Come this year's planting season, that is, within a matter of weeks, Ghana is poised to roll out its first row of genetically modified seeds into our food chain. This revelation came out in the course of a Parliamentary Vetting of Hon. Clement Kofi Humado, as required by the Constitution of Ghana prior to being appointed as a Minister of State. The Minister of Food and Agriculture designate, made a rather startling observation:
Hon. Humado indicated that when given the nod, he would want to see that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are used by commercial farmers saying, “Parliament recently passed the legal framework and regulatory mechanism and we will have to liberalize the situation so farmers who are interested in all types of seeds including GMO seeds will be allowed to use it. I will want to see that GMOs are used by commercial farmers.” [1]
Hon. Humado Taking an oath before the Parliamentary Vetting
Published on 25 Jan 2013
President John Mahama's ministerial
nominees face the Appointments Committee of Parliament composed of only
members of the Majority members of Parliament
This is against the backdrop that in the run-up to the Presidential elections in 2012, one of the key elements cited by the NDC supporters against the NPP was the accusation of “the opposition New Patriotic Party and its presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of being puppets of multinationals such as the United States’ agricultural company Monsanto.” For example, in predicting a win for the NDC, Africa Confidential published an article on 16 November 2012, Elections 2012: Mahama ahead by a hair, in which it pointed out that “NDC critics claim the NPP’s agricultural expansion policies are based on imposing Monsanto’s genetically modified seed varieties on local farmers. More widely, they paint the centre-right NPP as the party of ‘bosses in suits’ who have little understanding of or interest in the lives of the urban or rural poor.” [2]
The Pan-Africanist International was one of the organisations that flagged the NPP Manifesto on Agriculture. In an article “The NPP Manifesto on Agriculture is Bogus and Fraudulent!", the P-AI argued that:
“Like the poor cat in the adage, who wanted to catch the fish but did not want to wet its paws, the NPP wants a mandate to introduce Genetically Modified Organisms into our food chain, but they do not want a discussion! They do not even want the people to get the full picture, even less, to be informed! We are going to discuss this, whether they like it or not! And we are going to inform the good people of Ghana. There is something fundamentally flawed in the bid by the NPP to seek the mandate to assault our agriculture under false pretences. We want the NPP to come out to clearly explain that anomaly, or to formally rule out the introduction of GM crops under their administration. The people of Ghana need to know if a vote for the NPP is equal to a vote for GM crops. The NPP is being unfair to Ghanaians by asking them to vote NPP on the basis of promises to provide “improved seeds”, a well known term commonly used to disguise and greenwash the fact that those seeds are genetically modified organisms that carry with them a myriad of dangers.” [3]
GMO Contamination: A Real And Present Danger!
The introduction of genetically modified crops into our food chain is nothing but an unmitigated disaster. There is no independent science studying the performance or the safety of GMOs. The agrochemical companies forbid it by contract. Claims for performance and yields or claims of safety and efficacy can only be regarded as self serving and speculative. There is no independent evidence to support them.
GMOs are not designed to help farming, farmers, increase yields or preserve the environment. They are a predatory business model designed to further enrich giant corporations. Because of patents and royalties the price of seeds farmers pay will continue to climb. Monsanto buys up or crushes the competition, so there are no conventional or alternative seeds available after a few years.
GM traits don't improve yield, it is the underlying quality of the unpatented germplasm, or seed, plus soil quality and water that determine yields. GMO crops are providing opportunity for proliferation of super insect pests and super weeds. Super weeds, resistant to herbicides, now occupy 1/2 of US farmland, in some areas, 90%. GMOs therefore increase the use of increasingly stronger herbicides and pesticides, contrary to the claims made for them, claims that they decrease use of chemicals and are good for the environment.
Farmers are caught by GM crop failures and by the increasing price of seeds, plus the agrochemicals, fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, with no way out or relief available, leading to hundreds of farmer suicides in India. Monsanto uses the courts aggressively and sues farmers who inadvertently grow patented GM crops, even if they are growing them accidentally due to cross pollination or other legally obtained seeds. US and Canadian courts have supported Monsanto, awarding huge judgements against farmers.
The USDA is not even trying to regulate large areas of GMO research. How can countries, particularly with the often limited resources in developing countries tackle the problems of the unintentional release of GMOs and the resulting damage to native crops and the damage to biological diversity? Seralini's study of the tumours produced in rats fed glycophosphate resistant GM corn should make us all call for more independent scientific studies of the properties of GM foods, and of their long term effects on humans and on the environment.
Thus the attempt by the NDC government to go ahead with commercial farming of GM seeds is clearly a fundamental betrayal of all those who supported the NDC in opposition to the real and present danger the NPP represented in their obvious bid to introduce GMOs into our food chain. The struggle now is to stop the NDC from carrying out such an unconscionable mischief. A people with a history of 500 years of foreign domination of the most horrible forms, including slavery, apartheid, colonialism, and neo-colonialism, and all forms of imperialist aggression, deserve to be treated better than this by their own elected representatives.
These moves to impose genetically engineered crops on Ghanaians by Ghana's political class, both in the opposition and within the ruling government ought to raise a serious alarm that imperialism has not finished with us yet. In the NDC, they have found a convenient stooge to sow the new chains of 21st century enslavement of the people. Where a government becomes an accessory to the new imperialist scramble for Africa, to the detriment of the very people they have been elected to serve, it loses its legitimacy. The least that can be asked is to compel the government to account for its actions.
As Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., put it recently on a radio and television programme, "We have come to the era of what they call "designer seeds. You understand? And if you look at the concept of "designer seeds", our farmers when they grow maize or anything, leave a certain portion for planting the next season. Now, because the seeds we are bringing in are hybrid, the farmer when he has grown his crop, can no longer reserve his own crops for the next season. So our agriculture is becoming increasingly dependent on the supply of seeds from multinational corporations! How can we allow this to persist? This is a negative practice which we need to end as quickly as possible!" Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., On "Designer Seeds, (You may listen to the entire programme here: Alhaji & Alhaji, www.ghananewslink.com, 9th Mar 2013.)
GM CROPS - Argentina: The Bad Seeds
The country's soy industry is booming but what is the impact of soy production on Argentinians and the environment?
People & Power - http://youtu.be/Ih1p2YhzDAk
REFERENCES:
[1] Parliament Vets Minister Designate, Tuesday, January 29th, 2013: http://mofa.gov.gh/site/?p=11483
[2] Elections 2012: Mahama ahead by a hair, 16 November 2012, http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=257839
[3] NPP Manifesto on Agriculture is Bogus and Fraudulent! September 10, 2012, http://www.panafricanistinternational.org/?p=1832
No comments:
Post a Comment