---
title: "Genetically modified food controversies"
chunk: 20/21
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:17:47.717639+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

==== Philippines ====
A petition filed May 17, 2013, by environmental group Greenpeace Southeast Asia and farmer-scientist coalition Masipag (Magsasaka at Siyentipiko sa Pagpapaunlad ng Agrikultura) asked the appellate court to stop the planting of Bt eggplant in test fields, saying the impacts of such an undertaking to the environment, native crops and human health are still unknown.  The Court of Appeals granted the petition, citing the precautionary principle stating "when human activities may lead to threats of serious and irreversible damage to the environment that is scientifically plausible but uncertain, actions shall be taken to avoid or diminish the threat". Respondents filed a motion for reconsideration in June 2013 and on September 20, 2013, the Court of Appeals chose to uphold their May decision saying the bt talong field trials violate the people's constitutional right to a "balanced and healthful ecology". The Supreme Court on December 8, 2015, permanently stopped the field testing for Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) talong (eggplant), upholding the decision of the Court of Appeals which stopped the field trials for the genetically modified eggplant.
In April 2023, the Supreme Court of the Philippines issued a Writ of Kalikasan ordering the Philippine Department of Agriculture to stop the commercial distribution of genetically modified rice and eggplants in the country.

=== Process-based regulation ===
Scientists have argued or elaborated a need for an evidence-based reform of regulation of genetically modified crops that moves it from regulation based on characteristics of the development-process (process-based regulation) to characteristics of the product (product-based regulation).

=== Innovation in technology and regulatory law ===
The first genetically modified crops were made with transgenic approaches, introducing foreign genes and sometimes using bacteria to transfer the genes.  In the US, these foreign genetic elements placed the resulting plant under the jurisdiction of the USDA under the Plant Protection Act.  However, as of 2010, newer genetic engineering technologies like genome editing have allowed scientists to modify plant genomes without adding foreign genes, thus escaping USDA regulation.  Critics have called for regulation to be changed to keep up with changing technology.

== Legislation ==
See Farmer Assurance Provision.  (This bill is commonly referred to as the "Monsanto Protection Act" by its critics.)

== African controversies ==
In 2002, in the midst of a famine, Zambia refused emergency food aid that contained food from genetically modified crops, based on the precautionary principle.
During a conference in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, Kingsley Amoako, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), encouraged African nations to accept GM food and expressed dissatisfaction in the public's negative opinion of biotechnology.
Studies for Uganda showed that transgenic bananas had a high potential to reduce rural poverty but that urban consumers with a relatively higher income might reject them.
Critics claimed that shipment of US food to southern Africa was more about promoting the adoption of biotech crops in the region than about hunger. The US was supplying Africa with meals and support during a food crisis they were facing in the early 2000s. However, once some of the African countries realized that these shipments contained GM maize, they rejected the shipments and stopped releasing the food that had been sent to them. Critics accused the US of "exploiting the Southern African famine as a public relations tool". The U.S. countered these comments by saying that European nations were letting millions of Africans suffer from hunger and starvation because of "irrational fears over hypothetical and unproven risks". The US had a pre-GMO policy of shipping US crops as food aid, rather than buying crops in/near the countries that needed aid. The US policy was claimed to be more costly than Europe's.
Genetically modified food controversies in Ghana have been widespread since 2013.

== Indian controversies ==