Rainy season is here. The low-pressure area near Catanduanes has developed into a typhoon and was named Egay. Aside from this, another typhoon is way behind it with international name Chan-hom and would you believe, there is one more after Chan-hom.
This kind of weather brings back the fear to those who suffered from the previous typhoons, Pablo, Ondoy, and Yolanda. I know the victims have recovered from these tragedies, but we cannot erase the sad memories brought by calamities. However, as the song goes, there’s a rainbow always after the rain.
Because of this current weather, I remember a story about calamity and hope, entitled Lina’s Town Rises Again.
It tackles the life of a 7-year old girl named Lina from a family of farmers who suffered major losses due to typhoon Pablo.
Author, Ms. Chat Ocampo said the story was inspired by the life of farmer Consolacion Reyes of Lambayog. The story focused mainly on how the family coped up by planting biotech corn seeds, specifically DEKALB corn seeds. It touches on the themes of sustainability, collaboration and safety by narrating the true and inspiring story of how agricultural biotechnology seeds positively transformed a woman farmer’s life, and enabled her farming community to recover economically in the aftermath of a devastating typhoon.
Lina’s Town Rises Again is also the first book that talks about biotechnology crops. Monsanto Philippines shared this in their storytelling sessions for students 5 to 10 years old in Davao City, Tuguegarao City and Quezon City.
Being an agricultural country, the Philippines is the first in Asia to commercially produce genetically modified crops, particularly the biotechnoloy corn or BT Corn.
Monsanto specializes in breeding biotechnology corn or BT corn. Their plant is located in Pulilan, Bulacan. The company strictly follows the guidelines from Bureau of Plant and Industry to ensure the quality of the corn produce.
Process and test conducted for BT corn.
The BT corn seeds are planted by our local farmers from North Luzon up to Mindanao. Many farmers have attested that using DEKALB resulted to low cost in corn production and higher yield, that is because the seed is resistant to corn-borer. DEKALB is composed of 5 percent refuge or non-Bt seeds and 95 percent BT seeds.
JUST TO CLARIFY, the corn produced by farmers is then made into FEEDS – for animal consumption, NOT FOR HUMAN.
Want to know more about Monsanto, watch this video