You were talking about saving seeds in another thread. Alot of countries are worried about aid and the release of transgenic seeds through foodstuffs and are worried for the safety of their children.
I only have time to post these because we are on a countdown for a wedding. I hope anyone reading this will go to google.com and pull up Zimbabwe + genetically altered seeds (or cotton).
I am adding another email that I received. Not Africa, I know, but relevant. Sorry, I don't have time to snip. Off to continue cleaning!
Africans Worried US To Force Unlabeled GE Foods on Them
Inter Press Service
September 21, 2001
DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: U.S./EU DISPUTE OVER GMO WORRIES CONSUMERS
By Lewis Machipisa
Harare, Zimbabwe
<snip>
"With Zimbabwe planning to import more than 600,000 tons of staple maize and
wheat in the near future, there are fears that some of the food could come
from South Africa, which will begin harvesting GM maize at the end of the
year.
"If we allow these modified products to enter our country without proper
monitoring, they could adversely affect our markets," said the Research
Council of Zimbabwe." <snip>
Monsanto Lambasted in Zimbabwe by Government and Non-governmental Delegates
<snip>
"Apparently some of Zimbabwe's biggest cotton farmers slipped Monsanto's Bt cotton varieties into the country last year for a little unauthorized sneak preview. When officials learned of it, the plants were uprooted but the company has been held in suspicion ever since."
<snip>
Nicaraguan Representatives Denounce Food Aid Contamination
by Genetically Engineered Crops Not Approved in Their Country
Representatives of the Alliance for a Nicaragua Free of Genetically
Modified Organisms are visiting Washington this week to denounce
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) they discovered through DNA
testing of food aid to Nicaragua from the World Food Program and the
U.S. Agency for International Development (U.S.A.I.D.).
Victor Campos from the Humboldt Center, a leading Nicaraguan
environmental group (and a Friends of the Earth International
affiliate), and Ana Quiroz from Nicaragua's Center for Health
Information and Advisory Service, oppose sending food to Nicaragua that
people in other parts of the world avoid. According to Campos, "It is
unacceptable that the children of Nicaragua are consuming genetically
modified products that come masked as food aid for our country. It is
well known that baby food companies in the U.S. and Europe do not use
genetically modified products. Nevertheless, our highly-vulnerable
condition has been used as an opportunity to send products that children
in developed countries do not consume."
The Alliance notes the growing worldwide opposition to genetically
modified crops because of fears about their environmental and health
impacts; the potential for contamination, as in Mexico, of local
farmers' crops by GMO contaminated seed; and the contradiction of World
Food Programme statements that their shipments do not contain GMOs.
Quiroz and Campos are taking their opposition to genetically modified
organisms in food aid to members of congress, to U.S.A.I.D., and to U.S.
environmental and hunger relief groups. Their schedule includes a
briefing at 11:00 on Tuesday, June 4th at Friends of the Earth, 1025
Vermont Ave., NW, 3rd floor. Test results for four contaminated seed
and flour samples will be available.
For a phone or face-to-face interview with Campos and Quiroz, please
call +1 202-271-4914. Interviews available in Spanish and English.
Contact: Charles Warpehoski
+1 202-544-9355,
+1 202-271-4914
[email protected]
posted on September 2, 2002 06:07:37 AM new
I copied the whole article. It is to important to leave something out. This will allow countries that aren't contaminated with gm seeds to give freely to the starving
without stepping on Bush's toes. JMHO of course.
And I might add when the U.S. finally decides to actually test these foods we may need some of these countries to send us non-allergenic conventional food!
Plans to promote GM crops defeated
By Geoffrey Lean in Johannesburg
The Independent (London),02 September 2002
American plans to force genetically modified crops and food on to Third World countries were unexpectedly frustrated at the Earth Summit last night.
After an impassioned plea from Ethiopia, ministers rejected clauses in the summit's plan of action which would have given the World Trade Organisation (WTO) powers over international treaties on the environment.
One effect of this would have been to give the WTO the power to override the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, giving developing countries the right to refuse to take GM imports. The WTO regards free trade as its
top priority.
The breakthrough - which rocked the American delegation, which has been blocking progress on most issues at the summit - took place as
negotiators worked through the night to resolve the outstanding disagreements on the plan.
For most of the day the proposal had seemed fated to go through. Beside opening the door to GM, it would have placed at risk international treaties controlling the trade in toxic waste, chemicals that destroy the ozone layer, and the pollution that causes global warming.
Originally, the only resistance to the proposals came from Norway and
Switzerland but after the Ethiopian delegation made its intervention the rest of the Third World swung against it, followed by the European Union which had originally been pushed into adopting it by EC officials. The US was left isolated.
