Zambia's decision to refuse food aid that contains GM crops at a time when much of its population is on the verge of starvation has angered and puzzled many people.
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'We're dying here', said one Zambian woman, quoted in the New York Times, as she looked on at the tonnes of cornmeal the government won't distribute. 'We want to eat.' (1) About 2.3million people in southern Zambia have been affected by food shortages, of which the immediate cause is drought (3). Food aid has been flown in, but much of it remains stuck in warehouses due to the government's policy on GM.
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The Zambian government says that there has been insufficient testing of GM crops - Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa has gone so far as to describe GM food as 'poison'. 'We may be poor and experiencing severe food shortages, but we aren't ready to expose our people to ill-defined risks', said Mwanawasa (2). But this argument seems unconvincing, given that the food offered is the same as food in normal circulation in the USA and Canada.
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A more significant concern is that some of the food aid is in the form of unmilled kernels, which might be planted by farmers in contravention of Zambian regulations. If there were suspicions raised about the GM 'contamination of crops', the European Union (EU) might insist that there be a testing procedure to identify and label those crops. But Zambia has no facilities to test crops at present. 'If we engage in GM our exports will be thrown overboard and that will cost thousands of jobs', said agriculture minister Mundia Sikatana (4).
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It may be that aid from other sources can be brought in to solve the crisis, but why is GM food aid even an issue? It is difficult to see how GM food can be more of a risk than starvation.
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It would be easy to blame the Zambian government for misguided policies. But they are merely reflecting the views of anti-GM organisations from the West who have hyped the dangers of these products. Greenpeace, for example, states on its website:
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'Genetically engineering food is an inherently risky process. Current understanding of genetics is extremely limited and scientists do not know the long-term effects of releasing these unpredictable foods into the environment and people's diets.' (5)
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Such loaded language contradicts the results of tests, which have found no reliable evidence of harm - and plenty of evidence for the potential of GM crops to boost productivity (6).
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These views about GM have influenced European policy - strict rules on the labelling of GM products were agreed in July 2002 (7). Precautionary policy surrounding GM has been convenient for European policymakers keen to keep cheaper American food out of the EU. The EU has also refused to endorse the safety of the GM food aid to Zambia, despite a request from the USA to do so (8).
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It seems that people in Zambia are caught in the middle of a political fight. On one hand, GM critics have accused the USA of trying to force genetically modified food into Africa via food aid. 'It is only because the USA can prevent the World Food Programme from purchasing available non-GM food from southern nations that it is able to tell countries that they must buy GM maize, that they must buy it from the USA and that it must be unmilled', said Robert Vint of Genetic Food Alert (9).
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On the other hand, Andrew Natsios, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), accused some NGOs of using the crisis for political ends, saying that they were 'frightening people into thinking there is something wrong with the food'. He continued: 'the consequence…is that the relief effort is slowing down. It is very disturbing to me that some of the groups that are opposed to [genetically modified food] have chosen a famine to make their political points.' (10)
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While the day-to-day consequences of the GM food panic in Britain might seem quite minor, the current situation in southern Africa illustrates the immediate consequences of Europe's obsession with unknown risks.
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Read on:
spiked-issue: Genetics
(1) Between famine and politics, Zambians starve, New York Times, 30 August 2002
(2)
Zambian leader defends ban on genetically altered foods, New York Times, 4 September 2002
(3) Zambia hit by Aids and famine, BBC News Online, 5 June 2002
(4) US presses Africa to take GM foods, Guardian, 30 August 2002
(5) Food: Campaign overview, Greenpeace
(6) See GM: past, present and future, by Channapatna S Prakash
(7) Europe tightens GM labelling rules, BBC News Online, 3 July 2002
(8) US presses Africa to take GM foods, Guardian, 30 August 2002
(9) US presses Africa to take GM foods, Guardian, 30 August 2002
(10) US presses Africa to take GM foods, Guardian, 30 August 2002
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