{"id":92,"date":"2025-08-09T05:23:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T05:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/?p=92"},"modified":"2025-08-09T05:23:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T05:23:38","slug":"ban-golden-rice-ban-gmos-toward-a-people-led-biosafety-framework-and-genuine-food-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/2025\/08\/09\/ban-golden-rice-ban-gmos-toward-a-people-led-biosafety-framework-and-genuine-food-sovereignty\/","title":{"rendered":"BAN GOLDEN RICE, BAN GMOs: TOWARD A PEOPLE-LED BIOSAFETY FRAMEWORK AND GENUINE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu, Nepal, August 8, &#8220;MASIPAG and Stop Golden Rice Network once again register our collective resistance to corporate-led genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their growing encroachment on our farms, seeds, and food systems. This day is not simply a remembrance of the historic action of more than 400 farmers in Bicol that decisively uprooted the highly dangerous Golden Rice in their community, but a continuation of a movement that asserts the right of the people to define and control their own food and agriculture.<br \/>\nThe struggle against Golden Rice is part of a larger movement for food sovereignty, ecological justice, and national dignity. We believe that science and technology must serve the people, not the profits of a few. We believe that knowledge and seeds must remain in the hands of those who feed the nation. We believe that our future lies not in laboratories owned by corporations, but in the fields cultivated by farmers, the wisdom of communities, and the collective defense of our right to define our food  and agriculture systems.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On this 12th International Day of Action Against Golden Rice, MASIPAG and Stop Golden Rice Network once again register our collective resistance to corporate-led genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their growing encroachment on our farms, seeds, and food systems. This day is not simply a remembrance of the historic action of more than 400 farmers in Bicol that decisively uprooted the highly dangerous Golden Rice in their community, but a continuation of a movement that asserts the right of the people to define and control their own food and agriculture.<br \/>\nGolden Rice, which has long been promoted as a technofix solution to the deeply rooted problem of malnutrition, represents more than just a single genetically engineered crop. It is emblematic of a broader strategy that displaces community-based and farmer-led solutions in favor of top-down, profit-driven interventions. The development and promotion of Golden Rice are tied to a global architecture of control that privileges corporate patents and scientific monopolies over local knowledge, biodiversity, and farmer autonomy.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/PAN-300x174.png\" alt=\"\" \nIn the Philippines, this imposition was made possible by a deeply compromised biosafety system. The regulatory process that should have ensured rigorous scientific evaluation and public accountability has, instead, consistently prioritized the interests of biotech corporations and their institutional backers. Rather than serving as a safeguard for ecological integrity and public health, biosafety in the Philippines has functioned as a mechanism for facilitating the entry of GMOs into our fields and food systems. Risk assessments are conducted by institutions with clear interests in promoting genetic engineering, while affected communities are excluded from meaningful and serious participation. This system cannot be considered credible if it systematically favors approval over precaution, and if it silences the very stakeholders whose lives are most affected by these technologies.\nThe Philippine Court of Appeals\u2019 decision in April 2024 to revoke the biosafety permit for the commercial propagation of Golden Rice was a significant and hard-fought legal milestone. The ruling affirmed what many in the scientific and farming communities have long argued: that the state failed to ensure that proper, independent, and participatory risk assessments were conducted. This decision also exposed the structural flaws of the current biosafety regime, which lacks transparency, coherence, and democratic accountability.\nYet despite the clear legal ruling, Golden Rice continues to be actively promoted by various government institutions, both in policy and in practice. Promotional campaigns, official statements, and selling and display in public markets and government-led fairs suggest a blatant disregard for the court\u2019s decision and the public will. This reveals not only the weakness of our regulatory enforcement but also the deep entrenchment of GMO interests within state agencies. Instead of aligning with the precautionary principle, these actions undermine the legitimacy of our democratic institutions and endanger public health and ecological sustainability.\nGlobally, the situation reflects a similar pattern. While international instruments such as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety recognize the right of countries to regulate GMOs, the practical implementation of such safeguards remains weak and fragmented. The influence of powerful multinational corporations, coupled with the increasing complexity of new genetic engineering techniques such as gene editing, has made it difficult for communities to assert meaningful control over biosafety decisions. As a result, public regulatory institutions often serve the needs of industry rather than those of the people.\nThe continued advancement of Golden Rice and other GMOs diverts attention and resources away from systemic solutions to hunger and malnutrition. Issues such as landlessness, declining public support for sustainable agriculture, and lack of access to diverse, nutrient-rich food are sidelined in favor of technical quick-fixes. In contrast, farmer-led agroecology, seed saving, and community-based nutrition programs have demonstrated their effectiveness in addressing both food insecurity and ecological degradation.\nIt is in this context that MASIPAG and Stop Golden Rice Network demand the genuine banning of Golden Rice and all genetically modified crops and products in the Philippines. We call for the immediate overhaul of the current biosafety framework and its replacement with one that genuinely serves the interests of the public. A people-led biosafety system must be grounded in the precautionary principle, rooted in democratic participation, and guided by independent science free from corporate influence.\nOn this occasion, we assert the need to once and for all genuinely ban Golden Rice and all GMOs and gene-edited crops in agriculture and food systems. End the collusion between regulatory agencies and corporate biotech interests. Build a people-led biosafety system that upholds transparency, scientific independence, and the precautionary principle and likewise, invest in farmer-led agroecology as long-term solutions to hunger, malnutrition, and climate instability.\nThe struggle against Golden Rice is part of a larger movement for food sovereignty, ecological justice, and national dignity. We believe that science and technology must serve the people, not the profits of a few. We believe that knowledge and seeds must remain in the hands of those who feed the nation. We believe that our future lies not in laboratories owned by corporations, but in the fields cultivated by farmers, the wisdom of communities, and the collective defense of our right to define our food and agriculture systems.\n\nWe stand for biosafety that protects, not profits.\nBan Golden Ric! Ban GMOs!\nResources\nFor reference: \nEliseo Ruzol Jr. \nAdvocacy Officer \nMASIPAG National Secretariat Email: advocacy2018@gmail.com \/ info@masipag.org\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu, Nepal, August 8, &#8220;MASIPAG and Stop Golden Rice Network once again register our collective resistance to corporate-led genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their growing encroachment on our farms, seeds, and food systems. This day is not simply a remembrance of the historic action of more than 400 farmers in Bicol that decisively uprooted the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-opinion","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}