"I have never seen so many environmental ministers hugging each other as when the proposal went down,'' said one British negotiator early this morning.
posted on September 2, 2002 07:07:18 AM new
Mugabe is a crook, just like Bush. But you have to have some compassion for the people there who are hungry and suffering from aids. They need money in order to purchase land from the white plantation owners and distribute it to the poor black peasants.
This article explains the background of the land distribution problem in Zimbabwe and why they are unable to grow their own food.
posted on September 2, 2002 10:39:36 AM new
I don't think we can take a hands off approach to any part of the world anymore.
If terrorism has taught us one thing it is that wherever the West is absent in a troubled spot, those that wish to destroy us will be there infesting the people and government. al Quaeda has built Mosques in sub-Sahara Africa, and the 19th hi-jacker was from one of these Mosques.
I also think that African leadership is pulling our chain. When the drug companies relented and dropped prices, the leadership then refused the drugs claiming that there was no such thing as AIDS and HIV.
Now they want infrastructure instead of food aide. But when the West invests in infrastructure, it is called colonialism.
Africans want to blame everyone but themselves for their problems in an attempt not to have to change their behaviors.
posted on September 2, 2002 12:27:54 PM new
I mentioned on here over a year ago that once that jackass mugabe began encouraging the forced and unlawful removal of white farmers to give the lands to the ahnds of the local populace, that there would be widespread starvation and an international crisis. Mugabe, in my opinion, is another Sadam + Bush who couldn't care one wit about his own people and is mentally insane. At least in ancient Rome, the Preatorian Guard would stab to death any emporer so bent upon the death of his own people as mugabe is. And no, don't believe a single word that he says. Let the creep shout at us about the food shipments. He does it to try to save face from the disaster that his racist policies have brought to his own country. We should contnue to give aid, as REAMOND suggests, because if we do not, we will be reviled for having so much when they are starving, come Al-Queda/Islam or not! Even wild animals in cages must be fed.
posted on September 2, 2002 01:45:23 PM new
Sorry, so long. You guys sound like you could work for U.S. newspapers!
Today's article wasn't about Mugabe, it was about all the countries in Africa and other parts of the world talking back. Developing poor countries have banned together to say NO to the giant.
You all might want to read some of the articles at www.allafrica.com
I believe it was in the last Farm Bill that millions were appropriated for
promoting (ramming down throats?) transgenic foods in other countries. That money could have be used to help the starving in those countries, but instead U.S. citizens
are spending money without their knowledge (usually) on research that can be very
dangerous and has NEVER been researched! I cannot find the letter about the Farm Bill provision promoting strong-arming, but if I see it in the next couple weeks I will post it.
====================
On August 26th, CBS NEWS and Peter Jennings had a clip about unwanted g m corn stored in Chipongwe Zambia. A U.S. food relief worker was telling what were supposedly poor peasants why they couldn't have the food, with doors thrown wide open for corn viewing.
Jennings said of the food in the intro: "...are not going to get it, not today, not ever!" Steven Grabener (sp?) U.S. food relief worker tells the peasants, they had no choice, he couldn't give out the food and "the decision perplexes, bordering on confounding me. Americans have eaten food genetically modified..." And they cut
him off there, because they got in the advertisement they wanted!
1. How did the peasants find out about the shipments?
2. Wasn't this a photo-op, with the peasants the unpaid actors? Or maybe they were paid? (that would be good for them.)
3. Why were we in that country when we weren't wanted by the government.
4. Two African countries had already said they would give other African countries
whose people were starving non-ge food. Why wasn't that stated?
5. I heard the same old saying that it is safe enough for the U.S. CRAP! Why don't any these advertisements (masked as news) say why we know they are safe?
I believe it has been over a month since newspapers (mostly foreign) started reporting that countries like Zambia didn't want U.S. gm food.
1. Are we so incredibly healthy here that we need to spread it around?
Two of the big worries are unintended allergies and antibiotic resistance.
2. Do you know people becoming more allergic every year? Any allergic
to antibiotics? Anyone with autoimmune diseases?
3. Do you remember Reagan saying much about what was happening to our food supply during his administration?
4. Do you remember when the research went from colleges and government labs
to Monsanto and other biotechs?
5. Do you know whether the biotechs paid millions for all that university research?
6. Do you remember any discussion about the way franken-scientists were changing our world, be it food, trees, flowers, mosquitoes, frogs, rats, cats, etc... in
the 1980s?
7. Have you seen anything that shows the enzymes and additives, foods and drugs have been shown to be 100% safe?
I always think of the U.S. multi-nationals and agencies like USDA and
FDA pushing transgenic food as no less than rape. I get a picture of Uncle Sam throwing a country on a kitchen table and saying "You know you want it deep down, you need it and I am going to give it to you whether you tell me NO OR NOT!"
