‘Miss, Extra (GMO-Free) Rice, Please’

RP’s top food chains join movement to protect staple food

MANILA, 27 August 08–The country’s top food establishments have teamed up with Greenpeace to protect rice, the Philippines’ most important staple food, from the threats of GMOs (genetically-modified organisms.)

The ‘GMO-free rice restaurants’ campaign, launched today at Fish and Co. restaurant in Ortigas Center, aims to gather the commitment of restaurants around the country to serve only GMO-free rice. The project is part of Greenpeace’s ‘I love my rice GMO-free’ campaign, a public movement to keep the country’s rice supply free from genetic contamination. Fish and Co. is part of the Bistro Group of Companies, among the first to sign on its popular restaurant outlets, including Italiani’s, TGI Friday’s and Flapjacks, to the environmental campaign.

“Rice is our country’s most important food and is an integral part of our life and culture. But few Filipinos are aware that our staple food is in danger of GMO contamination. The restaurant campaign we are launching today is not only an awareness drive to involve the public in the movement to keep our rice GMO-free. It also serves to assure consumers that the rice they are eating is free from these risky organisms which pose serious threats to biodiversity, farmers’ livelihoods and human health,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Genetic Engineering Campaigner Daniel Ocampo.

“The Bistro Group recognizes the importance of protecting the country’s rice supply from GMO contamination and is proud to be the first to sign onto such a project led by Greenpeace. Our participation is consistent with our Going Green initiatives and our company’s people-centered philosophy, and our commitment extends beyond this campaign, toward to conserving and preserving our environment,” said Lisa Ronquillo, Bistro Group Marketing Director.

Aside from pledging to serve only GMO-free rice, the Bistro Group has committed to display ‘I love my rice GMO-free’ posters in all their 27 outlets and distribute campaign brochures as part of the awareness drive. For the press conference, the food company served representative rice dishes from each of their five restaurant branches.

Greenpeace will be launching similar initiatives with other leading restaurants in the next few weeks.

Greenpeace campaigns for GMO-free crop and food production that is grounded in the principles of sustainability, protection of biodiversity and providing all people access to safe and nutritious food. Genetic engineering is an unnecessary and unwanted technology that contaminates the environment, threatens biodiversity and poses unacceptable risks to health.

Notes:
GMOs are plants or animals whose DNA have been manipulated to accommodate genes from entirely different species, such as a rice crop inserted with genes from a bacteria or an animal. They are entirely different from crop varieties developed through conventional cross breeding techniques. Because governments recognize the dangers of GMOs, these crops are highly regulated.

Genetic manipulation is an imprecise and risky process. Aside from the fact that the resulting genetically modified organisms would never occur in the natural world, the new organism created is a living experiment–its long term effects on the environment, on soil and on biodiversity, are unknown. GMO food crops also pose risks to health and no long term health studies have ever been conducted. And because these crops are controlled by giant seed companies, they threaten the livelihood of farmers whose crops are in danger of being contaminated by GMO varieties.

Greenpeace has been at the forefront of the campaign to prevent the release of GMOs into the environment. Last year, the environment group launched the ‘I love my rice GMO-free’ campaign. No GMO rice has is approved for human consumption or propagation in the Philippines, but GMO rice from the United States have slipped into the country at least twice, despite measures by the National Food Authority to ensure that US rice imports are GMO-free. At present, an application for the approval of a GMO rice variety is lodged at the Department of Agriculture. If the application is approved, the Philippines may become a dumping ground of GMO rice rejected by other countries. (Greenpeace/pinoypress.net)