As Africa鈥檚 spokesman on biotech issues at the UN, Tewolde Berhan Egziabher has taken on the West and won. He has convinced developing countries to hold off licensing genetically modified crops until more is known about the risks. He has also managed to get member states of the Organisation of African Unity to consider adopting a law that will ban patents on genes. The influence wielded by Egziabher, who heads Ethiopia鈥檚 environmental protection authority, has got biotech companies and the US government worried. The US in particular fears that his ideas could isolate Africa further, but Egziabher doesn鈥檛 see it that way. Ehsan Masood spoke to a past master of diplomacy and deal-making.
Ethiopia has a rich history but in the West it鈥檚 known chiefly for war and famine . . .
The question is, why famine? That has never been asked and that鈥檚 also the heart of the problem now when we think about new technologies such as GM. We had those famines not because the country cannot produce food. In 1984 to 1985, the years of the worst famine, northwestern Ethiopia had heaps of grain, rotting, waiting for lorries to take them to areas where it was needed. Moreover, 85 per cent of the population is still rural with no access to financial resources other than crops grown by families. If a bad season turns up, families have no grain, and therefore no income. So, when there is food, they can鈥檛 buy it.
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Why is Ethiopia so poor?
Ethiopia kept the world out for centuries until the Second World War, when the Italians tried to colonise in a five-year effort that didn鈥檛 succeed. But it did help to challenge Ethiopia to mix with the outside world. The country has had to accommodate huge changes in two generations, when many other countries have taken two centuries to deal with them. It is a country that is in a mess trying to come to terms with its past, and at the same time emerging into the present.
What would you say is Ethopia鈥檚 most pressing environmental problem?
Land degradation, loss of vegetation, trees, soil erosion and increased destruction of hydrological resources.
Would it help if you introduced crops that are genetically modified to grow in less than ideal conditions?
I don鈥檛 believe that there can be crops that would withstand continuing land degradation. Such crops will need some water. But there is no water. You can鈥檛 manage a crop that grows on bare rock.
If GM crops aren鈥檛 the answer, how else could Ethiopia use Western aid and expertise?
Number one, Westerners in developing countries should not interfere with what we鈥檙e doing. Very often they come with simplified recipes that cause more problems than solutions. I think they should stop prescribing solutions. If they want to help, they should go into partnership based on genuine dialogue. Then they could provide technical help when they are asked for specific technical inputs.
Are you against genetic engineering?
No. I am definitely not. I am neither anti nor pro any technology. A technology is as good as the combination of our needs and its promise. I don鈥檛 idolise any particular technology. Genetic engineering is just one technology.
Why do you think the US is so gung-ho about GM crops?
When the UN Biosafety Protocol was being negotiated, countries led by the US were feeling on top of the world. They felt that the public was behind them. They controlled exports of major crop commodities, and thought they could dictate to the world. But that has now been undermined as the American public follows the path of the Europeans as it begins to realise that there could be serious risks with genetically engineered products.
You argue that we shouldn鈥檛 use GM products until scientists are sure they鈥檙e safe-possibly for another 10 years. This logic has never applied to other technologies, such as mobile phones. Why is GM different?
Just because we have been committing mistakes in the past doesn鈥檛 mean that we must continue to make them. We need to learn from previous mistakes. DDT wasn鈥檛 immediately seen to be poisonous to humans but it turns out to have a very insidious impact. If mobile phones are useful for only 10 years, then they might as well be scrapped. But if they continue to be useful, a delay of 10 years to make sure that they鈥檙e safe wouldn鈥檛 be such a major hurdle for humanity.
In fact, we鈥檝e had GM food in some form for almost a decade and there鈥檚 been no apparent serious harm to human health or the environment. Doesn鈥檛 that meet your time limit?
Well, that would assume all GM organisms and their products are the same. One genetically engineered product that is consumed and hasn鈥檛 shown any demonstrable problems so far doesn鈥檛 mean the next one will be the same.
On that basis, then, how could GM technology ever be commercialised?
I wouldn鈥檛 go to the extent of saying we don鈥檛 want the technology. I would agree that any technology should be tried, but discontinued if it creates more problems than advantages. Nuclear technology is an example of this. It came with big promise but tremendous problems, and is now being scaled down. In comparison, the problems created by other forms of power generation seem to be easier to deal with. If we turn out to be wrong about nuclear power, I鈥檓 happy to go back and expand it. All I鈥檓 saying is we must be vigilant and we must observe. In the case of genetic engineering, we are changing the nature of individual organisms, so our period of observation must be long and extensive.
