American joins hunger strike vs genetically modified corn

BAGUIO CITY — Twenty-nine-year-old American Andrew Haralam trekked to this city not for a vacation, but for a "cause."

For four days now, Haralam has been consuming only mango juice and water in a hunger strike at the People’s Park here against the Bt corn, a genetically engineered corn variety marketed by US firm Monsanto.

"This is something I believe in," said the former US Peace Corps environmental volunteer and an employee of an American bank, which handled accounts of multinationals.

"I came to a point where I realized that I am not really helping anyone, except our clients who are already rich to begin with," he said.

Haralam arrived in the country on Feb. 7 last year and met with environmentalist Roberto Verzola, who himself has been on hunger strike against Bt corn for more than two weeks now in front of the Department of Agriculture in Quezon City.

He claimed that corn farmers in the US "have been having problems with GMOs (genetically modified organisms)."

"Luckily for them, they have been bailed out by our government through market subsidies," he said. "As an American, I am protesting the introduction of Bt corn in the Philippines to send a message to my government."

His message to Monsanto: "Please do not contaminate this beautiful land with poison, either with the chemical or the genetically engineered variety."

Verzola, along with his three fellow hunger strikers at the DA, has pressed for a halt to the propagation and commercialization of Bt corn, a variety engineered with the Bacillus thurigiensis gene, pending further tests on the risks it poses to people’s health and the environment.