Congress panel probing into health threats of another GMO, BT eggplant

THE Congressional Committee on Agriculture and Food is investigating in aid of legislation the field test of BT eggplant, a genetically modified vegetable reportedly causing health risks and allegedly intended for commercial release in the country this year.

The resolution directing the committee to probe was introduced in August 2010 by Bayan Muna Patry-List Reps.Teddy Casiño and Neri Javier Colmenares and Anakpawis Party-List Rep. Rafael Mariano. The resolution says the field test of Bt eggplant runs counter to Section 3(b) of Republic Act 10068 or the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, which excludes genetically modified organisms in the use of biotechnology in the country.

Bt eggplant is considered a genetically modified organism (GMO) because the toxin-producing germ Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is embedded into the eggplant, causing the vegetable to resist the pest Fruit and Shoot Borer.

“The Bt eggplant is a GMO designed to produce an insecticide in order to fight insects,” the resolution says. “This insecticide is present in the whole plant and concentrated in the fruit.”

Bt eggplant was introduced in the Philippines for field testing by Maharastra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco). This company is affiliated with Monsanto, the US-based biotechnology company that introduced Bt corn in the country. Bt corn was introduced for field testing in 1999 and was approved for commercial production in the country in 2006 despite protests from anti-GMO activists and reports and congressional resolutions questioning its safety.

Mahyco also conducted field tests of Bt eggplant in India. But on February 9, 2010, India’s minister of environment and forests suspended the distribution and commercialization of Bt eggplants because the laboratory animals fed with this GM vegetable were found suffering from stomach, blood, liver and heart diseases.

The Indian government was also wary that Bt eggplant could contaminate indigenous eggplant varieties because eggplant is a cross-pollinator.

“The Bt eggplant in India was the one crossed with the Philippine eggplant varieties Dumaguete Long Purple and Mara,” according to the resolution.

In early August this year, the organization Consumer Rights for Safe Food (CRSF), which the Office of the President recently appointed as member of the National Consumer Affairs Council, has raised safety issues on Bt eggplant before the Committee on Agriculture and Food.

In its position paper submitted to the committee, CRSF said they “noticed that the biosafety rules required by the government with regard to Bt eggplant all have to do with environmental risks. There are absolutely no experiments and [that they] do not hear of any plan to test whether Bt eggplant is safe for human consumption before its commercialization.”

CRSF also said that the Indian government asked the group of researchers led by Prof. Gilles-Eric Seralini of the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering of France to review Mahayco’s study on Bt eggplant. The group, CRSF said, reported that the release of Bt eggplant “may present a serious risk for human and animal health and this should be forbidden.”

Currently, the country has no law on liability and redress resulting from the ill effects of GMOs. –Claire Mercado, Writer-Researcher, Manila Times