Realistically, isn鈥檛 it too late to call a halt to GM food? The horse has bolted . . .
There are many horses. If one horse has bolted and you allow a thousand others to bolt, you would be making the same mistake a thousand times. What I鈥檓 saying is that if one particular horse has bolted, let鈥檚 observe it and learn from it. Now that we鈥檙e wiser, let鈥檚 not allow the others to bolt equally.
You鈥檙e also opposed to the current system of patents on genes. What鈥檚 your alternative?
I am not pushing for an alternative patenting system. I want a system that minimises the destruction of the existing system. As things are, an American company could hold the rights to a crop or plant variety that originates in Ethiopia-and claim royalties from Ethiopians who use it. If this happens, it would be tragic. It could make a mockery of the patenting system. It could also cause a lot of hardship. It is in our interest to prevent this from happening. This is why countries in Africa are being encouraged to adopt laws that would prohibit the patenting of living things, and which would give farmers access to-and the rights to-replanting crops they use without paying royalties.
Such laws would be a direct challenge to the World Trade Organization, which requires its members to sign up to the world鈥檚 current system. If an African country wants to benefit from free trade, won鈥檛 it have to ignore your advice?
We believe that the model law [with a clause banning patents on genes] is compatible with existing WTO rules. But even within the WTO, the issue of patenting life is in disarray. Remember what happened at the last WTO meeting in Seattle . . .
What is wrong with current laws on gene patenting? How else should scientists protect their inventions from piracy?
That鈥檚 my problem. It鈥檚 a contradiction to say 鈥渓iving thing鈥� and 鈥渋nvention鈥�. As far as I know, there isn鈥檛 one living thing that has been invented. This means that it cannot be patented either. Secondly, even if you assume that an individual organism has been invented, the next generation, the offspring of that individual, is created through a natural process of reproduction. It is not invented. And it is not the same as its parent. How, then, could it be covered by the same patent as its parent?
Isn鈥檛 Dolly, the cloned sheep, an invention?
She is still a sheep. All that has happened is that she contains the same cells as one of her parents. I don鈥檛 think the makers claim they have invented it. They have only made it possible for the natural process of cellular division to start all over again.
Patents on life aren鈥檛 really patents on genes. Often they are patents on the process used to discover a particular gene sequence鈥�
I have no problem with the patenting of processes. And there are many achievements that I recognise. If society feels these deserve recognition, then those who contributed to engineering or modifying things that do not occur in nature should be compensated in some way. But it isn鈥檛 just processes that are being patented, but also constructs. A construct is a combination of one particular gene and other genes together. That鈥檚 not a process.
But both the European Patent Office and the US Patent Office insist they will not grant a patent on a raw gene sequence. It has to be novel, not exist in nature, and it should represent an inventive step . . .
Yes. Why do you say 鈥渋nventive step鈥�? Why not 鈥渋nvention鈥�? The word has been modified so that the difference between a discovery and an invention is now blurred. If you discover one thing, then discover something else, bring the two together, and then patent the process of bringing them together, I would have no problem. But the pieces that have been brought together cannot be patented, because they still are living things.
Monsanto is reported to have said that it was wrong to evangelise about the benefits of GM food without talking of the risks, and in future promises not to use human or animal genes in food . . .
I鈥檓 glad to hear that.
But aren鈥檛 large multinational corporations too unwieldy to change years-old practices overnight?
I don鈥檛 know. I have never been involved with multinational companies. I鈥檝e never been rich in my life-I鈥檝e always worried about the last 5 cents. This is a world beyond me. I certainly feel very uncomfortable when a vast multinational company based in St Louis or Washington DC, or London, controls the agricultural production system in a small village in my country. Certainly, the further this control extends, the less sensitive the system becomes to local needs and the more problematic agricultural production becomes. I don鈥檛 have to believe or disbelieve what Monsanto says or does. Assuming they do what they say, it is good.
If the head of Monsanto phoned you tomorrow and said let鈥檚 talk, would you accept?
Yes, I would talk to him with pleasure.
Would there be any preconditions?
I am not sure I would call them preconditions. I would say that he is not to use the might of his money to destroy what I say and turn it into propaganda. The only condition would be that there is an assurance of honesty.