From The Ramparts

US Determined to Push Frankenfood s on Africa

US Determined to Push Frankenfood s on Africa

“The PR exploitation of drought and hunger in Zambia shows that for the GM lobby there are no limits, even when it involves rewriting history and manufacturing crimes against humanity. This year, following scanty and erratic rainfall, many of Zambia's maize fields have had the life scorched out of them. In some provinces the severity of the drought may mean a crop failure of 100 percent. With maize reserves falling short of the country's requirement, the Zambian government has banned the export of maize meal to neighbouring countries in a bid to forestall the looming food deficit. This crisis is reminiscent of the crises Zambia faced in 2000 and 2002. It's not only the threat of hunger, though, that's reviving painful memories; it's also the way in which that threat is being exploited. For the genetically modified foods lobby, tragedy spells opportunity, with drought and crop failure providing the perfect platform to pressure the Zambian government over its resistance to genetically modified organisms. So far, instead of going down the GM route, Zambia has been looking to alternatives to feed its population. Three years ago, when that strategy was first adopted, it led to Colin Powell's denunciation of Zambia at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg. And Powell's attack was just one element in a virulent US/industry campaign of pressure and dissimulation that continues to this day.”- Jonathan Matthews www.freezerbox.com 06-20-05

To their credit several African leaders are resisting efforts by the multi-national agribusinesses like Monsanto to dump genetically engineered or modified foods often called Biotech products or Frankenfood on their people. Several weeks ago I wrote apiece pointing out how Kenya was resisting the Frankenfoods offered by the West. I recently came across additional information showing that Zambia is also opposing importation of genetically modified corn despite a severe drought that is threatening their total maize crop this year. Of course whenever Africans stand up for ourselves and exert our right of self-determination we are demonized and portrayed as the bad guys, ironically the term the US military also uses to describe the Iraqis fighting to oust the AmeriKKKan warmongers from their homeland. In the case of Zambia their leaders have remained resolute in their desire to explore alterative natural means to feed their people. For the leeches at big agribusiness and their US government sycophants, the famine in Southern Africa which impacted Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho and Angola presented a prime opportunity to flood the region with their excess inventory (they have large inventories because many European nations refuse to buy them) of genetically altered seeds and foodstuff. The leaders of Kenya and Zambia are to be commended for holding out because of concerns about the lack of adequate testing and the safety of genetically engineered ( the words biotech, engineered, altered and modified well be used interchangeably) seeds and foods. Of course the agribusinesses are motivated by potential profits and could care less about the any dangers of eating plants that have been cross pollinated or genetically melded with fish, animals and even human genes and DNA! Zambian leaders even sent their scientists (the Western media would have us believe Africans and science are mutually exclusive) and their economists on a fact finding tour of the laboratories and regulatory agencies of US, Europe and South Africa (SOuth Africa is the leading proponent of GM foods on the continent) to determine whether or not GM seeds or corn would be safe and a good investment. Their experts returned and advised Zambian presidentLevy Mwanawasa to pass on the GM corn due to inconclusive studies.
Whites don’t like to be told no or that their products are Wack, especially by Africans so they put extreme pressure on the regional governments to accept the GM maize by kick starting their PR/media mind control machines to globally attack, denounce and demonize the African leaders saying their actions were irresponsible and would cause massive deaths from starvation. Zambia was the only nation that did not capitulate to US pressure. To his credit President Mwanawasa was able to secure alternative food sources and prevent the dire consequences the US mind control apparatus was forecasting. The question this time is, how long will Mwanawasa be able to hold out? Zambian leadership is in the cross hairs of the corporatist Bush administration. According to an article in the Online alternative medium www.freezerbox.com The US economic/policy hit men are out to get Mwanawasa, “But for the GM lobby, the failure to offload GM food even onto a country wracked by hunger made for a humiliating global spectacle, and they weren't about to back off. The tone had been set at the Earth Summit when Andrew Natsios, the head of USAID, had gone after the organizations opposing GM. ‘The Bush administration,’ Natsios warned, ‘is not going to sit there and let these groups kill millions of poor people in southern Africa through their ideological campaign’. Also on the US hit list were Zambia's leaders. The US Ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Agencies, Tony Hall, called for African leaders who had refused US food aid to be tried ‘for the highest crimes against humanity in the highest courts of the world.’” Part of the problem is the US wants to dump its Frankenfoods on Africa because the European Union will not open their markets to US freakfood. Unlike in AmeriKKKa where the USDA rolled over for Monsanto and the other giant Frankenfood makers the EU, like Kenya and Zambia is demanding thorough testing and safety clearance of GM foods before they approve them for consumption. This means potential losses and irate shareholders at Monsanto so the battle is far from over, a UK organization, www.GMWatch.org Reveals that Africa is the prime target for US Frankenfood manufacturers, “Amidst this enthusiasm for genetic engineering, there has been little space for critical reflection. Leaping into genetic engineering brings with it a wide range of biosafety issues including health and environmental risks, and broader socio-economic impacts. It requires the acceptance of intellectual property rights on living organisms, the privatisation of public research, and expensive research and development at the expense of farmer-based innovation. Instead, what we are witnessing are aggressive attempts especially by the United States through its agency for international development, USAID, and the genetic engineering industry to impose GM crops on Africa under the guise of addressing food insecurity, reducing environmental stress and fighting poverty. The potential for agri-businesses to profit from hunger in Africa through, ostensibly the provision of food aid, technical assistance, capital investment in agricultural research, capacity building and the funding of biosafety initiatives, is enormous.” Africa is the prime target and the biotech and GM lobbies are making inroads throughout the continent. Pray that other African leaders will demonstrate the courage and resolve the leaders of Kenya and Zambia have in resisting the imposition of Frankenfoods on their people.

-30-

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 9:07 AM