'Africa should beware of GM food aid'

Mail & Guardian ^ | April 25, 2003

[Rudder]

To top it all off, GM food is now a political issue and not a scientific one. Which means any real testing and data results can and will be skewed, to one side or the other.

Wouldn't you know it? Just when I thought GM was worthy of serious investigation, it all turned political.

You're right. We may never know.

[tiki]

In other words, you may be healthier if you just starve because the long term consequences of genetically altered foods are unknown. By the way, do you know if there are a lot of them around?

[xm177e2]

Starving your family to death in a principled, earth concious fashion is obviously preferable to dining in sin.

Even Santorum wouldn't deny food to a practicioner of sodomy, would he? These envirowackos are so much more "pious" and sanctimonious than any Republicans in congress.

[Rudder]

The anti-GM crowd is more interested in the politics than in saving people.

There appears to be no doubt about this. In my query here, I'm neither pro- or anti- GM. I simply, as a life scientist, plead to ignorance.

Since Mendell, who cheated on his statistics, we have been ingesting genetically-modified food. But, since Einstein, GM is now quite different from old Gregor's sweet peas.

Gene-splicing is the norm for today's GM effort: seeds, mice, human beings, zebras, aardvarks, (heretofore thought to be) extinct mammoths and everyone else. In my experience, the American Public knows virtually nothing about GM.

[Jhoffa_]

These envirowackos are so much more "pious" and sanctimonious than any Republicans in congress.

No crap there..

Anyone who could sit at home and feel *good* about talking someone into starvation, I can't even relate to.

I don't know how to even begin a conversation like that.

[Rudder]

Most problems with food are allergic in nature...

I think you're right about this. And I do recall a GM corn that failed to get on the market because of the strong allergenic reaction to it's ingestion.

[Rudder]

If the onion were presented to the FDA as a new food, it would never make it...

Same goes for Aspirin.

[farmfriend]

ping. I have some great links to web sites with really good information on them. I'll post as soon as I can get them to pull up.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

In January, thousands of Zambian villagers disregarded their government's position and made off with 4 600 50-kilogramme sacks of rejected GM food aid.

They just didn't know any better.

[farmfriend]

“Agri-biotechnology matters to Kenya, as to most other African countries, for the most basic of reasons: Our people do not have enough to eat,” wrote Florence Wambugu, founder of A Harvest Biotech Foundation International and author of the book, Modifying Africa: How Biotechnology Can Benefit the Poor and Hungry, A Case Study from Kenya.16 Wambugu, who helped develop Kenya’s first biotech sweet potato that is resistant to feathery mottle virus, established the foundation to help bring more plant biotechnology knowledge and research to Africa.

Plant Biotechnology in Africa
Plant biotechnology is a vital tool to help improve yields and prospects in Africa.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[DarkWaters]

Wouldn't you know it? Just when I thought GM was worthy of serious investigation, it all turned political.

You're right. We may never know.

And that is the real shame of whole thing.

[farmfriend]

I do recall a GM corn that failed to get on the market because of the strong allergenic reaction to it's ingestion.

There was no corn that had strong allergic reactions. It was the scare tactic that was used to keep it off the market. It was the same corn that they claimed was killing butterflies. Also untrue. You will find links to those stories on the sites I have linked to this page.

[KeyWest]

There was an allergen in the corn pulled from the market. No one ever came forth with an allergy to it, but because it had the tag still in it, it was pulled from the market. I think its name was starline or something like that. All future corn does not have any allergen. They are tested thoroughly.

The other scare tactic is antibiotic tags in the GM corn. That was used in research but has since long gone.