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U.S. presses Africa to take GM foods (Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2002 -- CropChoice news) -- The following is a story from the Aug. 30 edition of The Guardian
BY John Vidal in Johannesburg
The US was accused yesterday of putting intense pressure on United Nations
organisations, the European Union and individual countries to support the
export of GM food aid to six African countries facing severe hunger in the
coming months.
Three countries were insisting that the food be milled to prevent the seeds
being planted by farmers who may unwittingly pre-empt national legislation.
Zambia's chief scientific adviser said that if his country accepted
unprocessed food aid a precedent would be set undermining its legal and
democratic systems.
Together with Mozambique and Zimbabwe, which also initially refused to
accept GM food aid, Zambia insists that the food must be milled before being
handed out, because environmental risk assessments are impossible with its
limited resources.
At least a million tonnes of food are expected to be needed in the next six
months to feed up to 12 million people in the six stricken countries. The
US has offered more than 200,000 tonnes. The EU,the US Agency for
International Development (USAid), the World Food Programme, the World Health
Organisation and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation have all been
urged by the US government to publicly endorse the safety of the food, which is eaten in more
than 35 countries. The EU has refused.
"We have been pushed around by the way the Americans have put pressure on
this issue," the EU development commissioner, Poul Nielson, told Reuters.
But the three countries who have put conditions on the food - and are
preparing to mill it themselves - are angry at the pressure tactics used by
the US, which has refused to offer conventional food or to mill the seeds.
"We cannot be so irresponsible so as to risk the lives of innocent people,"
Mundia Sikatana, Zambia's agriculture minister, said. "We don't need to
engage in biotechnology at this stage. If we engage in GM our exports will be thrown
overboard and that will cost thousands of jobs."
Non-government groups at the Johannesburg conference joined the row
yesterday.
Robert Vint, of Genetic Food Alert, said: "It is only because the US can
prevent the World Food Programme from purchasing available non-GM food from
southern nations that it is able to tell countries that they must buy GM
maize, that they must buy it from the US and that it must be unmilled."
Friends of the Earth said the jury was still out on GM foods and African
countries should not be forced to accept the supplies. "Africans should
choose what they eat, not have someone else decide for them," its spokesman, Nnimo
Bassey, said.
But Andrew Natsios, the administrator of USAid, told reporters: "It's
frightening people into thinking there is something wrong with the food . . .
and the consequence of it is that the relief effort is slowing down. It is
very disturbing to me that some of the groups that are opposed to (genetically
modified food) have chosen a famine to make their political points."
Yesterday the World Bank announced that it was to set up a comprehensive
study of the risks and opportunities of using GM and other farming systems in
poor countries. It is expected to last three years.
It is to be co-chaired by Dr Robert Watson, the bank's chief scientist, who
was ousted as chairman of the UN's inter-governmental panel on climate
change in May by the US government and the Exxon oil company, because of
his remarks about the potential severity of global warming.
The study was broadly welcomed by environmental groups, who urged the bank
to take into account social factors and called on governments to put a
moratorium on commercialising GM crops until the bank had reported back.
Meanwhile, small-scale farmers were pushed yesterday into the forefront of
the debate about the future of GM crops in Africa by the companies and
non-governmental groups which are lobbying in force.
"I was given some GM maize seeds by Monsanto and they have done very well. I
am very pleased. They save time and money," said George Phanto, a farm leader
from KwaZulu Natal province.
But Samuel Togo, a Tanzanian farmer who came to Johannesburg with an African
grassroots organisation, was more cautious. "I have heard of GM seeds. I do
not understand them, but I do not think they are good. I want to farm organically
because it is better for the soil."
More than 150 people from the biotech industry are in Johannesburg. Monsanto
said yesterday it had been lobbying ministers, African MPs and and government
delegations. NGOs, with little access to the ministers and delegations, are
trying to build alliances to oppose the planting of GM crops.
GM food in Africa has been slow to take off, but hi-tech maize and cotton is
now grown commercially in South Africa, with GM soya likely to be approved
next week. GM cotton should be approved in Kenya and Uganda by the next growing
season and Zimbabwe has conducted trials, according to Monsanto, which has
been buying up large seed companies in Africa as a way to promote its GM seeds. | |
