Philippines: Victory for small farmers

Source: GM Freeze

"Today marks a significant victory for the Filipino farmers and people, as well as advocates of food sovereignty worldwide," announced the MASIPAG network in April, as the Philippine Supreme Court ordered a halt to the commercial release of GM rice and aubergines in the country.

MASIPAG is a farmer-led network of organisations and scientists that has been at the forefront of the Philippine battle against Golden Rice, a GM rice variety with patents owned by the Swiss-based Syngenta Group. This pan-Asia network of more than 30 organisations leads the Asian fight against Golden Rice and "the onslaught of corporate control in food and agriculture."

MASIPAG has grown to represent over 30,000 farmers, 41 NGO partners, Church-based development organisations, and 15 scientists committed to working collectively toward increased farmer control of genetic and biological resources, agricultural production. 20 Church-based development organisations are part of the Masipag Network, including Columban missionaries in the Philippines.

Golden Rice has been under development for more than two decades and, despite "messianic promises" of solving Vitamin A deficiency among children in poor countries has thus far failed to penetrate markets. The Temporary Environmental Protection Order secured by the twelve petitioners (which include MASIPAG and Greenpeace Philippines) includes the requirement to of authorities to "obtain the prior and informed consent of farmers and indigenous peoples, and implement liability mechanisms in case of damage, as required by law."

Greenpeace Philippines stressed the importance of healthy, balanced diets, and said, "in the face of the climate emergency, we… need resilient food and farm systems grounded on ecological farming principles, rather than climate-harmful industrial agriculture."

Links:

www.gmfreeze.org/

Connecting Food and Faith - article by Ellen Teague: https://columbans.co.uk/justice-peace/12258/connecting-food-and-faith/