1.EC proposes compulsory rice testing
2.Farmers' group wants US rice imports banned
3.Bilar goes back to traditional rice
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1.EC proposes compulsory rice testing
Food Navigator, 19/10/2006 [shortened]
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?n=71419-biotech-gm-rice

The EC is set to ask food safety experts to impose compulsory tests on all US long-grain rice imports to prove the absence of illegal biotech strains.

According to Reuters, the European Commission will table a decision imposing mandatory counter testing for unauthorised genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in all imports of US long-grain rice, at the Standing Committee on the Food Chain next Monday.

If the experts accept the Commission's proposal, tests will be carried out on cargoes arriving at EU ports - at the expense of the exporter.

This follows the discovery in August by US authorities that an unauthorised GMO, LL Rice 601, had been found in samples of commercial US rice. No GM rice is allowed to be grown or sold within the EU.

The EC swiftly adopted a decision requiring imports of long grain rice to be certified as free from the unauthorised rice.

The stringent procedures have already had an impact on US farmers, for whom the EU is a key market. The EU imports approximately 20,000 tons of long grain husked, semi-milled and wholly-milled rice from the USA per month on average...

Strict limits placed on US rice imports have led to a dramatic fall in the price of US rice.

Earlier this month, the Commission set a 15-day period for negotiating a common sampling protocol with US authorities to detect the GM rice strain, which has turned up in the food chains of at least nine EU countries in the last two months.
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2.Farmers' group wants rice import banned
The SunStar, October 12 2006 http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dum/2006/10/12/news/farmers.group.wants.rice.import.banned.html

By Victor L. Camion

A FARMERS' group in Negros Oriental urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to ban rice imports from the US to protect the local rice farmers and safeguard Filipino consumers from the alleged contaminated and genetically engineered rice variety.

The variety of the imported rice is called LibertyLinkRice601 (LLRice601), said Eugene Quirante, regional liaison officer of Centro Saka Inc.

Centro Saka Inc. is a research and policy advocacy and a non-government organization accredited by the National Research Institute of the Department of Agriculture.

Quirante said farmers want the ban imposed after the United States Department of Agriculture found that commercial long grain rice in the US has been contaminated by the unapproved genetically engineered (GE) LLRice601 rice variety.

He said traces of the illegal genetically modified rice have been found in supermarkets in European countries and the United Kingdom.

"As a result, Japan banned all long-grain rice from the US, while the European Union now tests US rice shipments and rejects any rice imports contaminated with LLRice601," said Quirante.

LLRice 601, he said, is a long grain of rice that containing the protein Liberty Link that allows the crop to withstand herbicide applications.

"Imported rice, especially genetically modified (GM) rice from the United States, should be banned from entering our country to prevent contamination of our crops," warned Quirante adding, "If the European countries and the United Kingdom were not spared from the contamination, then we are also at risk from possible contamination since the United States has been dumping their rice into our country through the PL 480 grant!"

He said Centro Saka demands that government impose stricter measures in testing and monitoring shipments of all imported rice from the US and other countries to ensure that local rice varieties and species would be spared from possible contamination.

"The Department of Agriculture should protect our local rice farmers from the risks of GE rice," he said adding, "We should not allow this to happen to our already beleaguered local rice industry."

Quirante stressed that the contamination of GE rice has been causing massive problems for the US rice industry.
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3.Bilar goes back to traditional rice
by Rey Anthony Chiu
Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Press Release, 19 October 2006
http://www.pia.gov.ph/default.asp?m=12&sec=news&r=&y=&mo=&fi=p061019.htm&no=43

Tagbilaran City (19 October) -- TAKING conservation a step further, farmers of Bilar, Bohol have institutionalized its rice tradition by crafting the first ever Bilar Rice Heritage by legislative act in a move to go back to the basics and protect its heritage.

The Rice Festival is an opportunity for our farmers to show off and share their experiences, skills and materials, explains Jean Yasol of Searice, a non government organization building capacities of farmers here. Searice empower, teach and assist farmers in seed selection and in developing new varieties Yasol explained.

The step also grounds the provincial stand opposing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the proliferation of modern rice varieties that appear to be productive but bears on the farmer’s pockets and the environment.

During a Farmers' Rights Forum expounding on the sustainable community based initiatives as expressions of farmers' rights, Visayas and Mindanao farmers gathered at the MetroCenter Hotel here October 18 to listen to best practices in sustainable agriculture in support of pro-environment farming and nature based tourism.

A sharing of best practices from South Cotabato and Bohol along with the Bhutan experience with Agriculture Minister Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup highlighted the forum.

For Bohol, the best practice was with Bilar's going back to the basics, literally by addressing the problem of vanishing rice cultivation tradition and the traditional rice’s uncultivated potential for food security.

Bilar farmers, with technical help from Searice, harnessed community-based initiatives sustaining local rice culture and tradition and entered the records when it passed October 9 the ordinance protecting the Bilar rice and its tradition.

Bilar farmer, Ruperta Mangaya-ay said her family has been into preserving the traditional Bilar rice varieties and have opted for it over the much-hyped modern rice varieties. The decision came after realizing that the sturdy and resistant local varieties stand a better chance of surviving and often end up giving more savings to the farmers.

In her sharing Mangaya-ay told media that she used to plant scientific rice and spends between P10T to P11T in the entire process.

Now, with a traditional rice variety she and the community along with Searice and Central Visayas State College of Agriculture Forestry and Technology developed, coupled with organic farming technology, she only spends as much as P5T.

"Although modern rice varieties produce greater yields, but organic rice is heavier, better tasting, husks better and is more filling," Mangaya-ay said.

The traditional rice that we grow fits into our organic farm set-up, and knowing that organic fertilizer from natural sources is more environment-friendly, the difference for the environment pays, she added. (PIA) ...

for more about SEARICE: http://www.searice.org.ph/

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