Greenpeace launches organic line

International pressure group Greenpeace, which is opposing the use of agricultural biotechnology in the Philippines and other developing countries, has financial interests in the high-end organic food business.

This was disclosed by internationally renowned scientist Dr. C.S. Prakash who said Greenpeace Brazil has already licensed its own organic product line. Prakash said "Greenpeace leaders have close financial relationships (both personal and professional) with the organic industry’s marketing interests against biotech foods in Europe and the USA".

He said this has been proven by the move by a director of Greenpeace UK to work for Iceland Food, an organic food producer and seller, as a highly-paid lobbyist.

During a visit to the Philippines, Prakash, who is based in the US Tuskegee University’s College of Agricultural, Natural and Environmental Sciences, earlier disclosed that Greenpeace is spending some $170 million in a global campaign against biotechnology.

Several Filipino food manufacturers also decried pressure from Greenpeace for them to stop using biotech food ingredients and to buy raw materials from Greenpeace suppliers. The pressure drew flak from the local business community, which raised suspicions that the campaign against biotechnology may involve vested interests.

Greenpeace, however, denied both allegations. Local Greenpeace campaigners said the group does not have business interests. They instead warned Philippine government officials that adopting agricultural biotechnology could result "in millions of dead bodies, sick children, cancer clusters and deformities.

The Greenpeace campaign, however, has been met with stiff opposition by Filipino scientists led by researchers from the University of the Philippines in Los Banos. The Filipino savants branded the Europe-based pressure group’s campaign as "hysterical" and asked it to use scientific data to prove its claims.

Greenpeace recently accelerated its campaign against agricultural biotechnology following pronouncements by President Arroyo that the government has adopted the technology as an anchor of its food security strategy.

Mrs. Arroyo’s move received widespread support from political, business and agricultural industry groups. Among those who have backed President Arroyo’s support for agricultural biotechnology are the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Business Council of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, the Philippine Maize Federation, Inc., and the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham).

Opposition senator and former Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara also backed the use of biotechnology to increase farm productivity and protect the environment.