TIGblogs - Malcolm Lawrence

I wouldn’t exactly call myself an environmentalist but when some hotshot private corporation or any government entitites try to manipulate any food supply in liue of higher monetary gain, then I have a problem with that. I previously blogged about the “adding” of the chemical “melamine” in milk in China in my blog entitled “The Food Crisis: Adding Insult to Injury.” Now here comes another one – it’s in rice. I have encountered the term GMO (Genetically-Modified Organism) used in corn after a rough campaign by the school where I used to teach. The provincial government in Negros Occidental, Philippines, assured the public back in 2006 that no GM corn are shipped in the province. But last year, I read a news about it that some GM corn were said to have been found in one warehouse. It’s not hard to believe how something like that can pass through the government’s lenses, especially when graft and corruption is a major trade in some parts of the world. Really sad. Money over conviction. Money over Public Good.

Here comes another one – GM rice. I love rice and even my husband loved it. We have it in every meal. Heck, we even got ourselves a rice cooker here! Back home, “rice” was regular white long grained rice that was Php24.00 per kilo. Here, we get a 5 lb Jasmine rice called “Mahatma Jasmine” (Thai rice) at Food Lion for less than $7 and the 25 lb at Sam’s Club for like $17. The first few attempts we had of getting affordable rice was a disaster- low grade rice that never seemed to grow soft after 10 minutes of boiling. Now that we found the kind of rice we wanted (and smells good, too!), we are sticking to a kind we want. So basically, everybody can assume that I am very particular about my rice.

Greenpeace has been in the forefront about campaigning against GM (um..not General Motors). According to a Greenpeace report, Bayer (try to remember bug spray), a German company, has genetically-manipulated rice in order to withstand toxic doses of a pesticide called glufosinate. Well it’s toxic so it means that it’s harmful to living organisms. Since Bayer is based in Germany, naturally the European Union has a say whether they would agree to the import of GM rice. If they import GM rice, then farmers will plant GM rice. This means, in the near future, we would be eating GM rice, as they would now be available for sale in supermarkets everywhere.

So now you know why it’s very frustrating to make people understand that “better invention” doesn’t necessarily mean “better for humankind.” Okay, so Bible classes would tell us “go feed the poor” and the next thing we know we are doign a lot worse by feeding them GM rice. What is safe to eat then? And heck! What’s next?!?

You may go to this link for more information from Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering/hands-off-our-rice/hands-off-our-rice

Below is a concrete explanation of GM rice:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsxFZ0rUCoM[/youtube]