Africa is not being forced to accept GM crops

by James Wachai

David Fig, who identifies himself as a trustee of BioWatch and an environmental policy analyst, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, has penned an article haranguing multinational biotech companies and some NGOs for trying to goad African governments to adopt genetically modified (GM) crops.

Mr. Fig writes that these multinational biotech companies, backed by wealthy foundations, are forcing African countries to embrace an agricultural biotechnology agenda that is detached from their national development blueprints. He mentions the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa as one of the organizations smothering the infrastructure for the introduction of GM crops in Africa. You only need to read the press statement that announced the formation of this alliance in 2006 to conclude that Fig, just like most anti-biotech activists, fancies misleading rather than educating the public about agricultural biotechnology.

Why would Bill Gates, a software developer, who, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t own a seed or agrochemical company, be so desperate to hum a melody of genetically modified crops to a poor African audience? Or why would Kofi Annan, who, in June, accepted to be chair of this alliance be hell-bent on propping up the work of biotech seed companies in Africa?

Gates has, over years, committed billions of dollars to anti-poverty programs in Africa and other under-privileged parts of the world. Assuming that multinational biotech companies are what Fig says they are, would Gates really cheer them on to “exploit” poor farmers in Africa?

Fig characterizes GM crops as a bandwagon. I am at a loss as to why more American, Chinese, South African, Argentinean, Spaniard, and Mexican farmers are willing to join in the GM crops bandwagon, and not Africans. Is it that these farmers are so ignorant they are blindly growing GM crops?

I recently read that more American farmers will, this year, grow GM crops, not to feed the hungry and malnourished in various parts of the developing world, but to meet the demands of the biofuel industry. I wait to see where the debate about Africans being used as guinea pigs by GM growers will go when GM crop growers finally conclude that it’s more profitable dealing with the biofuel industry.

The explosive growth of the biofuel industry is proving to be a boon for GM crop growers. Why wouldn’t those scared of eating GM crops, then, grow them for the biofuel industry? Profits gained thereof can be used to develop “homegrown solutions” to Africa’s agriculture as Mr. Fig “advises.”

Fig’s hypocrisy, double standards and apparent lack of knowledge with regard to genetic engineering is disturbing. Why didn’t he Fig and others like him, for instance, raise eye-brows when scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, announced that they had developed discovered genetically engineered artemisinin to treat Malaria? To anti-biotech activists, it seems, is okay to use genetic engineering to develop drugs, but not food crops.

I detest this populist rhetoric that Africa must be left alone to chart its own agricultural biotechnology agenda. It negates the spirit of globalization that countries like China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa are taking advantage of to develop their economies.

Additionally, it attempts to slight the role of the private sector in science and technology. Governments don’t innovate, the private sector does. Cutting-edge agricultural technologies such as crop genetic engineering aren’t initiatives of governments. Private companies normally marshal resources for innovative use by researchers at universities and research institutes. The private sector and governments in Africa still frown upon science and technology research.

Biotech companies that Fig attempts to demonize are in Africa at the invitation of scientists and researchers frustrated with their governments’ indifference to investment in science and technology research.

When Mr. Fig declares, “Say No to GM Bandwagon,” he seems to endorse the status quo, which is unacceptable.

GMO Africa