GMO's puts food at risk #kenya

This government is a strong believer in free market
economy. For starters, market fundamentalism is premised
on the supremacy of the invisible hand of market forces of
supply and demand.
So, when candidate Uhuru Kenyatta (as he then was)
extolled the virtue of "Willing buyer, willing seller", he was
telling Kenyans: "Leave it to the market forces, stupid." To
adherents of market fundamentalism, the customer is
always king. It is, therefore, curious that the government
headed by Kenyatta appears to believe, when it comes to
genetic modification and the development and
popularisation of transgenic food products, that the
customer is always wrong.
Many economists and policy-makers believe the best
mediator of economic exchanges is a free market, governed
by what Adam Smith called the "invisible hand". That is to
say, these economists believe that the collective outcome of
millions of self-interested decisions by buyers and sellers,
producers and consumers -- without centralised planning or
guidance -- maximises the common good.
Moi-Kanu regime spent 16 years rolling back the state, but
now a government led by his disciples instructs us to shut
up and eat what we're given. The public has
comprehensively rejected the GM technology; leading
scientists have warned that pollen contamination may be
impossible to prevent; it has been suggested that
genetically modified foods might cause or promote cancer
among human beings and the field trials suggest that GM
threatens our remaining wildlife. Yet the government
appears determined to force us to accept it.
The best way of gauging our government's intentions is to
examine the research it is funding, as this reveals its long-
term strategy for both farming and science. It seems that the
strategy is to destroy them both. Declining public sector
agricultural research in Kenya, combined with the
privatisation of agricultural research, has led to a focus on
providing hi-tech solutions, including transgenics, over
other agricultural options. Our leading agricultural research
agencies like the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute
(Kari) and leading public universities are heavily funding by
multinationals like Monsanto, Aventis, Bayer, Syngenta,
DuPont and Dow.
Globally-driven agricultural research and technology
development, which defines Africa's food security problems
as being primarily about yield, poses the 'quick fix' of GM
crops as particularly attractive. The multiple stressors that
are driving food insecurity, including the interplay between
inadequate access to water, poor soil fertility, climate
change, inadequate infrastructure, weak markets, poverty,
HIV/AIDS and civil war, are inadequately taken into account
in developing solutions.
Here are the five reasons why Kenyans should be wary of
GM foods. First, GMOs are linked to health problems. Little
is understood yet about the health effects of GMOs, but
recent studies have shown animals fed with GM-containing
feed can develop health problems. In many parts of the
world including the EU, studies on GM crops can be carried
out by the same companies that grow them, casting doubt
on the quality and bias of data.
Second, most GM crops fall into one of two categories:
either engineered to resist chemical herbicides, or
engineered to produce insecticides themselves. When
herbicides are used on resistant crops, over time the weeds
develop resistance, leading to the use of even more
chemicals. Crops engineered to produce insecticides on the
other hand produce toxins that are not only harmful to pests
but other insects such as butterflies, moths and insect
pollinators.
Third, GM crops occupy large surface areas and are linked
to intensive monoculture systems that wipe out other crop
and ecosystems.
Fourth, GM crops denature the role of farmers, who have
always improved and selected their own seeds. GM seeds
are owned by multinationals to whom the farmer must turn
every new season, because, like all commercial hybrids,
second-generation GMOs do not give good results. It is
also forbidden for farmers to try to improve the variety
without paying expensive royalties. Furthermore, farmers
risk being sued by big corporations if their crops are
accidentally contaminated with patented GM crops. Pollen
from crops like oilseed rape is easily spread via wind and
insects to neighboring fields. Hundreds of these farmers in
the US have been sued by Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF and
DuPont for illegally growing patented crops.
Fifth, GMOs pose grave danger to nature and livelihoods.
Continued industry promises about the ability of GM crops
to tackle the world's growing social problems are a myth.
They have reduced biodiversity, polluted landscapes,
threatened the future of small-scale farming and reduced
the food security of the world's poorest people. They have
not fed the world, but rather concentrated profits and power
into the hands of a few ruthless companies. It's time to stop
the big scam.
Because they cannot persuade people in developed
countries - particularly Europe - to eat what they are given,
many of developed country genetic engineers are turning
their attention to countries like Kenya in which people have
less choice about what or even when they eat. The biotech
companies and their tame scientists are using our poverty
to engineer their own enrichment. The national and county
governments are listening.
Those of us who oppose the commercialisation of GM crops
have often been accused of being anti-science, just as
opponents of George Bush were labelled anti-American, and
critics of some policies of this Jubilee government branded
agents of imperialists. But no one threatens science more
than the government departments, which distort the
research agenda in order to develop something we have
vehemently rejected.
[1] Statistician, Economist and Political Strategist