Sustainability in the Midst of Crisis

Corn farmers husking their Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) harvest. Photo taken from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications.

“It is the government’s responsibility to create an immediate response without sacrificing the survival of its constituents in the long run.”

Corn farmers husking their Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) harvest. Photo taken from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications

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Despite being a largely agricultural country, the Philippines remains to suffer from serious food insecurity, a situation born from the government’s increasing apathy towards agricultural science and research. What the government fails to realize is that the value of these research to farmers and consumers does not merely lie in their understanding of its science; its value lies far greater in its applications to solving the pre-existing problems they are facing.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, food-insecure people are those whose food intake and access are inadequate over time thus having a higher risk of worsening health status. In 2017 - 2019, the Philippines recorded the most number of food-insecure people in Southeast Asia with 59 million Filipinos suffering from a lack of consistent access to food. One of the factors causing this is the amount of food physically available.

With a lack of access, food security is further impaired by pests as it is one of the main reasons for food shortages. Corn, considered one of the most important crops in the Philippines, has been incurring great yield losses over the past decades due to pests. As cited by the Asia-Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology and Bioresources, the Asian Corn Borer (Ostrinia furnacalis Guenee) is considered the most destructive pest of maize in the Philippines incurring yield losses of 30-100%. In response, scientists developed the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn.

Bt corn is an example of a Genetically Modified Organism or GMO - living organisms whose genetic material has been modified through genetic engineering. It was introduced to the country in 1996 and after the concluding field trials approved by the National Committee on Food Safety, the Department of Agriculture approved its commercial distribution specifically maize line MON810 or YieldgardTM in 2002. By introducing strains of Bt, the corn was able to produce Cry1Ab delta-endotoxin which confers resistance to lepidopteran insects.

As a result, research has shown that Bt corn farms had a yield advantage of over 34% over non-Bt farms with a high of 37% in Camarines Sur and South Cotabato. The average yield of Bt corn farms was 4,850 kg/ha as compared to only 3,610 kg/ha for the non-users. However, factors such as favorable growing conditions and locations should also be taken into consideration.

Investing in such research is a great help in increasing yield and production. Besides, it is beneficial not only for addressing food shortages but also for sustaining the needs of industries as well.

Moreover, food security is not merely an issue of food availability. The goal of eradicating food insecurity is not only to provide sustenance for the people but also to ensure that they can get adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals for proper nutrition. Through further research in common food crops in the country, there has been significant progress in enhancing the nutritional content of crops and products such as in the case of Golden Rice.

Golden Rice is a new type of rice that was genetically modified to biosynthesize beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A. According to the International Rice Research Institute, Golden Rice can be grown just like ordinary rice varieties and is not different in terms of yield and agronomic performance. This GMO is intended to supply up to 30–50 percent of the estimated average requirement for vitamin A for preschool-age children and pregnant or lactating mothers to aid in combating vitamin A deficiency.

The GMO has already received three successive positive food safety evaluations from Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Health Canada, and the United States Food and Drug Administration way back in 2018.

Currently, Golden Rice regulatory applications are under review in the Philippines and Bangladesh and are awaiting the necessary permits before being made available to the public.

By genetically enhancing a staple food source, we will be able to address nutritional problems at a wider scale. This creates a viable solution to one of the goals of food security.

However, these developments in biotechnology are at a high risk of being capitalized. These could create tighter competition between small, local farms and large biotech corporations.

Recently, anti-biotech groups have been leading rallies to stop the commercialization of Golden Rice, even going so far as to link the product with COVID-19. According to Cris Panerio, national coordinator of farmer-scientist group MASIPAG:

“The pandemic exposed what we feared a long time ago – that our food system has become so flawed and weak, it will inevitably fail to sustain our needs. … There are enough reasons to safely conclude that multinational corporations are exploiting the dire situation of our food system during COVID-19 as a pretext for further greedy gains.”

Although the push for Golden Rice commercialization has been in process way before the pandemic happened.

In this regard, it becomes even more imperative for the government to take action and invest in the research and distribution of these technologies to smaller businesses. Furthermore, the need for laws and programs that seek to moderate and supervise the commercialization of these products is essential.

For most citizens in the country, food is a struggle of now or never, surviving on a day-to-day basis. The COVID - 19 pandemic poses a serious threat to the food security and nutrition of the country. It is the government’s responsibility to create an immediate response without sacrificing the survival of its citizens in the long run.

During these times of uncertainty, it is vital that the government invest not in band-aid solutions but in programs and agrarian reforms that are centered on the welfare of all its citizens be it the consumers or farmers. Dismissing the benefits of these scientific innovations is irresponsible. It is not enough that we simply provide for the needs of today, as long as the government remains indifferent or even oppositional to these developments, we will not be able to move forward towards a more sustainable tomorrow.