HUNGER, FOOD AID AND GMOs ANY POSSIBLE LINKS

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HUNGER, FOOD AID AND GMOs ANY POSSIBLE LINKS?

• A paper presented at the International Conference
  on HUNGER, FOOD AID AND GMOs in Maputo,
  Mozambique (July 14 18, 2004).
• Paper by
• Zachary Makanya
• Country Desk Coordinator, PELUM-Kenya.

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1. THE WORLD FOOD CRISIS

• There are 6 billion people to feed and 8 billion
  in 2020.
• While food production is on the increase, it is
  less than the population increase.
• There is looming world food crisis.
• There is a need to increase crop yield
• Some parts of Africa are permanently on relief
  due to adverse weather (droughts, famine,
  flooding, etc), and man-made situations
  (conflicts etc).

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THE LIMITED OPTIONS LEFT

• Open more land for agriculture
• Loss of biodiversity
• Does not guarantee success because of the
  changing weather partners.
• Increase crop yield by intensifying productivity
  through new technologies and alternative systems
• Promote and strengthen the present systems of
  food production and storage.

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2. IS THERE REALLY SHORTAGE OF FOOD IN THE
WORLD?

• 2.1. The world is not short of food but the main
  problem is
• Lack of access to food (due to low purchasing
  power a direct result of poverty),
• Poor and inequitable trading policies meant to
  favor the western systems.
• If the food that is currently available were to
  be evenly distributed among the 6.4 billion
  people on earth (providing each individual with a
  minimum intake of 2,500 calories), there would
  still be a surplus left for 800 million. The
  problem is therefore not production but clearly
  of access and distribution

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• In the North, excess calories are expended in
  gymnasiums and in jogging. Still, most people in
  the North suffer from diseases that are related
  to overfeeding. In contrast, most people in the
  South suffer from diseases related to
  malnutrition
• Why cant the pastoralists in the North Kenya
  purchase the food found in abundance and cheaply
  in the neighboring Rift Valley province?
• Why are farmers from countries that produce
  abundance food e.g. Ugandan still very poor? Why
  think of introducing GMO crops to countries
  already producing so much with nowhere to take
  its food?

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• Why do Africa Governments export maize even when
  some of their communities are perpetually
  receiving relief food?
• Why do they import sugar when sugarcane is
  rotting in their countries and many of the
  operational sugar factories are non-functioning?

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3. IS INCREASE IN FOOD PRODUCTION REALLY THE
ANSWER TO THE AFRICAS HUNGER ?

• In 2001, Argentina produced enough food (wheat)
  enough to feed India and China. Yet, it people
  are among the most hungry in the world.
• Brazil is the third Producer of food in the world
  yet most of the children are dying of
  malnutrition.

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4. THE REAL BENEFICIARIES OF RELIEF FOOD!

• The procedure for purchasing relief food
• The donating GOK provides funds to World Food
  Programme (WFP) for the purchase of relief food.
  It gives conditions on the use of the funds.
• The food must be purchased from their farmers
• The food must be shipped by the ships.
• The WFP fulfills buys the food from the donating
  country farmers and meet all the conditions.
• Over 75 of the food produced in North America
  is GE Crops.
• All GE crops are patented and the GE companies
  get lots of money in sale of GE seeds.

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THE RESULT

• As a result, the cost of Relief Food / kg is
  among the highest in the world
• Actual cost of food from farmers
• Add the transport it from country of origin its
  outlet port.
• Add the shipping costs it.
• Handling charges at the ports (outlet and entry).
• Transporting / distributions costs.
• Add the indirect costs (personnel costs).
• If the idea is to really give relief food to
  hunger victims, why cannot the donating countries
  give funds to WFP so as to purchase food from
  neighboring countries instead of buying their
  countries?

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5. THE MAIN PROBLEMS WITH FOOD AID

• It destroys the local markets through food
  dumping
• It is against the rules of free trade.
• It creates dependence
• Relief development is justified in that it saves
  lives.
• However, Relief Development should only be done
  when it is absolutely necessary and only for a
  short time.
• If it is done for a longer time, it may lead to
  dependency and the beneficiaries of relief food
  may soon forget about their life chores and
  continue waiting for hand-outs from tables of
  their benefactors.

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• A story is told of a village that had receive
  food aid from Canada for 12 years. At one time,
  there was drought in the area the village. To the
  bafflement of NGO (through which the relief food
  was being channeled through), the affected
  villagers did not look perturbed, alarmed or
  worried. When they asked the reason, no body was
  willing to tell them. The puzzle continued until
  one friendly old farmer let the cat out of the
  bag. He confided to one of the NGO staff member.
  At first, the farmer looked mischievously at the
  Project Officer and asked him, Yes, it is true
  it not raining here but is it raining in Canada?
  When the answer was in the positive, the farmers
  beamed at the officer and whispered That is why
  we are not worried!. This farmer meant that they
  would only be worried if there was no rain in
  Canada since this may stop the supply of food aid
  which they had continued to receive for four
  years. This community had received relief food
  for such a long time that they forgot the
  importance of producing their own food

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6. THE 10 MAIN PROBLEMS WITH GE CROPS

• 6.1 The GE Crops can never ever co-exist without
  contaminating the Non GE-crops.
• Pollen grains can be spread a long distance
  through open pollination (wind / insects) and
  hence GM crops can easily contaminate the
  neighboring non-GM crops
• 6.2. The Overdependence on corporate on seed
  supply.
• Over 80 of the small scale farmers in Africa
  today save their seeds for the next season. This
  is so because the farmers do not have enough
  income to buy seeds for every planting. Seed
  sharing (with neighbours, relatives and friends)
  is also cultural in many communities.
• Through the GE seeds, the small-scale farmers
  will loose their right to save or share seeds
  with neighbours and friends and relatives.

