SUNS  4318 Friday 6 November 1998


PHILIPPINES: 'MUTANT' FOOD NOT JUST A FIRST-WORLD CONCERN

Manila, Nov 5 (IPS/Johanna Son) -- "Genetically altered food" sounds alien to many in a developing country like the Philippines, but local activists say these products are already finding their way to Filipino dining tables.

This is because the Philippines is a heavy importer of common products or food ingredients like soybean and corn, which often come from industrialised countries that make them with genetically altered products, says a study by the Manila-based South-east Regional Institute for Community Education (SEARICE).

In short, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), altered often to make agricultural crops resistant to herbicides and viruses, are no longer just first-world products of concern only to developed country markets, it says.

Likewise, their health risks are no longer the preoccupation only of wealthy consumers, SEARICE argues.

"We have every reason to worry that GMOs are already in Philippine soil and in all probability, in our tables," said the SEARICE study, released last week. "We have to realise that the impact of genetic engineering has gone beyond theoretical but has become a reality, a frightening one."

The SEARICE study found little formal statistical data on GMOs in the Philipines. But it reached its conclusions on the entry of GMOs or products using GMOs by extrapolating data from the size of areas planted to genetically altered crops in exporting countries like the United States, Argentina and Australia.

"The Philippines is a gross importer of soybeans, corn/maize, cotton and to a more limited extent tobacco and potato -- agricultural crops that are principally targetted for genetic engineering," the SEARICE report noted.

It says "a sizable percentage of these crops come from countries that have allowed the commercial cultivation of GMOs -- countries that are major trading partners of the Philippines".

Going by data that 30% of total soybean acreage in the U.S. is planted to transgenic soybean, SEARICE deduced that some 20% of soybeans imported from the U.S. in 1997 were likely to be genetically engineered.

Soybean is said to be present in 60% of processed foods eaten everyday. Locally, it is manufactured into soybean milk, infant formula, tofu and soy sauce. The U.S. is the world's largest soybean exporter.

SEARICE estimated that 10,000 out of some 105,000 metric tonnes of corn that the Philippines imported from the U.S. -- including corn flour, unmilled corn and corn seeds for planting -- could have been transgenic corn made resistant to insects.

The proportion of transgenic corn that the country gets from the U.S. is expected to triple in 1998, with growth in land area in the U.S. planted to transgenic corn. Imported corn is used in making snack food, cooking oil and animal feed.

Apart from the dearth of clear data on imports of products with GMOs, the study found scant awareness about GMOs and the issues surrounding them among the government, companies and consumers.

The Philippines also does not have policy or regulations on the commercial production and marketing of GMOs and genetically altered food.

Local importers of agricultural products were reluctant to respond to a SEARICE questionnaire asking whether they were aware of genetic engineering in food crops, or whether they were sure their imports did not have transgenic components.

Of 20 chief executive officers of local firms importing cotton, tobacco, corn and potato, only eight responded. Four said they were aware the crops they were involved with were being genetically
engineered in some exporting countries. Of these, three said they do not import transgenic products.

What the Philippines has are policy guidelines on local research into genetic engineering, but SEARICE says this is not the likeliest source of GMOs' entry, but from imports.

While the scale of entry of GMOs is far behind those of richer countries, experts say it is not too early to prepare policy to deal with transgenic crops -- especially with the lack of global rules on
the research, commercialisation, and trade in such products.

For starters, SEARICE suggests the Philippines declare a moratorium on the entry of GMOs until international rules are clarified.

The spread of GMOs has alrady become controversial not only in the U.S. but in Europe and Japan. Europe, which had earlier denied entry to imported soybeans from the U.S., recently passed a directive requiring the labelling of GMOs. Under consumer pressure, Japan is discussing labelling rules.

While crops are genetically altered supposedly to improve yields or make them resistant, experts warn the transfer and of genes across species is bound to have harmful effects on health.

Some of these effects range from alleries to hypersensitivity, and genetic engineering has been linked by some to the revival of drug-resistant diseases.

The health risks are not something Filipinos should toy around with, says Romeo Quijano, pharmacology professor at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine.

"Genetically engineered foods are hazardous commodities," he said. They "have not undergone sufficient toxicologic evaluation and there are studies indicating that there are significant health risks involved in genetic engineering technology."