Protest unfair to Lorenzo

The "hunger strikers" now camped outside the Department of Agriculture are drawing a good number of curious onlookers. The motley group of perennial celebrity protestors are demanding that Secretary Luis "Cito" Lorenzo Jr. stop corn farmers from planting a high-yielding chemical-free variety that went through the process of biotechnology called Bt corn.

What makes the protest action attractive is not so much that singers like Heber Bartolome and famous running priest Robert Reyes are present, but that the target of the demand is novel as much as it is emotional. Biotechnology-processed food better known as GMOs have been the subject of intense and emotional debates internationally, even pitting the American Medical Association – which has backed the safety of GMOs – against its British counterpart.

Here, farmers who want to plant Bt corn will have to contend with the muscle of local NGOs backed by the experience and expertise of leading global anti-GMO campaigner Greenpeace.

An open debate on biotechnology, on GMOs and Bt corn is most welcome. Provided, of course, that the debate remains on the scientific level which is how it is being done in most parts of the world.

We feel, however, that the way the debate is unfolding here is turning out to be most unfair to Secretary Lorenzo who has become the target of anti-GMO groups.

It is unfair to him because the protest actions highlighted by "hunger strikes" have been timed with the scheduled hearings at the powerful Commission on Appointments for the confirmation of Lorenzo’s nomination to his post.

It is sad that a foreign group like Greenpeace should air threats to block Lorenzo’s confirmation if the latter does not bow to their demands.

The timing is also suspect because the scrutiny of Bt corn by the National Committee on Biosafety had been going on for the past three years, long before the appointment of Lorenzo as agriculture chief became a thought in the President’s head. This is unfortunate because we think the country could profit from a science-based debate. But timing the protest action to jeopardize Lorenzo’s confirmation reduces the debate to nothing but a political spectacle and an exercise in coercion.

The political assault on GMOs is also unfair to Lorenzo because Greenpeace and company are asking the Secretary to undo what he cannot. The go-ahead for farmers to plant Bt corn if they want to followed a three-year process democratically participated in by scientists and researchers. The whole process took place under the strict watch of former Secretary Leonardo Montemayor. Should Lorenzo unilaterally rescind the approval, farmers and the public can only conclude that the Secretary is out to save his skin at the cost of bigger harvests and higher earnings for them.

Our suggestion is for anti-GMO groups to wait till the CA has confirmed the designation of Lorenzo. Then, a healthy scientific debate can resume. By then, Lorenzo would not be beholden to any political block nor will he be under pressure from any political interest. His only commitment would be to science, to transparency and to the pressing need to address the country’s food shortage.

In that instance, anti-GMO groups could then put forward the strongest scientific argument against biotechnology, minus political theatrics and hysteria. The entire nation would only be too willing to listen.

In the end, science would triumph and – hopefully – we could all find a solution to world hunger

Did you know that…

At least 3,000 scientists from around the world have signed the Declaration in Support of Agricultural Biotechnology. This prestigious list now includes 20 Nobel Prize Winners as well as Dr. Patrick Moore, ecologist and co-founder of Greenpeace. According to Moore, "the campaign of fear now being waged against genetic modification is based largely on fantasy and a complete lack of respect for science and logic." The declaration states among other things that "in the balance it is clear that the real benefits of genetic modification far outweigh the hypothetical and sometimes contrived risks claimed by its detractors." Also included in the list is Dr. Norman Borlaug, who is credited with starting the Green Revolution in the mid-1960s and saving millions of lives from starvation.

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