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• 6.3 The non-licensed users of GE seeds (either by
  accident or default) are liable for prosecution.
• Farmers in other countries have been taken to
  courts after the patent GE crops are found
  growing on their field, even when such crops come
  as a result of open pollination (insect or
  wind-pollination).
• How many African farmers will go to jail for not
  being able to pay the patent violation fine in
  future? How many will lose their small farms
  through auctioning?
• 6.4. Genetic Engineering crops favour the
  agriculture systems which are characterised by
• Large farms and Monocroping
• Subsidies by Governments
• Mechanisation
• External inputs

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• 6.5 Genetic Engineering crops favour the
  agriculture systems which are characterised by
• Large farms and Monocroping
• Subsidies by Governments
• Mechanisation
• External inputs
• 6.6. GE application hinges on strict application
  of the Cartegena Protocol. Many African nations
  do not have capacity to implement this protocol.
  This is in terms of
• Expertise
• Equipment
• Infrastructure
• Legislation and
• Regulatory systems
• Can the African Governments who have perpetual
  ailing economies have the capacity to effectively
  the capacity to implement the Cartegena Protocol?
  

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• 6.7 They threaten to the environment
• After continuous use of herbicides tolerant and
  pesticides, pest and harmful insects may develop
  resistance. There could be many knock-on effects
• Larger quantities of the pesticides used
• Development of more new pesticides
• Emergence of super weeds / super pests / super
  viruses which may not be easily controlled.

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• 6.8 The Threat to Human Health
• Little is known of the real threats posed by GE
  crops on human health. Many fear that continuous
  uptake could lead to emergence of new viral
  strains which may be hard to control.
• More toxins in the body
• More allergic reactions
• Emergence of the new viral strains which may
  hard to control / manage.
• 6.9 The Threat to organic farmers and sustainable
  Agriculture
• 6.10 Intellectual property rights are inadequate
  and inappropriate for the protection of
  traditional knowledge and community resources.

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7. THE POSSIBLE LINKS BETWEEN FOOD AID AND THE
GMOS

• An outlet to the produce of farmers from the
  donating countries
• Food aid is not just only eaten When the rains
  come, any farmer without seed will plant
  anything. Hence, the idea is to contaminate
  seeds with GE crops such that at the end of the
  day, we have no GM free food.
• The corporate control on world food production
  systems.

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• If the intentions of the producers of GE are only
  out to increase food production, why have the
  dreaded terminator technology and traitor
  technology been developed?
• The Terminator Technology has been developed such
  that GE crops developed though it, produce
  sterile seeds that can not germinate in the next
  season
• The Traitor technology has been developed such
  that crops require application of certain
  chemicals to trigger (switch on or turn off)
  certain traits (e.g. flowering, germination,
  fruit ripening, etc). The Traitor Technologies
  promises rich rewards for corporations because
  the GE crops only respond to agro-chemicals
  purposely manufactured for the purpose.
• NB The two are processes of the GE Technologies
  called Genetic Use Restriction Technologies
  (GURTs).

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8. THE SUGGESTED WAY FORWARD

• 8.1 We need to apply the principle of
  precautionary principle Not to proceed when
  there is no certainty for safety of human health
  and the environment.
• 8.2 There is great need to carry out a risk
  assessment on the potential dangers and effects
  posed by the introduction of GE crops.
• 8.3 There is a great need to create awareness on
  the issues around the GMO crops. The farmers will
  say yes or No to the GMOs from a point of
  knowledge.

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• 8.4 Partners and governments of Africa and the
  world should address the root causes of poverty
  and food insecurity
• Make trade fair and improve the marketing
  systems.
• Improve the rural Infrastructure
• Avail credit to farmers
• Promote Irrigation systems
• Intensify rural training services.
• Promote the development of the range lands of the
  world.
• 8.5 There should be a moratorium on
• commercialization of GMOs in every African
  Country until more research has been carried out
  into socio-economic, environmental, agronomic.
• 8.6 Farmers rights to save or share seeds should
  be recognized and protected.

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• 8.7 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS SHOULD INVEST IN
  RESEARCH.
• The budgets for research in developing countries
  is a meager percentage of the national gross
  budget.
• Research should address farmer identified
  problems.

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9. FOUR PARTING SHOTS

• OUTSIDERS MAY HELP BUT THE INSIDERS MUST DO THE
  JOB WE NEED TO ADVOCATE FOR LOCAL SOLUTIONS FOR
  LOCAL PROBLEMS USING LOCAL RESOURCES.
• HEED THE CALL OF THE BIG NOISE CAMPAIGN - MAKE
  TRADE FAIR
• THE BEST WAY TO BRING ABOUT SUSTAINABLE
  DEVELOPMENT IS TO STRENGTHEN THE EXISTING LOCAL
  SYSTEMS AND NOT TO DESTROY THEM.