Ghana may be preparing to accept GM foods

A source at the headquarters of Ghana's Food and Drugs Board has hinted that a bill has been drafted and expected to be presented to Parliament for adoption and approval on how GM foods would be regulated if allowed to circulate in the local market.

The board is said to be lacking the equipment for testing genetically modified foods. In that regard, it is presently collaborating with the Noguchi Institute, a Japanese research institute that has the tools to test such items.

Presently, the country frowns on the importation of GM foods with the view that it lacks the expertise to regulate the system. Besides, officials have little knowledge about their effect on humans.

The source debunked the assertion that GM foods, especially rice, had been smuggled into and are being sold in the country. He insisting that the market surveillance unit of the board is yet to find a GM product in the system, even after they intensified their search after media reports of GM foods in the country.

Ghana recently signed a pact, joining some 150 countries, that opposes the imposition of GM foods on them. This has propelled the international community to set up rules that would facilitate their use by third world countries. These include educating them adequately on the benefits and effects of GM products and explaining their scientific basis.

GM products are produced from organisms which have had their genome altered through genetic engineering techniques, and have been available since 1990, with the principal ones being derived from soybean, maize, rice canola and cotton seed oil.

Some experts have argued that there is more than enough food in the world and that the hunger crises is caused by problems in food distribution, not production and that people should not be offered food that may carry some degree of risk. Others say it might have unforeseen consequences, both in the initially modified organisms and their environments.

The Statesman