THE UN has been delivering genetically modified food as emergency aid for the past seven years, 快猫短视频 has learned. And it has done so without telling the countries concerned. Its admission makes a mockery of African governments鈥� recent efforts to reject GM food aid.
Countries getting GM food aid in the past two years 鈥� often in breach of national regulations 鈥� include the Philippines, India, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Ecuador, as well as many African countries.
The UN World Food Programme told 快猫短视频 this week that its staff are under no obligation to alert authorities and have made no attempt to distinguish between GM and conventional cereals since 1996, when GM crops first became part of US grain stocks destined for aid. Half of world food aid comes from the US, and a quarter of the nation鈥檚 maize is genetically modified. 鈥淲e do business with 83 countries in the world,鈥� WFP director James Morris said last week.
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The news comes amid allegations that the US is exploiting southern Africa鈥檚 drought to drum up markets for its large unsold stocks of GM maize and soya. Saliem Fakir, director of the South African branch of the IUCN (World Conservation Union), calls the offer of GM food aid to the region a moral trap. 鈥淎frica is just a pawn in the US鈥檚 attempt to break the European Union鈥檚 position on GM foods,鈥� he says.
The UN estimates that 14 million people in southern Africa will need food aid in the coming months. Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa angrily rejected GM food aid as 鈥減oison鈥� earlier this month, but has been forced to admit that his citizens have been eating GM aid on and off since the mid-1990s. Zambia鈥檚 neighbours Zimbabwe and Malawi have now accepted GM maize on condition that it is milled to prevent farmers planting it in their fields.
The WFP, the world鈥檚 largest supplier of food aid, uses mostly North American grain. 鈥淲e think the starving would rather eat GM grain than dirt,鈥� said spokesman Trevor Rowe this week. But African governments argue there is plenty of GM-free maize available on world markets that could be supplied as aid.
Independent aid groups are being caught up in the row. Most turn a blind eye to GM cereals in their food aid, says anti-GM campaigner Patrick Mulvany of the Intermediate Technology Development Group in Britain. A recent study found that none has formal policies banning GM cereals.
The WFP says it sees no need to warn about GM material in food aid. It says, 鈥淲e are just the middle man. If the food meets the national standards of the donors, we accept it.鈥�
But Mulvany says that since 1996, most poor countries have made clear in negotiations on international rules for GM trade that they want to be told in advance about GM imports, and many have announced outright bans. 鈥淭he WFP would have been aware of this. If it was not informing recipient countries after that, it should be severely criticised.鈥�
Though health scares grab local headlines, southern African countries have a real fear that once GM grain is planted it will contaminate domestic grain fed to livestock destined for European markets. 鈥淎frican livestock commands a high price because it is organically raised,鈥� says Andrew Clegg of the EU-funded Namibia Human Resources Development Programme. 鈥淭his market strength will vanish if there is even the slightest suspicion that products can no longer be guaranteed GM-free.鈥�
Recent research in Mexico found that GM maize imported from the US to make tortillas has been planted and is now contaminating fields far and wide. So far as 快猫短视频 has been able to establish, no similar tests have been done on maize growing in countries that have received food aid.