Why not use genetically-modified crops? The Safe Food Coalition (safe-food.org) and the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (safeage.org), both of which oppose genetically-modified crops in Africa, outline their arguments:
Safety: There are strong indications of possible dangers from genetically-engineered (GE) foods to our health. We simply don’t know, as no human testing has occurred. Many doctors and scientists are worried GE foods may damage our immune systems, create new toxins and allergens or increase resistance to antibiotics.
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Cost: Companies promoting genetic engineering constantly harp on how it will “improve” food and farming but so far the only beneficiaries are the multinational corporations promoting them. Business is only interested in it because of the ability to own and patent life. When someone changes a life form they patent that thing. This means that a seed for a plant that has been genetically engineered can be owned, thereby forbidding anybody else to use it without payment. Recently many of the world’s smaller seed companies have been bought by large multinational giants, so that six seed companies now effectively control a significant amount of the seed market.
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Environmental impact: GE crops may devastate the environment. We have already seen triple herbicide resistant weeds, making it necessary to use highly toxic weed killers, exactly the opposite of what GE is claimed to do. Herbicide use has increased since the introduction of GE crops, not decreased as claimed. Insect resistant genes have been shown to be persistent in soil and water, they affect soil life, earthworms and microbes. Once we let the genie out of the bottle, there is no way to put it back. Once genes are out there it is impossible to control them.
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It’s unnatural: Many people feel the use of genetic engineering in food and farming is wrong, that it goes against nature or their spiritual beliefs. Others think it’s wrong because it allows big companies to gain more control of the food chain. The fact is that genetic engineering allows scientists to take a gene from one species and insert it into a completely different species with which it could never naturally breed. Thus it is possible vegetarian, halaal, kosher and other rights may be infringed.
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Africa already has better solutions: What is often overlooked in this very real dilemma is that thousands of years of careful seed selection by African farmers has given rise to local varieties with valuable attributes such as drought and disease resistance. For example, in Kenya, where stem-borers can wipe out 80 per cent of a maize field, they plant a row of Desmodium, which gives off an odor which repels the stem-borer moths.
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The problem is not crops: There is enough food in the world to feed everyone on earth over a kilo of a good quality mixed diet daily. People go hungry because they do not have money, access to food, or land. GE will not change this. The problem is economic, political and practical, not technical. Most farmers will never be able to afford technology fees and the chemicals to grow these new GE seeds. Genetic engineering in its present form cannot form part of the solution; it is part of the problem.
