Environmentalists from around the world on Thursday urged African scientists to conduct more research on genetically modified food offered as aid to the continent’s hungry.
”Local or African scientists need to liaise with concerned authorities and do more research on the genetically modified food to establish whether they are suitable for Africans,” Coalition of African Organisations for Food Security and Development (COASAD) co-ordinator Christine Andela told some 300 enviromentalists gathered for a three-day meeting in Nairobi.
Andela said that scientists and governments needed to assess the risk and impact of contamination of local food, labour and health before considering the GM food aid.
In Zambia, despite the threat of starvation that faces more than two million people, the government has imposed an outright ban on GM food aid, insisting such products must be proven to be safe.
This prompted both criticism, particularly from the US, home of powerful pro-GM lobbyists, and praise from environmentalists.
”The development rhetoric and the accompanying policies must be analysed with utmost care so that the distinction can be made between development aid … and the manouvering of multinational companies with a view of expanding their market share,” said Andela, referring to the firms that control the research and sale
of GM technology.
Kenyan Assistant Environment Minister Wangari Maathai told the meeting that ”those pushing GM food to Africa were exploiting the poverty level of African markets” and urged farmers to ”secure and plant their own seedlings to avoid further impoverishment”.
According to Mwananyanda Mbikusita Lewanika, a Zambian biochemist, ”there is need to obtain views on the GM food aid, especially maize, in terms of food safety, environment, trade and ethics from the regulators, interest groups and farmers”.
”We need to determine the acceptance of GM foods and explore the possibility of obtaining some assistance to build national capacity in biodiversity and biosafety,” Lewanika said.
In January, thousands of Zambian villagers disregarded their government’s position and made off with 4 600 50-kilogramme sacks of rejected GM food aid. – Sapa-AFP