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Genetically
modified food has DNA that follows the laws set by man
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PARIS,
November 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The bitter row over
genetically modified food is casting a shadow over efforts to rush aid
to millions of Africans facing starvation.
A
relief campaign has been launched to help some 14 million people in six
drought-stricken southern African countries and another operation is
likely for Ethiopia, which on Thursday, November 14, warned that up to
15 million people were at threat.
But
even as millions of people suffer from malnutrition, thousands of tons
of food stockpiles are lying unused - or are even being shipped away,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
problem: genetically-modified corn (maize) provided by the United
States, by far the biggest single supplier to the aid effort and a
fierce supporter of biotech food.
Five
of the six southern African countries are imposing tough restrictions on
the corn, fearing it either is unsafe to eat or could contaminate their
environment.
Malawi,
Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe say they will only accept the grains
provided they are milled to prevent germination in the event of
spillage, while Zambia has imposed a total ban, milled or not.
Only
one, Swaziland, has not raised objections.
In
Zambia, whose president Levy Mwanawasa has gone on record as branding GM
food “poison”, the World Food Program (WFP) will have to ship out
18,000 tons of rejected grains that are already in the country, 7,500
tons of which have been ground up.
“One
concern is security. If you’re pulling food out of a food-insecure
area, there is always a risk”, Richard Ragan, the WFP’s
representative in Zambia, told reporters in Johannesburg Friday,
November 15. He said he knew of two cases of looting, both of them
minor, on GM food stockpiles at WFP facilities.
“The
way we’re going to try and deal with it is we’re going to move food
in as we move food out, so that hopefully will mitigate some of the
potential concerns,” he said.
The
United States has angrily condemned the Zambian ban as groundless and
likely to worsen the starvation peril, although it says it is willing to
look for alternatives to the contested corn.
But
it reserves its bitterest ire for Europe’s greens, who accuse
Washington of wanting to exploit the famine crisis to widen
international acceptance of GM food.
U.S.
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman has branded their actions as a scare
campaign, a “disgraceful” attempt to spread “misinformation and
create an atmosphere of fear.”
Environmental
groups “can play these games with Europeans, who have full
stomachs,” Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for
International Development, said at the Earth Summit in August. “But it
is revolting and despicable to see them do so when the lives of Africans
are at risk.”
Geert
Ritsema, campaigner on GM issues for Friends of the Earth Europe, said
it was unfair and untrue to tar green groups this way.
Even
though his group and others fiercely opposed GM foods, “our position
is that it’s up to the governments to decide,” he told AFP from
Brussels.
“In
this case, you have a completely different dimension added to the debate
- there is a hunger problem.
“We
don’t have such a problem in Europe, so we don’t feel we are the
right persons to judge about this. It is a matter for the local African
governments and the local NGOs (non-governmental organizations).”
On
November 10, U.K. newspaper, the Independent, reported that
Britain’s top aid charities have told Prime Minister Tony Blair that
genetically modified foods will not solve world hunger, and may actually
increase poverty and malnutrition.
The
new submission - signed by the directors of Oxfam, Christian Aid, Save
the Children, Cafod and Action Aid, and sent to Blair’s Strategic Unit
in the Cabinet Office – say claims that GM crops will feed the world
are “misleading and fail to address the complexities of poverty
reduction,” the Independent reported.
The
charities say GM crops are likely to create more poverty, pointing out
that hunger is not caused by a shortage of food, but because the poor
cannot afford to buy it, the paper said.
The
charities fear that introducing GM technology will have even more
catastrophic effects because it is dominated by a few multinational
companies, the Independent reported.
The
United Nations became embroiled in the debate last Tuesday, November 12,
when one of its officials, Jean Ziegler, a Swiss sociologist and former
legislator who is the rapporteur on access to food, declared GM foods
“could pose a danger to the human organism and public health in the
medium and long term.”
But
this is not the universal view within the UN. The WFP says the food aid
can be eaten safely, and Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the
World Health Organization (WHO), agrees.
GM
foods are crops into which a gene from another species has been inserted
in order to introduce certain characteristics, such as a resistance to
herbicide - thus making it easier for farmers to kill weeds by doing a
once-over spraying of an entire field - or exuding a toxin to kill
insect pests.
Among
scientists, the consensus is that no evidence has emerged that the first
generation of these crops is dangerous for health or the environment.
The main evidence for this is from the U.S. population, which eats tens
of millions of tons of GM corn, tomatoes and other crops each year.
Some
experts caution, though, that only a few years have elapsed since these
plants were introduced, and it is too early to make a firm conclusion.
European
countries, where there is enormous public sensitivity to environmental
issues, have either barred or imposed a moratorium on GM crops,
triggering a trade dispute with Washington in the process.
Genetically
modified food has DNA that follows the laws set by man. DNA is an
essential part of all plant and animal life. The microscopic packages of
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) material in all life forms interplay with
the environment, one gene type never acting alone, and all responding
accordingly.
This
means that when man alters nature he can not possibly know what the
outcome will be. DNA is usually modified to create a stronger, tastier
or more pest-resistant plant.
However,
sometimes, side effects are unpredictable.
