The Court of Appeals recently struck a blow to genetically modified (GM) crops in the Philippines by its decision to stop field trials for Bt talong (eggplant). Bt comes from “Bacillus thuringiensis,” a common soil microorganism that has been used for decades as bacterial suspension spray to control insects in vegetables.
It is naturally present in the Philippine soil and had been in use for years without any harmful effects.
“Contrary to the baseless allegations of the petitioners, Bt eggplant is potentially the best environmentally friendly technology for eggplant production,” former Science Secretary Emil Q. Javier said in reaction to the petition filed before the Supreme Court last year.
Excessive use of insecticides in eggplant farms is an urgent concern that calls for a safer alternative, according to Dr. Emiliana Bernardo, a member of the Department of Agriculture’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel which reviews and assesses the safety of gene modified foods such as Bt eggplant and Bt corn.
The eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB) has been cited as the most destructive insect pest. Scientifically, it is called “Leucinodes orbonalis,” a moth specie prevalent in Asia and Africa. The moths’ larvae feed on eggplant shoots and fruits until maturity.
“The EFSB can cause as much as 50-75 percent loss of fruits,” said Dr. Javier, who is the president of the National Academy of Science and Technology. “The worm of the insect bore tunnels in the fruit, rendering them unfit for consumption.”
Unfortunately, there is no known genetic resistance to EFSB in cultivated and wild eggplants. “The insects are concealed in the shoots and fruits and are difficult to reach,” Dr. Javier explained. “Thus in order to protect their crops, farmers spray their plants almost every other day with insecticides.”
The current methods used by some eggplant growers in controlling the fruit and shoot borer are unacceptable, said Dr. Bernardo, an entomologist or a scientist who studies insects.
Many eggplant farmers spray chemical insecticides every other day, or up to 80 times per growing season to control fruit and shoot borer infestation in their farms, she pointed out.
The practice is unacceptable and unhealthy to consumers, farmers and the environment, said Bernardo who is also a member of the Institutional Biosafety Committee of the University of the Philippines Los Baños for the multi-location field trial of Bt eggplant in the university.
She said studies conducted in major eggplant producing provinces found that almost all farmers use chemical insecticides and that some even dip the unharvested eggplant fruits in a mix of chemicals just to ensure that harvests are marketable.
“The very basic question is, which is safer, the present practice or the alternative, the Bt eggplant which is rigorously evaluated by experts?” she asked. “Is bathing the unharvested eggplant fruits in chemicals, which would end up in dinner tables of people, safe?”
“Bt talong was developed by genetically engineering a gene from the bacteria so that the GM eggplants now produce a protein that defends it against insect attacks,” explains Dr. Michael Purugganan, a Filipino plant geneticist.
“The recent Court of Appeals decision stops this scientific research, halting the university field experiments.”
At the heart of this court ruling is a public perception that biotech crops are intrinsically bad. “Yet these crops have been around for more than two decades,” contends Dr. Purugganan, who is the Dean of Science at the New York University, in an article which appeared in GMA News Online.
In 2010, 66 million hectares of land in the United States was planted with biotech crops, including corn, soybean, squash and papaya. Eighty-five percent of corn and 90 percent of soybeans that are planted in the US are genetically engineered.
“Americans have been consuming GM foods for nearly 20 years, and there have been no reported health issues,” Dr. Purugganan says.
He said that scientific studies always have to be done to make sure that specific GM crops provide real benefits and are safe. “It is important that we do that,” he says. “And GM crops, which usually involve inserting a handful of genes, are among the most heavily tested crops in the world.
“In contrast,” he cautions, “new plant varieties you buy from your local farm supply store or garden shop have not been extensively studied, and we have absolutely no idea what the hundreds of thousands of mutations found in conventionally bred crop varieties are really doing.”
“If the naysayers do manage to stop agricultural biotechnology, they might actually precipitate the famines and the crisis of global biodiversity they have been predicting for nearly 40 years,” Dr. Norman Ernest Borlaug said of those people, for political and ideological reasons, oppose modern innovation in agriculture.
Dr. Borlaug was an American agronomist and humanitarian who had been called “the father of the Green Revolution” and “The Man Who Saved A Billion Lives.” In 1970, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply.
Years before he died in 2009, he issued this statement: “I now say that the world has the technology (referring to biotechnology) to feed on a sustainable basis a population of 10 billion people. The more pertinent question today is whether farmers and ranchers are allowed this new technology?”
Your answer is as good as mine.
