GMO's in Namibia

WE READ the article 'The problems with arguments against
GM crops' (The Namibian, 7 August) with a sense of
astonishment.
The piece argues, among others, that the genetically-
modified organisms (GMO), or as it refers to it, biotech
crops, make farming more efficient, are safe and will
increase crop yields, etc. It declares that those who oppose
GMOs are 'lobbyists who know nothing about farming,
especially in Africa'. This obviously includes Namibia.
So, let us look at each of these claims. The best point of
departure perhaps is to examine what the GMOs have done
in India, a country which is beset by the same kinds of
under-nourishment challenges as Namibia and the rest of
the continent. According to the India's National Crime
Records Bureau, between 1995 and 2011, almost 300 000
farmers committed suicide due to debt resulting from the
use of GMO seeds. The Indian cotton farmers had to buy the
(expensive) GMO seeds every year from the company
Monsanto and the hybrid seeds were not as effective as the
natural seeds previously used by those farmers.
The use of GMO seeds actually increased hunger and food
insecurity. And, in any case, the issue today is not lack of
food production, but the unequal distribution of food. There
is more than enough food to feed everyone.
Monsanto now controls the cotton industry in India and is
referred to there as the 'contemporary East India Company'
- the new colonisers. It has also come to light that
Monsanto was conducting illegal open-air field experiments
with the seeds on Indian farms. So, of course, that company
will do the same on our continent. Will they also
contaminate our agricultural fields? Should we be expecting
an increase in suicides among African farmers?
The fact is that a GMO seed involves a gene - taken from
bacteria - which is inserted into a seed. Needless to say,
this makes the seed poisonous and eventually creates
super-pests and super-weeds. The spread of these noxious
seeds cannot be controlled and it will ultimately destroy all
healthy crops.
Why are they also not telling us about their (deadly)
herbicide Roundup? Indeed, the GMOs are responsible for
the decimation of pollinators like bees, butterflies, etc. The
honeybee is dying at a rate of 30% per year! A few years
ago, hundreds of thousands of GMO fish escaped from a fish
farm in the US into the ocean. Are our fish safe to eat?
One of the most basic questions to ask the GMO lobbyists
is: Why are they resisting the labelling of these foods, if they
are so certain of the superiority of their 'biotech crops'? It is
because they know consumers will not buy these harmful
foodstuffs as is happening in Europe.
We should realise that Monsanto has been poisoning the
world food system in order to make a super-profit. They
want to manipulate the global food structure, to control us
and keep us economically dependent and to prevent us from
producing our own (healthy) food. Remember, these
companies also speculate with food on the Chicago stock
exchange.