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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Friday, January 6, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Do beverages with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs)? A group of sugarcane planters in Negros Occidental suspects they do.
The Associacion de Agricultores de la Carlota y Pontevedra called attention of the provincial government to what they claimed as the continued sale of GMO-containing products despite Provincial Ordinance (PO) No. 7 series of 2007.
The ordinance prohibits the entry, introduction and importation of “genetically modified plant and animal products containing GMOs.”
“We are particularly referring to the sale and distribution of soft drinks and beverages containing high-fructose corn syrup, which are suspected to contain GMOs,” the association president Roberto Cuenca wrote Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr.
According to Cuenca, the distribution of such “GMO-laden products is a clear and present danger to the health and well-being of the inhabitants of Negros Occidental.”
“These likewise pose a very serious threat to the continued viability and sustainability of the local sugar industry,” he said. Companies producing these beverages import HFCS and “use [it] as substitute for sugar as sweetener.”
The process “replaces the demand for domestically produced sugar,” Cuenca said. “In effect, locally produced sugar is rejected in lieu of these imported, GMO-laden artificial sweetener.”
But he said they see hope with the strict enforcement of PO No. 7.
Section 3 prohibits the “entry, experimentation and field-testing, and planting/growing and selling/trading of genetically modified plants and animal products containing GMOs.”
Sale of products found to be containing GMOs should fall within this prohibition, said Cuenca.
A Multi-stakeholder Oversight Committee shall enforce the ordinance, and inspectors must be appointed to inspect and conduct tests on suspected GMO products, he said.
“Our association take this opportunity to acknowledge the wisdom of our Governor by [enforcing] Provincial Ordinance No. 7 series of 2007,” said Cuenca. “We are also [willing] to provide any assistance…relative to the campaign for a GMO-free Negros.”/PN
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