Keith Hudson wrote: > some African politicians have been frightened enough to prevent GM grain > being imported by the aid agencies in order to cope with wide-scale > starvation among their people -- even though, within the stomach, the > variant genes within GM food are broken down and digested as thoroughly > as all the others and are of absolutely no danger.
This statement is misleading in several ways. First, it is not just "frightened politicians", but also informed experts (see forward below). Second, the issue is not the digestion of "the variant genes", but of proteins produced by the variant genes. It's much too early to state that these "are of absolutely no danger." Btw, the latest edition of New Scientist (19 Sept 2002) reports that the UN has been slipping GM food into food aid for the last 7 years, without informing the recipient countries, and often in breach of national regulations. The GM corporations are taking advantage of poor people's misery to dump their unwanted GM stuff on human guinea pigs. Chris __________________________________FWD__________________________________ "LET NATURE'S HARVEST CONTINUE" Statement from all the African delegates (except South Africa) to FAO negotiations on the International Undertaking for Plant Genetic Resources, June 1998 [published in the European media in late July 1998] (Document begins) During the past few weeks European citizens have been exposed to an aggressive publicity campaign in major European newspapers trying to convince the reader that the world needs genetic engineering to feed the hungry. Organised and financed by Monsanto, one of the world's biggest chemical companies, and titled "Let the Harvest Begin", this campaign gives a totally distorted and misleading picture of the potential of genetic engineering to feed developing countries. We, the undersigned delegates of African countries participating in the 5th Extraordinary Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources, 8 - 12 June 1998, Rome, strongly object that the image of the poor and hungry from our countries is being used by giant multinational corporations to push a technology that is neither safe, environmentally friendly, nor economically beneficial to us. It is time to look at some of the facts about the company behind this campaign: Monsanto is one of the world's largest pesticide companies. During the past two years only it spent over US$6000 million to take control over other seed and biotechnology companies and is now the major industrial player in this field. Its major focus is not to protect the environment, but to develop crops that can resist higher doses of its best-selling chemical weedkiller "Roundup". Rather than stretching a helping hand to farmers, Monsanto threatens them with lawsuits and jail. In the USA, the company employs detectives to find and bring to court those farmers that save Monsanto soybean seeds for next year's planting. Backed by patent law, the company demands the rights to inspect the farmers' fields to check whether they practise agriculture according to Monsanto conditions and with Monsanto chemicals. Rather than developing technology that feeds the world, Monsanto uses genetic engineering to stop farmers from replanting seed and further develop their agricultural systems. It has spent US$18000 million to buy a company owning a patent on what has become known as Terminator Technology: seed that can be planted only once and dies in the second generation. The only aim of this technology is to force farmers back to the Monsanto shop every year, and to destroy an age old practice of local seed saving that forms the basis of food security in our countries. In "Let the Harvest Begin" the Europeans are asked to give an unconditional green light to gene technology so that chemical corporations such as Monsanto can start harvesting their profits from it. We do not believe that such companies or gene technologies will help our farmers to produce the food that is needed in the 21st century. On the contrary, we think it will destroy the diversity, the local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural systems that our farmers have developed for millennia and that it will thus undermine our capacity to feed ourselves. In particular, we will not accept the use of Terminator or other gene technologies that kill the capacity of our farmers to grow the food we need. We invite European citizens to stand in solidarity with Africa in resisting these gene technologies so that our diverse and natural harvests can continue and grow. We agree and accept that mutual help is needed to further improve agricultural production in our countries. We also believe that Western science can contribute to this. But it should be done on the basis of understanding and respect for what is already there. It should be building on local knowledge, rather than replacing and destroying it. And most importantly: it should address the real needs of our people, rather than serving only to swell the pockets and control of giant industrial corporations. NAME: Jean Marie Fodoun, Cameroun George A. Agbahungba, Benin Paul Therence Senghor, Senegal Koffi Goti, Cote d'Ivoire Mokosa Madende, Congo Democ Jean Jacques Rakotonalala, Madagascar Juvent Baramburiye, Burundi Worku Damena, Ethiopia Gietaturn Mulat, Ethiopia M.S. Harbi, Sudan Eltahir Ibrahim Mohamed, Sudan Maria A. Calane da Silva, Mozambique Kohna Nganara Ngawara, Tchad Nkeoua Gregoire, Congo Mugorewera Drocella, Rwanda H. Yahia-Cafrif, Algeria Abebe Demissie, Ethiopia G.P. Mwila, Zambia Dr S.H. Raljtsogle, Lesotho Naceu Hamza, Tunisia Hambourne Mellas, Morocco Elizabeth Matos, Angola Tewolde Berhane Gebre Egziabher, Ethiopia Additional statement by Zimbabwean delegate: "Africa should not be used as a testing ground for technologies and products which have been developed elsewhere. We reserve our sovereign right to test these technologies ourselves, examine their effectiveness and compatibility to the environment in our region." (Document ends)
