{"id":18585,"date":"2018-05-08T17:57:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T17:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=18585"},"modified":"2018-05-11T19:55:37","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T19:55:37","slug":"seeds-of-neo-colonialism-why-the-gmo-promoters-get-it-so-wrong-about-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=18585","title":{"rendered":"SEEDS OF NEO-COLONIALISM – WHY THE GMO PROMOTERS GET IT SO WRONG ABOUT AFRICA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The GMO lobby is showing signs of desperation. Once again they are on the offensive with a major public relations push targeting East Africa, particularly Uganda, in an attempt to subvert African policy development towards their own narrow ends. Their immediate goal is to weaken national biosafety laws, thereby removing any barriers to their access to African markets for their contentious high-risk products. Specifically, they want to remove the \u2018strict liability\u2019 clauses and thereby avoid any responsibility; avoid having to pay compensation for any damage that they do; avoid labelling so that African people are prohibited from knowing if their food is genetically modified; and avoid any punishment that African laws can impose. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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White male European so-called experts are channelling the message of the biotech industry, heavily controlled by US-European seed and chemical giants Monsanto\/Bayer, Syngenta and DuPont Pioneer. The message once again is that failure of African farmers to adopt GMO technology is the root cause of hunger and poverty on the continent. It is ironic that GMO foods are banned by law as unsafe in the European home countries of those giving the advice. Meanwhile the African biotech scientists seem more concerned that the strict liability measures will chase away donor funding and investment for their costly and \u201cprestigious\u201d research.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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They blame the anti-GMO activists, rather than their own technological failure, for the impasse. They claim that if only the activists would shut up and go away, the industry backed researchers could fix the food insecurity problem once and for all! Once again Africa is being compelled to adopt others\u2019 views, others\u2019 technologies, others\u2019 interests. Have we not seen this before?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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They claim to have \u2018sound science\u2019 on their side but what kind of science resolutely ignores the evidence? What has actually happened in those African countries where GMOs have been rolled out? Let\u2019s take a look at the facts.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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GMOs failed to improve food security in South Africa<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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So far only three African nations have allowed the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops commercially \u2013 Burkina Faso, Sudan and South Africa. Only South Africa grows a GM food crop, whereas Burkina Faso has phased out the growing of GM cotton after a monumental disaster for farmers and seed companies.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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South Africa is the only country in the world where its main staple crop \u2013 maize \u2013 is primarily GM, making up around 80% of the maize meal consumed in the country. Considering that one of the key selling points of GM foods is that they will alleviate the perennial problems of hunger and food insecurity in Africa by increasing yields, what has been South Africa\u2019s experience, and what lessons can the rest of the continent learn?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Despite more than a decade of GM maize use, food insecurity is rife with over 46% of South African households experiencing hunger. One in five children in South Africa are stunted, and over 50% of South African women are now overweight or obese. There is growing consensus in the public health sector in SA that the country needs to shift away from focusing on a few industrial crops with high calorie content (e.g. GMO maize) to a diverse range of foods that are nutritious, affordable, and produced in ecologically sustainable and culturally appropriate ways.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Bt cotton abandoned in Burkina Faso<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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African countries can also learn from the disastrous Bt cotton experience in Burkina Faso. Monsanto\u2019s GM insect-resistant Bt cotton was introduced commercially in Burkina Faso in 2008 and planted on 100,000 hectares of land. But, after just a few years of commercialization, news began to filter into the international community that the project was a disaster. The GM cotton produced shorter fibre lengths and lower cotton fibre efficiency than conventional varieties. Burkina cotton companies began to lose international markets due to the poor quality, while farmers lost their incomes. As a result, in 2015, some seven years after Bt cotton was first introduced, a national decision was taken to abandon GM cotton and return to conventional cotton. No more GM cotton would be grown in Burkina Faso from 2016. Many expect this signals the end of Bt cotton in West Africa, although Nigerian authorities are still stubbornly pushing the same failed technology.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n