GMOs in Africa

Photo credit: Allie Wist

ARE WE ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION? GMO CROPS AND THE “9 BILLION” – Deciding if GMOs are safe or not is complicated

Kenya: GMOs Will Ruin Continent’s Hope for Food Security

OPINION

By Arun P Elhance

In the February 26 edition of the Daily Nation in an article titled ‘GMOs will play role in feeding our world’, Patrick Charagu stated: “The debate in Kenya about safety of GMO crops has been in the most part been driven by ‘fear of the unknown’. It has been a case of little, or even lack of knowledge of what the technology is all about or what its value is in feeding an increasing world population”.

Charagu is a senior geneticist with Hendrix Genetics, a leading multinational company with great interest in promoting GMOs around the world, including in Africa (Hendrix’s website).

Having participated in GMO debates as an independent researcher, one feels obliged to respond to Charagu’s proclamations about the purported benefits of adopting GMOs as well as his disdain for the highly-qualified Kenyan scientists, international well-wishers of Africa and the small and poor farmers and consumers, who oppose his views.

A February 23 report in a highly acclaimed international electronic-journal Common Dreams, titled “US offering its ‘assistance’ to push GMOs on Africa”, states: “The US government and multinational corporations have capitalised on African nations’ voids in regulatory frameworks to push genetically modified crops, standing to gain lucrative corporate profits while decimating food sovereignty in Africa”.

But, it is not just food sovereignty that is sought to be decimated by such actors, their nefarious scheme is aimed at destroying any hope of indigenous food security in the continent unless adequate regulatory frameworks for food production are developed and rigidly implemented in all African countries, including Kenya.

Read the full article: allAfrica