Officials in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe are wary of accepting emergency shipments of engineered corn into their countries.
Why are famine-plagued countries rejecting genetically modified foods?
One reason the African countries give is that they fear that the genetically-modified grains might be planted rather than eaten. That could contaminate the entire region's food supply, since once these crops are planted it’s almost impossible to stop their spread. This is critical, because the region's economy relies on grain exports to overseas markets, including Europe, which refuses to import GE food.
Is there any scientific consensus that genetically modified foods are safe?
There is no scientific consensus that genetically engineered foods are safe. More than 450 scientists from 56 countries -- including researchers from Harvard, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge universities -- signed an open letter sent in the past few years to the U.S. Congress, the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. The letter cited studies that demonstrate the risks of GE foods. Among those risks are:
Why aren't Americans being told about the concerns of scientists?
Agribusiness and scientists are in the courts about this issue. The study done in the early 1990s said to research the differences in GMO and non-GMO foods is being questioned. Several political happenings over the last decade or so point to an unresolved struggle between the truth and what agribusiness wants publicized.
FDA scientists did not claim that GE foods were dangerous -- only that the risks were unknown and had not been studied adequately. Research cited by the scientists of the world in their open letter show the concerns of FDA staff were justified.
This is one genie we can't put back in the bottle. Farmers have been unable to stop DNA from GE crops from spreading to unaltered plants, which has created pesticide-resistant weeds in England and contaminated oilseed in Canada and virtually all of the corn grown in the Midwestern United States.
Americans deserve to know the truth behind genetically engineered foods. And U.S. officials shouldn't force desperate Africans to choose between risking starvation today or endangering their livelihoods and possibly their health for decades to come.
Pacific News Service August 14, 2002
What agribusiness has failed to fully appreciate is that once these plants are growing, it’s physically impossible to prevent them from pollinating other plants and contaminating them with these new proteins -- we have no clue of these proteins long-term consequences.
One of the keys to health is good food. Although most of us don't choose to do so, we can still purchase real, unaltered food in this country. The future does not appear to provide that option.
Genetically modified foods did not exist prior to 1995. Ninety percent of the money Americans spend on food is spent on processed foods and seventy percent of processed foods have genetically modified foods in them. There are NO STUDIES with humans on what happens when one consumes genetically modified foods. The FDA has ASSUMED that they are equivalent to the original and never required any studies to have them approved. This is despite the fact that this technology has never existed in the history of the world before.
Last year "Starlink" corn was only approved for animal consumption -- NOT human consumption. This was due to a concern that it could cause allergies in humans. Well, "Starlink" corn wound up trapped in the human food supply, despite FDA precautions.
There are 8 different agencies in the US regulating biotechnology under 12 different sets of laws. NONE of the laws had biotechnology in mind when they were passed, as they are 40-50 years old. This is one big disaster just waiting to happen
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