SA- The only country in the world allowing its staple food to be genetically modified

South Africa is the only country in the world that has
allowed its staple foods to be genetically modified (GM).
Last week, The Journalist illustrated how bread was
affected. This week, we take a look at the second staple,
maize.
Forty-four percent of the country's maize is grown in the
Free State. The mielie plants that cover the fields with a
golden and green blanket may look the same as it always
has but now it is very different.
Since 1998, it has been tampered with by a process called
genetic modification (GM) and only appears to be the same.
Dealing with student hunger at the UFS will require an
understanding of what they are consuming. The end
product, maize, contains various levels of GM that science
is showing to be dangerous to human health.
"The majority of South Africans are not only eating GM
maize without their knowledge and consent but have no
choice or alternative whatsoever even if the products were
correctly labelled. This is totally undemocratic and
unacceptable. It smacks of outright food fascism" said
Mariam Mayet, Director of the African Centre for Biosafety.
"We are outraged that South Africa - the only country in the
world to permit the cultivation of genetically modified staple
- continues to do so despite a large and growing body of
scientific evidence pointing towards severe potential health
risks of consuming GM crops, including maize," she said.
Alone In the World Tampering With Staples
South Africa is not the only country to allow GM
technology. The USA, Brazil, Argentina, India and some
European countries allow GM technology. South Africa is
unique in that it has allowed the country's staple foods to
be genetically modified.
In other countries, the maize and soya is used
predominantly for animal feed and for process foods - corn
starch, corn syrup, soya flour, soya lecithin. "GM foods are
not consumed as a staple by millions of people every day
except in South Africa," said Zakiyya Ismail, Consumer
Campaigner for the African Centre for Biosafety.
How did this come about? She explained that the direction
was driven by industry itself. "Our new government was not
equipped to be able to assess GM technology and there was
no civil society engagement in the process," she said.
Research into genetically modified (GM) crops had been
taking place in South Africa since 1979 under the now
defunct South African Committee on Genetic
Experimentation (SAGENE), she said.
SAGENE continued to act as regulators until the GMO Act
(which had principally been drafted by SAGENE members)
came into effect on 1 December 1999. "Many of SAGENE's
members had close links with the biotechnology industry
and were nominated onto SAGENE by the South African
Chamber of Business," she said.
In 1997, two years before the GMO Act was passed, South
Africa's young democracy agreed to a technology that the
rest of the world was extremely cautious about - genetically
modified crops.
"The first GM maize was planted in 1998 - this was
Monsanto's insect resistant maize, called MON810 or
"Yieldgard," she said. "Grown extensively in South Africa for
15 years, it has failed hopelessly as a result of massive
insect resistance."
Since the beginning of 2008, the South African government
has granted close to 1 200 permits for GM maize
experimentation, cultivation, import and export.