The Zambian government confirmed on Tuesday that it would not accept genetically modified food aid for the 2.5 million Zambians facing severe food shortages.
Zambia's president Levy Mwanawasa has described GM food as "poison", but in August 2002 agreed to send a delegation to South Africa, Europe and the US to assess the risks.
The delegation is now reported to have concluded that GM food poses too great a risk to be accepted. Zambia's agriculture minister Mundia Sikatana said on Tuesday: "In the face of scientific uncertainty the country should thus refrain from action that might adversely affect human and animal heath, as well as harm the environment."
GM aid has been offered to Zambia by the US Agency for International Development, via the World Food Program (WFP). The WFP says it will be hard to find enough non-GM food to feed all of Zambia's hungry people in the next few months.
Rising need
A WFP spokesman told New Scientist: "At the moment we haven't heard reports of people starving to death. The main problem is people suffering from HIV and AIDS. If they don't have the right nutrition then they are going to start dying. Clearly if we cannot supply them for November there will be people suffering in Zambia."
During October, the WFP was only able to supply food to 50 per cent of those suffering from food shortages. The WFP predicts the number needing food will increase to 3.3 million before the next harvest in March 2003.
"We accept the right of any government to reject GM food," says Jorgen Schlundt, of the World Health Organization's food safety program. "But we believe the GM foods on the market do not represent a health risk. They have gone through risk assessment and have actually been eaten for many years."
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Weblinks
Zambia, World Health Organization
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Milled grain
Some environmental groups commended Zambia's decision to refuse US GM supplies. But opposition politicians in Zambia have condemned the move.
Leader of the UPND opposition party, Saqwibo Sikota, told the BBC's Network Africa there is no scientific evidence that GM food poses a health risk.
Six other southern African nations face food shortages and possible famine in coming months. Four of these, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Lesotho have agreed to receive GM food aid provided that it is milled so that it cannot be planted and contaminate indigenous crops.
Will Knight
This story is from NewScientist.com's news service - for more exclusive news and expert analysis every week subscribe to New Scientist print edition.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992990
Zambia's president Levy Mwanawasa has described GM food as "poison", but in August 2002 agreed to send a delegation to South Africa, Europe and the US to assess the risks.
The delegation is now reported to have concluded that GM food poses too great a risk to be accepted. Zambia's agriculture minister Mundia Sikatana said on Tuesday: "In the face of scientific uncertainty the country should thus refrain from action that might adversely affect human and animal heath, as well as harm the environment."
GM aid has been offered to Zambia by the US Agency for International Development, via the World Food Program (WFP). The WFP says it will be hard to find enough non-GM food to feed all of Zambia's hungry people in the next few months.
Rising need
A WFP spokesman told New Scientist: "At the moment we haven't heard reports of people starving to death. The main problem is people suffering from HIV and AIDS. If they don't have the right nutrition then they are going to start dying. Clearly if we cannot supply them for November there will be people suffering in Zambia."
During October, the WFP was only able to supply food to 50 per cent of those suffering from food shortages. The WFP predicts the number needing food will increase to 3.3 million before the next harvest in March 2003.
"We accept the right of any government to reject GM food," says Jorgen Schlundt, of the World Health Organization's food safety program. "But we believe the GM foods on the market do not represent a health risk. They have gone through risk assessment and have actually been eaten for many years."
Related Stories
Food aid may halt over GM row
17 September 2002
GM row delays food aid to Zimbabwe
31 July 2002
EU to permit new GM crops
17 October 2002
For more related stories
search the print edition Archive
Weblinks
Zambia, World Health Organization
World Food Programme
US Agency for International Development
Milled grain
Some environmental groups commended Zambia's decision to refuse US GM supplies. But opposition politicians in Zambia have condemned the move.
Leader of the UPND opposition party, Saqwibo Sikota, told the BBC's Network Africa there is no scientific evidence that GM food poses a health risk.
Six other southern African nations face food shortages and possible famine in coming months. Four of these, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Lesotho have agreed to receive GM food aid provided that it is milled so that it cannot be planted and contaminate indigenous crops.
Will Knight
This story is from NewScientist.com's news service - for more exclusive news and expert analysis every week subscribe to New Scientist print edition.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992990
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
hmm...
31.10.2002 06:22
why don't the people get a say in this? seems like they should have the right to make the decision to live or die
themselves, rather than have the politicos do it for them...
MukLukDuki
not a matter of living or dying
31.10.2002 06:41
Also GM food is by no means safe. For africans to eat it will be to treat them as lab rats.
If the west really wants to help the african, why not send them some normal grain. Is that so hard. Ask yourself, why US is not sending some of its massive stores of normal grain?
brian
really...
31.10.2002 07:25
i've asked myself (and many others) why the US does not send food, when it has so much. here's what i've come up with.
most americans do not seem to give a shit. they are content to sit on their fat asses, drink beer, and watch tv.
they believe stupid rightwing fucks like rush limbaugh and sean hannity, as they spout nonsense about "liberals trying to take your money and give it to them damn poor people".
all the while, though, the conservatives are taking their money and giving it to, well, rich people. somehow, all the repetitive drivel spewed out over the collective media flows through their brains like so much raw sewage. as much as this country talks about freedom, the people, collectively, don't seem to know a damn thing about it, or, indeed, anything beyond the food dish in their cage. as much as they see their own self-righteousness, they never seem to notice that plenty of atrocities occur because of both the activities and the inactivities of their own government.
they seem to care more about the "rights" of gun owners, while allowing their fundamental liberties to be stripped away, one by one.
they don't seem to notice that corporations take advantage of a "poor economy" to request (and receive) heavy tax cuts while laying people off. nor, of course, that the government is reducing welfare spending while throwing people out on the streets.
some of them even think ronald reagan was the best president we've ever had.
it is a kind of selective blindness.
i sincerely regret if my comment was taken as a pro-GMO statement. it certainly was not intended as such. i dislike the idea of someone tampering with my food in ways which even they do not fully understand. however, my intention was to state my opinion that the people affected by this decision should have a say, one way or the other, as to the outcome.
that is, after all, what freedom is, and i believe that they deserve it, too. we're all in this together, and no one's really free until everyone is.
or until we're all dead.
whatever.
MukLukDuki