Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - GMO Corn and Famine

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Kevin Ancell" <kancell AT goodearthgardens.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: GMO Corn and Famine
  • Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 19:15:44 -0600



JOHANNESBURG - U.S. AID Administrator Andrew Natsios accused environmental
groups yesterday of endangering the lives of millions of famine-threatened
Africans by encouraging their governments to reject genetically modified
U.S. food aid.

"They can play these games with Europeans, who have full stomachs, but
it is revolting and despicable to see them do so when the lives of Africans
are at stake," Mr. Natsios said in an interview.

Mr. Natsios did not name specific groups, but other officials indicated
he was infuriated by the activities in Zambia - a country he had just
visited - of groups including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

"They are using big-time, very well-organized propaganda the likes of
which I have never seen before" in 12 years of American-led famine-relief
efforts, said Mr. Natsios, who could not persuade the Zambians to accept
U.S. food aid.

"The Bush administration is not going to sit there and let these groups
kill millions of poor people in southern Africa through their ideological
campaign," Mr. Natsios said on the sidelines of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development.

The American aid chief, touring two of the seven southern African
countries hit by severe food shortages, had just arrived from Lusaka,
Zambia, where he failed to persuade President Levy Mwanawasa to accept
American corn.

About 17,000 tons of American corn, about 30 percent of which was grown
from genetically modified corn seeds, is sitting in storage in Zambia.

Officials said Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, other pressure groups
and a Jesuit priest have been intensively lobbying Zambia and other regional
states not to take the corn. According to Agence France-Presse, Mozambique
also has reservations about accepting genetically modified corn from the
United States.

The United States insists the corn is safe, but the environmental
groups say it could cause dangerous mutations if it grows alongside the
local varieties. They have also told Zambian and other African leaders that
it could endanger the health of those who eat it.

Zimbabwe recently refused modified U.S. corn on the grounds that
farmers might plant some of the seeds, which would in time cross-fertilize
with the country's native corn. That, in turn, would jeopardize the
country's future food exports to Europe, which only allows a handful of
genetically modified crops.

A deal was struck under which the U.S. corn was given to the government
to be milled - ensuring that it could not be planted - while an equal amount
of native corn was given from government storehouses to private relief
agencies for distribution.

Zambia, meanwhile, faces the risk of famine affecting 2.3 million of
its citizens as a result of a regional drought and reduced imports from
Zimbabwe, where the drought problem has been compounded by the seizure of
white-owned farms.

An estimated 13 million people face famine in southern Africa, and
300,000 people could die of starvation in the next six months, according to
World Health Organization statistics. Earlier this year, the World Food
Program appealed for $507 million to feed more than 12 million people in the
region.

Mr. Natsios said he told the Zambian leader yesterday that he would
phone him every time a shipment of corn arrives at an east African port to
see whether he has changed his mind about taking the corn. He also said he
has offered to send U.S. scientists to Zambia to teach them about
biotechnology.

Clearly angry, the USAID administrator said he would "go on the
offensive" to discredit the international advocacy groups who, he said, were
endangering millions for ideological purposes.

U.N. officials have also pleaded with the Zambian government to
reconsider its position. The World Health Organization said there is no
evidence that such food is dangerous, while the WFP's director, James
Morris, said there is no way his organization can feed Zambia's hungry
without genetically modified food.

At a separate news conference, Mr. Natsios blamed Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe for the deteriorating situation in that country and said large
numbers of people were likely to starve there without a change in the
government's policy.

Mr. Mugabe has ordered or permitted the seizure, sometimes violently,
of white-owned farms across the country by poor blacks as well as by many of
his relatives and associates. This has led to a sharp drop in food
production not only at home but for export to neighboring countries.

"We are very, very alarmed about what is happening in Zimbabwe. The
wrong policies are in place, and things are sliding fast," Mr. Natsios said.

Zimbabwe was not on Mr. Natsios' tour, although more people are at risk
there than in all the other affected countries combined. He said his harsh
criticism of the country and its government has made him unwelcome there.

Mr. Natsios in the past has blamed Mr. Mugabe for causing the famine.

"If I could create a series of policies to make a famine, they'd be the ones
that Mugabe has made," Mr. Natsios said. "He is making his own famine."






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page