Who needs GM Foods? - Zambia

[Philip Owen]

Who needs GM Foods? By Owen Sichone, Zambian Post By now it should be clear that President Mwanawasa is a nationalist. In a neocolonial setting like ours that sounds like a good thing but in the globalised arena of international politics today it is a dangerous position. Zambians must not rush to applaud Mwanawasa's speeches if they are not prepared for struggle because much of what he has said up to now be it on corruption, privatisation or GM crops indicates war against globalisation's worst dangers and it will not make him popular overseas. I still remember the other chap asking Zambians in his first speech after being sworn in: 'Are you ready for hard work?' and they all responded with a big yes. A few months later most of them were unemployed. Let us not rush to applaud our leaders but ask for a full report first. Zambians are right to be hesitant about receiving GM maize from abroad. Let us not forget that in the past we were also unhappy with yellow maize. If we know what we want to eat we must grow it ourselves. The Japanese do not eat American rice and when they are forced to import some they donate it to poor countries. Instead Japanese farmers are supported by the state so that they can continue to grow their traditional fragrant varieties of rice. You cannot make good Chinese or Indian food with tasteless long grain American rice - it is impossible. The question then is can Zambia, a beggar nation that it is, afford to choose? Can we throw away the yellow maize? We can if we are willing to go back to 'Growth from Own Resources' approach that our government has long abandoned. But who is going to implement it? What is the fuss about GM crops for anyway? First of all we live in a high risk world. The British beef you ate in London a few years ago might give you Mad Cow disease. The cheap frozen chicken you buy from America may be so full of growth hormones and other profit making pollutants that you might find yourself having emotional, physical and other side effects and passing them on to the next generation. Just recently Swedish science announced that fried foods, especially potatoes may contribute to making people vulnerable to cancer. So you see life is dangerous in a capitalist world and there are those who are so concerned with just getting a meal that they sell themselves. Can such people worry about yellow maize or GM foods? I think many Zambians are already beyond caring. But that is not to say they cannot reverse the slide into dependency. Mwanawasa's opposition to GM foods appears to me to be based on religious teaching rather than science but I hasten to add that it is the sensible way forward in my view. Israelis prefer organic farming to genetic modification in the name of plant breeding and most readers of the Judaic teachings would agree that GM foods are NOT kosher. In short they are an abomination in the sight of God. If you do not want to eat things that are displeasing to God then grow the good stuff. You cannot invest your time in searching for salaula bargains in different parts of the world and expect that someone will feed you according to biblical teachings. GM foods are not peasant crops they are designed to make the companies that own the patents for particular genes super rich. They will not solve the hunger problem which has always been about access and not availability. Nobody knows how the grandchildren of the people who eat GM soya or GM maize will be affected. Nobody knows how the genes will be carried with the pollen in the wind and affect other varieties. So why take the risk? Zambia is one of the world's 'underpolluted' countries (except for pockets of industrial production) and we should focus on producing organic foods for that is where we would enjoy an advantage. Organic farming is labour intensive, healthy and produces foods that fetch high prices on the world market. A consumer anywhere in the world should be presented with a choice between organically grown Zambian tomato and nuclear power packed long life tomato with viagra and multi-vitamins added. I have no doubt that most will choose the Zambian tomato to be on the safe side. Those who like taking risks or are too poor to care will go for the American one. Zambians cannot compete in the field of GM technology but they can produce herbal pesticides and compost as well as anybody else. We have enough peasant farmers to do the job competitively if only they were not weighed down by the unfair subsidies that the aristocratic and thoroughly inefficient EU farmers and US Food-engineering corporations receive. I am sure Zambians know that the taste of a village chicken surpasses anything that the American chemical industry has mass produced. It is not by accident that Americans are battling against obesity today, they have been eating fatty pork and fatty chicken with a residue of growth hormones and other chemicals. Let us eat what the Bible told us to eat and we will not regret it. Let us go 'back to the land' and grow our own food. If we are not able to do that then let us shut up and enjoy the stock-feed maize and non-kosher meats that the Europeans and Americans are offering us.