Shut Up And Eat Your GM Soup, Africans Are Told
Nairobi (The East African, September 7, 2000) - The Kenya Agricultural Research
Institute, Kari, teaming up with the international agribusiness giant Monsanto,
achieved a coup of sorts when they went public early last month with their
genetically modified sweet potato, described as highly resistant to viral
diseases.
It was a clever strategy that presented a fait accompli and pre- empted what
critics would have said had these man-modified crops been subjected to an open
discussion.
In their moment of glory and back-patting, Kari forgot that Monsanto is the
agribusiness company that very nearly enslaved Third World agriculture with
their "terminator" seed technology, which would have forced poor farmers into
permanent dependence on Monsanto and similar companies for their seed needs.
Before Kari's announcement, Dr Harold Salter of the British biotech company,
CropGen, had said casually on the BBC that Kari were proving quite innovative
with genetic engineering technology. He cited the disease-resistant sweet
potato. Dr Salter made me sit up and wonder what else we are eating locally that
has been modified with exotic genes.
There is clearly no democracy in this matter; you eat what the scientists deem
good for you or for your agriculture. In the past, I would shy away from
American foods in supermarkets, but if Kari, with the covert assistance of
Monsanto, and other American or British agribusiness giants, is bringing exotic
genes into African nutrition with the simplistic assurance that it is all safe,
then we need to worry.
Genetic engineering is the artificial insertion of the genetic material of one
organism into another type of organism in order to effect a presumed advantage
in productivity, disease resistance, taste and other qualities. When one Dr
Chakrabarty, an Indian born American scientist, succeeded in patenting a
man-made bacterium able to lap up oil spills in the ocean, it was hailed at the
time as a major breakthrough.
I remember wondering aloud in the Sunday Nation at the time what would happen if
Dr Chakrabarty's oil-eating bacterium extended its culinary preference to
include all forms of plastics. Now, 20 years down the road, truly exotic things
are being done with similar technology to give us what Martin Walker, Chairman
of Iceland Foods in the UK, has called "Frankenstein Foods." Genes responsible
for the manufacture of deadly scorpion poison (in scorpions) have been
transferred by man from where God put them, into some crops to produce toxins
that kill crop-eating insects.
Scientists have also transferred genes from animals with an ability to withstand
extreme cold into commercial crops to impart to them the ability to withstand
frost. Proponents claim that GM is merely an extension of hybridisation, which
has given us so many of our crop varieties, such as Katumani maize. But
hybridisation is a breeding process within related species. You don't force
genes of fish into tomatoes and claim it is the same thing as breeding Katumani
maize.
As for our dwarf Ruiru II coffee variety, it was never a GM crop but a hybrid
involving planting materials from coffee varieties obtained from Colombia. The
way Dr Salter presented his comments on the BBC was typical of many scientists
in this field, who assume they are doing us a favour by stuffing all manner of
combinations of genes down our throats.
The commonest argument one hears in reference to Africa is that the technology
will ensure greater food supplies for a hungry continent. Sadly, in a manner
reminiscent of the intolerance that prevails in African politics, not a whiff of
dissent is allowed. Western scientists who have ventured to warn their African
colleagues to be cautious of this newfangled science have been branded "racists"
by some African scientists - as happened to Dr Hans Herren, director of the
Nairobi- based International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, at a
recent conference organised by the African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum.
According to The People of March 4, Dr Herren was accused of racism and related
diseases by, among others, Kari director Dr Cyrus Ndiritu, and scientists Dr
Florence Wambugu, Professor Norah Olembo and Prof J.O. Ochanda, who, in classic
Kanu witch-hunt style, "poured vitriol" on the hapless (and absent) Dr Herren
with the support of (surprise, surprise) two officials from the biotechnology
giant Novartis, Klaus Leisinger and Timothy Reeves.
Don't fool yourself that the scientists who are doing these things to us are
remotely conversant with the repercussions. As an American media commentator,
Myra Rosenblum has observed "the bottom line is money, money, money..." And as
for those simplistic assurances of safety, "No long term safety studies have
been carried out," according to Dr John Fagan, a top British molecular biologist
and author of Genetic Engineering - the Hazards.
Charles Thomas of the British environment watchdog, Greenpeace, calls GM "living
pollution" while the head of the British Food Standards Agency, Prof Phillip
James, believes that those that see this technology as an advance in science
"are being totally naive." A case has been reported in South Africa by Dr H
Steinman of the Allergies Society of South Africa, who noted the death of a
person allergic to Brazil nuts, who ate soya genetically engineered with a
Brazil nut gene.
The New England Journal of Medicine recently commented that the US Food and Drug
Administration actually favours the genetic engineering industry. Should this be
surprising, given that the deputy head of FDA recently joined Monsanto as senior
vice president?
Whom do we in East Africa hold accountable once a genetically engineered food
crop goes crazy leading to mass poisoning, sterility or fatal asthma attacks? If
food crops act as their own pesticides, what is to stop us being poisoned by
them? What is to stop bees and birds being decimated by them? Furthermore, there
is nothing to stop these genes spreading to species. "Designer crops" with an
ability to withstand greater concentrations of herbicide than the common weeds
of agriculture may spread their genes to the very same weeds.
Once the weeds themselves become herbicide resistant and reach areas of the
world where subsistence farming is still practised, they could spell the end of
age-old farming traditions in the same way as the water hyacinth in Lake
Victoria nearly wiped out artisanal fishing. It is precisely to protect American
agriculture and food industries from worldwide protests and bans that the
Clinton administration has made it illegal to indicate on food package labels
that a specific food item is not genetically modified.
This will, in time, turn out to be one of the most reckless legacies of the
Clinton era. Beggars cannot be choosers. It is only a matter of time before we
begin hearing reports that Africa's million-plus refugee population are living
on GM foods Research agencies working on food productivity in Africa should be
reined in and made accountable to parliaments and consumers.
The world has to go on long after the children of these scientists are old men
walking with the aid of sticks.
By Sam Wainaina
Copyright 2000 The East African. Distributed via Africa News Online.
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