SOUTHERN AFRICA: Refusal to Fight Hunger with Transgenic Foods

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Aug 23 2002 (IPS) - The countries of southern Africa are suffering widespread hunger but some are refusing the genetically modified food included in international aid packages, saying the products are a threat to human health and the environment.

Nearly 13 million people are suffering food shortages in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and are in danger of starvation if they do not receive urgent assistance, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

Only Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland do not oppose remedying the problem of hunger with genetically altered products, WFP executive director James Morris told a press conference Friday.

The issue of transgenic, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), has largely been resolved in the cases of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, although the former has yet to sign an agreement with the WFP, said Morris.

The authorities in Zambia, meanwhile, have made it clear that they will no longer allow the WFP to use transgenic food to confront their country’s hunger crisis.

Some scientists groups, most environmental organisations and the majority of the European countries maintain the precautionary principle, that genetically modified foods should only be used once it is proven that they do not pose a threat to human health or the environment.

But the United States, the world’s leading provider of food aid, and other agricultural exporting nations, including Canada, Argentina and South Africa, use genetically altered seeds extensively in their farm production.

The WFP director, a U.S. national, said, “There is no way” for this UN food assistance agency “to provide the resources to feed the starving people without using food that has biotech content.”

Representatives of some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) believe the United States is taking advantage of they poverty of Southern Africa in order to impose genetically modified products on the world market.

Xenya Cherny, a spokesperson for the World Conservation Union (IUCN), commented that one should wonder why this type of food is being offered to the African countries.

“We are not in the seed business,” responded Morris, “the WFP job is to provide food for starving people.”

The official concluded his visit this week to the Southern African countries affected, acting as UN special envoy for humanitarian needs, designated by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The humanitarian crisis erupted in the region as a result of a severe drought, the consequences of which were aggravated by health problems, particularly the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and of economic troubles and, in some cases, government mishandling of the situation.

Today, 6.1 million people are at risk of starvation in Zimbabwe, more than three million in Malawi, as are more than two million in Zambia, a half-million in Mozambique, 450,000 in Lesotho and some 200,000 people in Swaziland.

The WFP, which would need 507 million dollars to attend to the needs of these six countries, held a meeting Friday in Geneva with the representatives of donor governments.

The UN organisation is pressed for time because it must put food in storage in the region before the rainy season begins in late October.

The WFP must also work with the governments of Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe to resolve the matter of GMOs included in food aid.

The Zambian government, which opposes the use of genetically altered products to feed its more than two million citizens affected by the drought, has nevertheless agreed to accept such food for use in its refugee camps.

Morris told a press conference that Zambia would allow GMO supplies for the 130,000 refugees in camps, most of whom are from the Congo and Angola. The only stipulation is that the grains must be milled so that people do not try to plant the seeds.

The WFP director held a series of meetings with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to discuss issues related to food distribution in that country.

The WFP “uses NGOs as partners in monitoring and distribution,” said Morris, and to carry out those efforts in Zimbabwe, around 10 humanitarian NGOs would be needed.

The Zimbabwean government has given assurances that the UN organisation that it could count on 10 such groups, “but there are some problems with a couple of them,” commented Morris.