regulators in Australia, the United States and Canada and was given the thumbs up, he said, but it has not been approved in these countries for commercial production.
It is also being reviewed by regulators in Bangladesh.
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2. Defend Our Rice! Farmer-scientist group condemns Golden Rice commercial propagation, calls on farmers and consumers to protest
by MASIPAG National Office
MASIPAG, July 23, 2021
https://masipag.org/2021/07/defend-our-rice-farmer-scientist-group-condemns-golden-rice-commercial-propagation-calls-on-farmers-and-consumers-to-protest/
Farmer-scientist organization Magsasaka at Siyentipiko Para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG) vehemently condemns the railroaded decision by the Department of Agriculture to commercially propagate Golden Rice and calls on small farmers and consumers across the country to mount protest against the said decision.
Not less than a year from the 60-day public comment period launched by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) to collate necessary feedback from the public, Department of Agriculture- Bureau of Plant Industry Director George Culaste hastily approved the permit for Golden Rice’ commercial propagation last July 21, 2021. With its magnitude and relevance to public interest, networks such as the Stop Golden Rice! Network Philippines (SGRN) highlighted the lack of independent, comprehensive, and substantial risk and impact assessments of the approval process and also the overall lack of transparency of GR’s proponents regarding its findings and reports.
Under the Joint Department Circular 1 of 2016 of the Department of Agriculture for the adoption of GM crops, application for the commercial propagation of Golden Rice must be assessed, reviewed, and approved by the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Health, and Department of Interior and Local Government. However, under different queries made by SGRN, no substantial review process and independent risk assessments to health, cultural and socio economic impact was made under the Joint Department Circular’s process.
MASIPAG asserts that there is no need for Golden Rice, more so, in the pandemic situation, maintains that malnutrition is primarily caused by lack of access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food due to poverty, inaccessibility, and the changing food production and consumption patterns as supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation’s report, State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. MASIPAG highlights that the promotion of a single-crop diet, as a band-aid solution to Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD), will follow the Green Revolution’s legacy of dominant crops destroying diet diversity and the destruction of farmlands due to extensive chemical inputs and monocropping. Golden Rice would also hasten the shift of farmers control of seeds to huge transnational corporations which to date are earning billions of dollars on the privatization of seeds.
Condemning the approval, MASIPAG National Coordinator Cris Panerio notes, “the billions spent on the Golden Rice project would have been put into better use if it was utilized for genuine support to diverse local production of food. It seems that the hasty approval of the Golden Rice commercial propagation permit is in tandem with the general trend of fast tracked approval and launching of different GM projects and researches being pushed by huge transnational corporations and philanthrocapitalists such as multi-billionaire Bill Gates who are behind the push for further corporatization of the global food systems”
“It is very disturbing, with the incoming UN Food Systems Summit, corporate interest attempts to dominate our farmlands and plates with profit-oriented produce. And small farmers, the urban poor, the women and children are bearing the brunt of the problem. We call on Dept of Agriculture Secretary William Dar to immediately junk the decision of the DA-BPI and heed the call of the small farmers and consumers. Time and again we are reminding the DA that rice is the country’s staple crop. Genetically modifying our staple food would put the health, food security and livelihoods of our farmers at grave risk. There is no gold in golden rice,” he adds.
On Monday, small farmers, consumers and sectoral groups will hold protest actions against the UNFSS which will start its three day pre-conference sessions on July 27, 2021 in Rome, Italy.