IN his column of April 30, Manila Times columnist Orlando Mercado hailed the April 17 decision of the Court of Appeals halting the commercial propagation, field trials and other work on two GMO crops, Golden Rice and Bt Talong . Included in Mercado's summary of the decision is this rather frightening result: 'The CA has also halted all other GMO applications. This is a crucial step.
As just one example, a 2016 study published in the journal PLoS One and available in its entirety online through the US National Institutes of Health and titled, 'Assessing Potential Impact of Bt Eggplants on Non-Target Arthropods in the Philippines,' specifically confirmed that one alleged problem with Bt Talong, that it may harm insects other than the destructive eggplant fruit and shoot borer it is designed to resist, is not a problem after all.