Genetix RoundUp™

Let them eat GM

Research published last week by Greenpeace exposes the Bush administration's use of the famine in southern Africa as a marketing tool to push GM food in the continent. The document details how the offer of GM food aid by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the latest move in a long-running marketing campaign designed to facilitate the introduction of US-developed GM crops into Africa.

The UK government's Chief Scientist David King has described the USAID programme as ‘amoral’ and "a massive human experiment."

Some African governments, notably Zambia, have refused genetically modified food aid from the US, asking instead for non-GM food. USAID Director Andrew Natsios has claimed that environmental and human health objections to GM food aid in Africa represent "an ideological campaign."

But the Greenpeace research reveals that:
There are plentiful sources of non-GM maize that can be used for food aid. The USA has made a clear political decision to only provide GM contaminated aid.
Aid agencies, the EU and UK Government all believe that best practice for supplying food aid is to provide financial assistance and to source locally - the only organisation that thinks otherwise is USAID.
The American Corn Growers Association state that over half of all US first stage grain handling facilities segregate GM and non-GM grains, meaning USAID could easily buy aid from American farmers that is acceptable to Africans.

Donald Mavunduse of ActionAid, one of the UK's leading development agencies working in southern Africa, states that, "The WFP has been hamstrung by aid conditions imposed by the US Government. But if you look at the bigger picture there is enough non-GM maize on the world market. We have not yet got to the point where we should be saying to starving countries 'take GM or nothing'."

Greenpeace Executive Director Stephen Tindale said, "This debate shouldn't be focused on the false choice of eating GM or starving. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of non-GM grain are available, both in America and elsewhere, and it should be sent to where it's needed most. Instead the Bush Administration is exploiting famine in Africa in an effort to support the American biotech industry. This is the just latest twist in a long and cynical marketing campaign."

While the Bush Administration and USAID claim the offer of food aid to Africa is motivated by altruism, the USAID website is a little more candid. It states: "The principal beneficiary of America's foreign assistance programs has always been the United States. Close to 80% of the USAID contracts and grants go directly to American firms. Foreign assistance programs have helped create major markets for agricultural goods, created new markets for American industrial exports and meant hundreds of thousands of jobs for Americans."

Download the full Greenpeace report at: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/5243.pdf