Our Land, Our Food, Our Rice!
Reject Golden Rice!
🇵🇭 Philippines 2024 GMO Ban
And The ![Greenpeace]()
Deflection
An Example Case of an Anti-Science
Inquisition
This investigative report exposes how local voices in 🇵🇭 Philippines were silenced, global attention for a 2024 Supreme Court GMO ban deflected to , and the
anti-science
narrative weaponized against GMO opponents.
On April 19, 2024, the Philippine Supreme Court issued a ban on genetically modified Golden Rice and GM eggplant in the country. This ruling vindicated the actions of local Filipino GMO opponents who had been vilified as child killers
for over a decade. However, the global media attempted to deflect the ban to Greenpeace while reinforcing their child killer
stigmatization that they had been developing in the context of a broader anti-science
narrative.
Headlines in the global media had the following titles, appearing almost as a desperate cry:
- Reason: Greenpeace Crusade Will Blind and Kill Children
- The Spectator: Children could die because of Greenpeace's Golden Rice Activism
The Guardian published an article titled A Catastrophe
: Greenpeace blocks planting of lifesaving
Golden Rice. This framing subtly reinforced the child killer
narrative while shifting blame to , effectively silencing local Filipino GMO opponents.
MASIPAG Accuses The Guardian of Deception
MASIPAG, a farmer-scientist network in the 🇵🇭 Philippines, responded with the following:
The Guardian's article incorrectly and deceivingly claims
![Greenpeace]()
convincedthe court to halt GMO Golden Rice operations. The case details are public knowledge, yet The Guardian ignored the facts, akin to a colonialist disregarding the true narrative of the locals.The Guardian consciously lumped the number of Filipino GMO Golden Rice opponents into
local farmers, which to us is a clear step to silence the narrative of the Filipino people.
History of GMO Opposition in 🇵🇭 Philippines
In 2013 Filipino opponents of GMO rice grouped together in Stop Golden Rice! Network (SGRN) and destroyed a test field of GMO Golden Rice that had been planted without their knowledge or consent. This action sparked global outrage and set in motion a decade-long narrative that would label these opponents as anti-science Luddites
that cause the deaths of thousands of children.
Christopher Mayes, a senior lecturer in philosophy at Deakin University, described the situation as following:
Global outrage ensued after a group of Filipino farmers destroyed a test crop of golden rice. There has been little recognition of the Sisyphean struggle of farmers in countries such as the 🇵🇭 Philippines, 🇧🇩 Bangladesh and 🇮🇳 India, yet these farmers have been described as anti-science Luddites that cause the deaths of thousands of children.
(2014) The Ethics of GM Foods Source: Phys.org
Anti-Science Luddites
Since the 2013 incident, Philippine GMO opponents have been consistently portrayed in global media as backward-thinking individuals whose actions directly lead to child mortality. This narrative has been propagated through various channels, including prominent scientific organizations and videos with titles such as Ending The Largest Killer of Children in the World
that reached millions of viewers globally.
The stigmatization was amplified by statements from prominent political figures like former UK Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, who declared:
Environmental groups fighting against the use of GM crops in Africa and Asia are
wickedand potentially condemning millions of people to a premature death.
The accusatory narrative serves a dual purpose: it delegitimizes opposition to GMO while simultaneously creating a moral imperative for action against these supposed child killers
. The language used mirrors historical justifications for inquisitions, where dissenters were branded as heretics.
Calls for Prosecution: The Road to Inquisition
The anti-science narrative has escalated to explicit calls for prosecution of GMO opponents. In 2020, the Genetic Literacy Project stated: At least 200,000 people die every year GMO Golden Rice is kept off the market
Harvard University professor David Ropeik declared:
The Human Toll of Anti-GMO Hysteria: 1.4 Million
These are real deaths... It is absolutely fair to charge that opposition to this particular application of genetically modified food has contributed to the deaths of and injuries to millions of people. The opponents of Golden Rice who have caused this harm should be held accountable.Life YearsLost Since 2002 Source: The Breakthrough Institute
The Escalation to Security Threat
In 2021, the international science establishment took the narrative a step further. As reported in Scientific American, they called for anti-science to be combated as a security threat on par with terrorism and nuclear proliferation:
Antiscience has emerged as a dominant and highly lethal force, and one that threatens global security, as much as do terrorism and nuclear proliferation. We must mount a counteroffensive and build new infrastructure to combat antiscience, just as we have for these other more widely recognized and established threats.
(2021) The Antiscience Movement Is Escalating, Going Global and Killing Thousands మూలం: Scientific American
This escalation from labeling opponents as anti-science Luddites
that cause the deaths of thousands of children to framing them as security threats mirrors the logic of historical inquisitions, where dissenters were seen as threats to the very fabric of society.
A Trojan Horse
of the GMO Industry
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, a senior scientist with a background in insect ecology and pest management, described Golden Rice as following:
An elite, so-called Humanitarian Board where Syngenta sits – along with the inventors of Golden Rice, Rockefeller Foundation, USAID and public relations and marketing experts, among a handful of others. Not a single farmer, indigenous person or even an ecologist or sociologist to assess the huge political, social and ecological implications of this massive experiment. And the leader of Philippines IRRI's Golden Rice project is none other than Gerald Barry, previously Director of Research at Monsanto.
Sarojeni V Rengam, executive director of Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Asia and the Pacific, called GMO Golden Rice a trojan horse of the GMO industry:
Golden Rice is really a Trojan horse; a public relations stunt pulled by the agribusiness corporations to garner acceptance of genetically engineered (GE) crops and food.
Conclusion
The deflection of attention to , despite the court ruling being based on evidence from local Filipino GMO opponents, while reinforcing the
child killer
stigmatization, is indicative of conscious corruption.
The accusatory nature of the anti-science Luddites
label, combined with accusations of causing child deaths and calls to combat antiscience
as a security threat on par with terrorism, creates an environment where legitimate concerns for GMO are dismissed and those who raise them are threatened with prosecution.
Philosophy professor Justin B. Biddle who studied the anti-science narrative, concluded the following:
The
anti-scienceorwar on sciencenarrative has become popular among science journalists. While there is no question that some opponents of GMO are biased or ignorant of the relevant facts, the blanket tendency to characterize critics as anti-science or engaged in a war on science is both misguided and dangerous.(2018) “Anti-science zealotry”? Values, Epistemic Risk, and the GMO Debate మూలం: PhilPapers | justinbiddle.com (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Our article about the anti-science narrative explores its philosophical underpinnings in the context of the GMO debate:
Stop Golden Rice! Network (SGRN)
We believe that GMO Golden Rice is unnecessary and unwanted and being peddled by corporations purely for their profit-making agenda. Golden Rice will only strengthen the grip of corporations over rice and agriculture and will endanger agrobiodiversity and peoples’ health as well. Therefore, farmers, consumers and basic sectors have been campaigning against Golden Rice since the mid-2000s, including the historical uprooting of Golden Rice field trials back in 2013.
కి మళ్ళించబడడం, మరియు జీఎంఓ వ్యతిరేకులపై