Drs Sharma and Tewolde Speak
at House of Commons
UK Minister Condemns USAID
UK Government Minister condemns 'wicked' USAID GM food policy
Genetic Food Alert UK, 27th November
UK Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, has condemned as 'wicked' USAID's "GM or Death" food aid ultimatum to African nations. At a House of Commons briefing this morning, he said "it's wicked when there is such an excess of non-GM food aid available for GM to be forced on countries for reasons of GM politics". He continued "if there is an area where anger needs to be harnessed it is here".
Meacher suggested that European Union governments might step in to provide an alternative to the GM aid offered by the World Food Programme and USAID. This is, in fact, already happening - nations disgusted at USAID's 'tied aid' policy are providing extra cash to ensure that Zambia can obtain non-GM food. The European Commission has now given Zambia 15 million pounds to purchase non-GM food 'because the EC respected Zambian government's decision to reject transgenic foods' whilst Japan has provided 12.4 million dollars to the region and has asked the WFP to supply Zambia with corn that is not genetically modified. Development charities in several nations have also provided cash or non-GM food.
Meacher's statement echoed that of Professor David King , the UK Government's Chief Scientist, who in September "denounced the United States' attempts to force the technology into Africa as a 'massive human experiment'," and "questioned the morality of the US's desire to flood genetically modified foods into African countries" (The Observer 1/9/02)
At the House of Commons briefing for MPs today, Dr Tewolde Gebre Egziabher, one of Africa's leading food & agriculture experts, argued that GM crops are not the solution to Africa's hunger crisis - a view shared by the fellow speaker, Devinder Sharma, India's top food policy analyst. Britain's top development organisations are in agreement. They have told the Prime Minister that GM foods will not solve world hunger - they may even increase poverty and malnutrition. The British Overseas Aid Group (BOAG) agencies, which include Oxfam, Action Aid, Save the Children, CAFOD and Christian Aid, have written to the Prime Minister's office to record their view that claims that GM crops will feed the world are "misleading and fail to address the complexities of poverty reduction". They are concerned that they will not help the small farmers and poor people in the rural Third World (The Independent, 10 Nov 2002). Oxfam International, in a press release in June, condemned the distribution of food aid contaminated with GMOs whilst Alex Wijeratna of Action Aid stated "the UN confirms there is enough non-GM food in southern Africa and on world markets... The US should [untie its aid] and stop putting a GM gun to the head of hungry Zambians."
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) say in May last year (Le Monde): "We don't need GMOs to feed the 800 million people who are hungry in the world today." His views were echoed this month by UN food rights envoy Jean Ziegler, who issued a statement saying that "Genetically modified organisms could pose a danger to the human organism and public health in the medium and long term" and that they would not solve the problem of world hunger. He said "I'm against the theory of the multinational corporations who say if you are against hunger you must be for GMO. That's wrong," Ziegler said, "There is plenty of natural, normal good food in the world to nourish the double of humanity."
Opposition to USAID's policy has also come from the OECD. The Financial Times on October 23rd reported that: 'The OECD said that US aid was still overwhelmingly "tied" to the purchase of American exports, or delivered directly in food aid - both of which have repeatedly been criticised by development experts.'
All the nations of Africa (except South Africa) have been opposing GMOs since 1998 - when they jointly signed a declaration condemning Monsanto and its crops, entitled 'Let Nature's Harvest Continue'. Meanwhile in Africa grassroots opposition to GM food and crops continues to grow amongst consumers and farmers. At the Earth Summit and since many joint statements condemning GM food aid have been signed by African farmers groups, consumer groups and NGOs. Yesterday, African Consumer Leaders from 20 organizations.in 20 African countries, at a Consumers International conference in Lusaka, issued a joint statement opposing GMOs - and it was announced today that so far over 200 organisations from around the world have supported a declaration initiated by a coalition of African organisations to express concern about the dumping of unsellable GM crops in Africa.
USAID's wicked policy may now have reached the end of the line.
Inaugural
World Food and Farming Congress
London, 25-26 November 2002
Special
Report By Nlpwessex