Zimbabwe’s rejection of food aid containing GMOs worrisome for country’s poor, hungry

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The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis.

My country’s government would rather see people starve than let them eat genetically modified food.

That’s the only conclusion to draw from the announcement in February that Zimbabwe will reject any food aid that includes a genetically-modified-organism ingredient. . . The ban comes just as Zimbabweans are suffering from our worst drought in two decades and up to three million people need emergency relief.

. . . .

. . . [M]y country—which can’t feed itself—will refuse what millions around the world eat safely every day. . .Our customs inspectors will make sure that no food with GMOs reaches a single hungry mouth.

The drought has devastated my family’s farm, which will produce almost no sorghum or corn this year. . .the drought has caused prices to soar, even for the simplest goods. In the markets, cabbages the size of tennis balls sell for $1.

. . . .

The rejection of GMO food aid is a humanitarian outrage. . . Yet something even worse lies behind it: a denial of science. GMOs pose no threat to human health, as virtually every scientific and regulatory agency that has studied them knows.

. . . .

For too long African countries have looked to Europe for economic and intellectual leadership—and now we’ve accepted Europe’s sweeping opposition to GMOs. The difference is that Europe is a wealthy continent that can afford this ideological luxury. In Africa, we can’t. . . . We need an agricultural sector that keeps up with population growth, rather than one that keeps on falling behind.

. . . .

. . . [E]ven crops with GMOs can’t bring us the rain we need. Yet the drought may serve the purpose of highlighting the madness of Africa’s anti-GMO extremism.

WSJ subscribers may read full, original post here: We May Starve, but at Least We’ll Be GMO-Free

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