This is following the statement issued by Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor to review the draft administrative order (AO) prepared by then Agriculture secretary Edgardo J. Angara on the commercial production of food and food products using modern biotechnology.

The farmers are asking the DA to stop the field testings being conducted in about 10 sites around the country, claiming that the use of modern biotechnology will not address the administration's concern on food security.

Commerciality has always been the target of those companies undertaking the field testings. We had discussions with Sec. Montemayor last February about the field testings, but nothing happened. What actually happened is that the field testings are now multi- locational whereas before it was confined in one area," Manny Yap, executive director of the Magsasaka at Siyentipiko Para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG), said in a telephone interview.

MASIPAG is an umbrella organization of some 100 farmers groups, composed of farmers and scientists advocating the use of organic farming.f

Mr. Yap said the DA should immediately stop field experiments for Bt corn because of uncertainties about its safety.

Bt corn is developed to resist a particular pest. But that kind of approach of controlling the pest problem is just a temporal solution. It will even create another problem because the level of toxin in every plant will increase in the long run. You will affect other farmers who do not adopt that same approach," he said.

Bt corn contains a gene from a soil-based bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, which is deadly to the Asiatic corn borer, considered the corn industry's most problematic pest. The cultivation of Bt corn is seen to slash the production cost of corn farmers since it will cut their use of traditional pesticide sprays.

But the farmers claimed that this is not the case because in the long run the price of the seed will increase.

They cannot reason to us that we have to use modern biotechnology because the population is growing. The farmers have the ability to produce much more than what they are producing now. The only problem is that the price of corn is distorted because of the entry of cheap corn. The price of the product does not reflect the true cost of the production," Mr. Yap said.