The Greenpeace on Friday lashed out at the Department of Agriculture for its alleged failure to monitor, Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn-planting sites that lack precautionary measures to prevent contamination of non-Bt corn crops.

At a press conference, Beau Baconguis, Greenpeace genetic engineering campaigner, said the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry does not monitor Bt corn fields in Isabela, Ilocos Norte, Bukidnon and South Cotabato, so there is a high risk of contamination.

'The [agriculture department] really has no plans to monitor them, [the agriculture officials] should have regulated the planting like providing precautionary measures. The Bt corn fields should have also been isolated from other non-Bt corn fields," she said.

Baconguis said Bt corn planting sites in the US are situated in isolated areas and there are even open spaces around the fields.

"The contamination potential is very high because the Bt corn-planting sites in the country are located side by side with non-Bt corn crops," Baconguis said.

Environmental groups have been urging the agriculture department to stop the commercialization of Bt corn, saying the genetically modified corn is harmful to health and the environment.

The commercialization of Bt corn was approved in December last year despite protest by activists some of whom held a hunger strike for almost a month in front of the agriculture department's main office in Quezon City. 

The activists claim the genetically modified organism creates its own toxins, the Bacillus thuringiensis, to make the corn resilient to pest and other plant disease like corn borer.

They said Bt corn consumption could increase the risk of stomach and colon cancers and hasten the growth of malignant cancer.