More red flags are going up over genetically modified (GM) foods flooding the African market without the necessary collective bio-safety precautions or technological capacity being in place.
A few weeks ago (“GM giants pin hopes on Africa”) environmentalists raised concerns that GM seed giant Monsanto was trying to penetrate the continent by using South Africa as the springboard. GM supporters continue to dispute this, but just days after publication Monsanto placed a notice in a South Afri-can newspaper announcing its application for a commodity clearance permit for GM wheat with the director of genetic resources at the Department of Agriculture.
South Africa is a net importer of wheat and had to import 1,2-million tonnes of the grain last year. Sub-Saharan Africa imports about 10-million tonnes a year, making the continent a potentially rosy market for the likes of Monsanto.
Environmental lawyer and founder of the African Centre for Bio-Safety Mariam Mayet said: “This is an obvious pre-emptive bid by Monsanto to cre- ate a much-needed market for its GM wheat, because none exist anywhere in the world. It’s a hugely disingenuous move by Monsanto and belies the fact that Monsanto is struggling to obtain commercial approval for GM wheat in the United States and Canada.”
In contrast to the frosty reception in the US, Canada and Europe, South Africa — with its elastic laws and pitted consumer awareness — is easy pickings for transnational seed companies, say the anti-GM environmentalists.
“It has always been the anti-GM environmentalists’ contention that the Genetically Modified Organisms [GMO] Act functions not like a biosafety regime, but as a means to enable GM companies to speedily release their GMOs into our environment and for the unrestricted trade in GMOs to take place,” Mayet said.
She said that under the GMO Act the GM wheat will be assessed for human consumption and animal feed. This will eventually allow importers of wheat to import wheat grain that may contain kernels of Roundup Ready Wheat (Monsanto’s GM brand).
The permit will allow for a once-off import of the GM wheat, but all subsequent importers can ride on this permit to clear their imports. Mayet said this is in direct conflict with guidelines set out by the internationally recognised Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, to which South Africa is a signatory.
Mayet slammed the government for failing to follow a transparent approval process. “The only thing that is transparent is the ad that the companies place. After we place our objections with the Department of Agriculture we are not given any information on the process or who sits on the committees. Civil society has also not been invited to have our experts on their committees.”
The government continues to maintain that the GMO Act and the approval processes are thorough enough to ensure that the safety of humans, animals and the environment is given due consideration. There is no clarity as to when Monsanto’s clearance permit will be approved.
Wally Green, biotechnology regulatory manager for Monsanto South Africa, said the application for the permit is purely an act of pre-planning and does not mean an imminent introduction of GM wheat in South Africa.
Currently there is no country in the world where GM wheat has been given the nod for commercialisation.
“We are applying for the permit on behalf of importers because we have the technical information that the regulatory bodies in South Africa require to make the assessment,” said Green.
He said they only expect the intensive assessments and trials for commercialism in Canada and the US to be completed by around 2007.
Monsanto has applied for similar GM wheat clearance permits in Australia and Mexico and, according to Green, 14 other countries are also on the list. He admitted that Monsanto views developing countries as prime targets. “We think the technology has many benefits for developing countries because the high-technology is in the seed.”