Browsing: GMO in Africa

According to activists Greenpeace, Bayer, the company that bought Monsanto in South Africa is still distributing the weed killer, glyphosate which may cause cancer. Photo/NBC

Profit or health: Africa courting danger opening up market for GMOs

Countries

In 2020, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in the US won a major legal battle against just such herbicides and pesticides right along with GMO crops.

The win did not come easy. It was the result of years of litigation against Monsanto’s toxic pesticide, in this case, called dicamba, before a federal court issued the ruling. The win was a double-edged sword in that it banned the pesticide and it also banned the use of GMO crops that were designed to withstand the effects of the said pesticide.

In the ruling, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that EPA’s approval of the pesticide in question be revoked with immediate effect and application also stopped. The reason farmers took the GMOs and the related pesticides to court in the first place is the same reason the South African activists are decrying the sale of the weed killer there; it simply is not safe for humans, animals and crops as well.

Activists raise concern over GM products as companies that produce the GMOs like Monsanto remain defendant that their products are safe for human consumption.

Kenya becomes fifth country to allow GMOs. Will it last?

Countries

While Tanzania has approved genetic engineering research and has no issue with the safety of GMOs, across the continent in Nigeria, the story is different. The leading economy in Africa is against genetic engineering and/or the consumption of GMOs.

Stakeholders are calling on the government to revisit its biosafety laws to protect its people from what they describe as the uncertain safety of GM products.

Local media in Nigeria report worrisome findings of a survey by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), which was conducted across nine major cities in the West African country that revealed over 30 food products found in the Nigerian market are GM products.

The products range from vegetable oils and cereals to ice cream and spices. Ok, so there are various GMOs on supermarket shelves in Nigeria. Is it a crime? No, in fact it is perfectly legal to import, sell and consume GM products in Nigeria.