The safety of biotech foods and feed products is established through comprehensive studies, which are reviewed by national and international regulatory authorities such as the UN-FAO, WHO, and the OECD. The studies prove that plant foods produced through biotechnology present no inherent risk compared to conventional bred plants.

Biotech foods reviewed to date have been found to be comparable, or substantially equivalent, to their traditional counterparts aside from the defined differences conferred by the novel traits. Currently, dozens of biotech products have received more than 100 approvals around the world, including more than 40 in the US, more than 30 in Canada, 30 in Japan and 12 in EU.

Beyond the food and feed safety determination, feed performance studies conducted by universities or scientific institutions with chickens, swine, beef, cattle and dairy cows have all confirmed that biotech corn and soy products are nutritionally equivalent and perform comparably to conventional varieties of livestock and poultry feed.

Experts in many countries likewise agree that biotechnology can significantly enhance the world's food supply, help farmers be more productive and sustain the environment. As a tool to augment traditional breeding, it will help make abundant, safe, high quality new foods available to people worldwide.

Furthermore, all biotech plants that have been reviewed by the USDA for commercialization have received the Finding of No Significant Impact on the environment. The assessment of biotech product's environmental impact involves such criteria as its susceptibility to insects and diseases and potential effects on beneficial and non-target organisms.

The communication researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) have conducted a survey on farm-based constituencies and other farmer stakeholders in Southeast Asia. Our country has been among those respondents who showed high interest in biotechnology and expressed strong appreciation for the role of science in the development of agriculture.

In addition, majority of the respondents from the Philippines do not think that agricultural biotechnology is a risk to public health and food safety. They see the possible benefits arising from the applications of biotechnology in medicine, food, and crop production. More specifically, they believe that biotechnology will benefit agriculture and the small farmers.

The results of the survey also indicate that respondents consider university scientists and research institutes as most trustworthy and highly concerned about public health and safety issues relating to biotechnology. Thus, they should be entrusted the responsibility for assessing and managing the risks relating to agricultural biotechnology.

We are therefore confident that biotechnology has great potential to reduce our reliance on some older, more risky chemical pesticides, and to lower worker and ecological risk. Moreover, we acknowledge its competence to uplift the economic status of our entire farm sector.

Thank you.

Respectfully,

TENNYSON G. CHEN
Vice President, PABI