MANILA : The Philippine bishops' bioethics office says it supports efforts to develop new rice strains to solve a rice shortage in Asia as long as these do not harm the environment.
Dominican Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi of Caceres told UCA News the Church will back the introduction of new rice strains if these will help feed over 1 billion malnourished Asians and Africans.
He said the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines was initially against genetically modified organisms (GMO) when the technology was "not yet so well defined."
The prelate noted "a gradual evolution" toward acceptance as it became apparent GMO offers food safety and security as well as environmental sustainability.
"Church opposition (to GMO) is no longer as strong" after a seminar on "Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context of Development" held by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences in Rome May 15-19, the bishop said in an interview Nov. 17.
The bishop's comments come as more than 700 scientists and agriculturalists discuss new rice strains at the 6th International Rice Genetics Symposium in Manila which runs from Nov. 16-19.
New strains are being developed to produce 50 million tons of rice by 2015 with no change in land cultivation, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) director general Robert Zeigler said at the symposium's opening.
The plight of over 1 billion people stricken with poverty, 70 percent of whom live in Asia and depend on rice as their staple food, is IRRI's "driving force for our research" the institute's head said. "As rice yields increase, the incidence of poverty decreases."
The IRRI is the largest non-profit agricultural research center in Asia, with headquarters in the Philippines and offices in 14 countries.
Its mission is to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure rice production is environmentally sustainable.
"The Catholic bishops' conference has never opposed IRRI programs because they are not considered harmful to the environment," Bishop Jose Rojas of Libmanan, another bioethics office member told UCA News.
"GMO involves genetic engineering where you introduce one or more DNA directly into the plant," David Mackill, IRRI Program Director of the Genetic and Biotechnology Division, told UCA News at the symposium.
He said IRRI does not conduct genetic engineering and works somewhat like farmers "who have been developing new crop varieties since the dawn of agriculture, but this time using new technology."
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