GMO Free Negros members on Friday, Nov. 21, reiterated their opposition to a proposed ordinance pending before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan that would allow the entry of genetically modified organisms into Negros Occidental.
The group aired their opposition at a press conference held at the Terra Madre Asia and Pacific (TMAP) street food exhibition area at the North Capitol Road in Bacolod City.
Andrea Lizares Si, a GMO Free Negros member, said they felt it was a good opportunity to campaign against GMO at the TMAP.
“As we have heard from the governor they have set aside the pending ordinance for regulation of GMO until after Terra Madre. We think it will be a big shame if after Terra Madre, the National Organic Congress, and the provincial organic fair that we are going to have GMO after all,” she said.
“It’s like we are reversing all the work of 19 years without GMO,” she said.
One of the reasons why Terra Madre is in the province is because Negros is GMO free, and a leader in organic agriculture, Si said.
“We cannot combine GMO and organic agriculture,” she said, pointing out that “GMO will poison the soil”.
The people need healthy food, she stressed.
“Modern agriculture must be sustainable, we need to protect the earth,” Si said.
Si was joined at the press conference by Bobby Magalona of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Negros Occidental, Chito Medina of Masipag and Ruth Gamboa of the Negrosanon Initiative for Climate and the Environment.
They said the entry of GMO into Negros Occidental will threaten biodiversity and soil health, harm small farmers with corporate dependence, risk contamination of organic farms, endanger the province’s identity as an Organic Food Island, and violate the right to safe, sustainable food.*