And Uncle Sam or company lackies ram it down the countries (or consumer's?) throats!
========================
Critique of the World Bank's April 2002 draft Rural Development Strategy
- with a focus on agriculture
By Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
June 2002
http://panna.igc.org/campaigns/docsWorldBank/WorldBank_020617i.dv.html
This is an upbeat story. I believe that globalization, at least of the food
supply, will be turning away from biotech companies and Pharm-food and to
ways farmers can feed their own countries.
Biodiversity - the fifth thematic area of WSSD - is Africa's richest asset. The knowledge its people have developed over centuries on the properties of plants, seeds, algae and other biological resources is now coveted by scientists for medicinal, agricultural and other purposes.
Biopiracy is the theft of biological matter, like plants, seeds and genes. In the absence of laws regulating access to these resources, pharmaceutical, agrochemical and seed multinationals exploit Africa's biological wealth and obtain rights of intellectual ownership to the resources and knowledge of communities.
[ edited by aposter on Sep 2, 2002 01:56 PM ]
posted on September 2, 2002 04:31:16 PM new
And calling them Franken-scientists show impartiality?
If they are such a treasure trove of biological knowledge and farming wisdom why are they starving? POLITICS. There is enough land and enough food in the world. It is the distribution that is used to control people and as a weapon.
That is the real problem with allowing US food in. It gives the US the power the locals are wielding by limiting the food.
posted on September 2, 2002 05:26:02 PM new
Gravid, I didn't say I was impartial. I consider them SOBs!
Do you have information for me? Do you have any research on the safety of the food we are trying to dump on Africa, because we can't give it away?
I do not have. I have never found anything concerning its safety, nor have any of the others I hear from daily.
My allergist had never heard of genetically altered food when I ask her in the late 1990s after my first severe reaction, although the U.S. has been fooling with the technology since the 1980s.
Franken-scientists. Yes. I guess I am allowed to still say that without Bush coming to get me.
If the food is so great, why can't we have it labeled without a fight? Don't you wonder what it is that the European's know, the African's know and Russian's know (and others) THAT we don't hear about in the U.S?
As of yesterday Russia started labeling its food. The U.S. says it will be too hard for our companies. How are other countries doing it? And if the food is so good, why not label it? If it is so good, why hide? And why the he11 try and give it to people who don't need any more problems?
Edited: forgot a word.
[ edited by aposter on Sep 2, 2002 05:35 PM ]
posted on September 2, 2002 09:39:39 PM new
That's terrible, aposter! They are giving the transgenetic foods to starving Africans to see what will happen to them. It sounds to me like they are being used as guinea pigs and after all, "it's just those Black People", like as if they aren't human beings. It figures that these corporations that want to sell genetically modified foods do not want to do the normal research with lower life forms first before human trials. Those poor people in Africa are being killed, starved, brutalized, and that's by their own governments. Now it's the USA. When the Africans fly a couple of airplanes into our World Trade Centers, will Americans be wondering why they are trying to send us a message?
ed.sp.
[ edited by Borillar on Sep 2, 2002 09:41 PM ]
posted on September 3, 2002 06:02:14 AM new
Personally, if My family and I were starving and going to die, I would take any food we could get. I would clean and cook three-headed rats if it would keep my kids alive another day. This isn't about food. Starving/dieing people don't care if there is genes in thier food, ask Maslo.
I think the problem is we send the wrong thing. We send food and political advisors when we should be sending farm equipment and agriculture experts. Teach them to stand on thier own feet instead of making them dependent on handouts.
posted on September 3, 2002 07:17:37 AM new
Ah! A serious new poster - with opinions, no less! Good!
The problem is that no one will lend them the money to get started; or, once started, to keep going. When the legitimate; although colonialist, White farmers were murdered and forced off their lands and the lands "redistributed" to people with little to no education in modern farming techniques that kept the country fed, what foreign bank is going to loan them money? N-O-N-E!
The money will be needed to buy seed, fertilizers, and equipment of all sorts, etc. and to keeping them supplied and in good working order. While we could ship an oil tanker ship sized load of tractors and feed to them this year, next year they'd need it all over again. Simply put, teaching them to fish is not enough.
In my opinion, what needs to happen is for leaders like Mugabe to give fair recompense for the lands - as a start, to the original owners and to settle any grievances from the violence that he incited against them. Then, he has to go all-out to make sure that there is political stability there, which means new repressions and the repercussions of unrest that follows such attempts at dictatorship over there. Then, he has to build schools and colleges, while paying to send the sons and daughters of the new landowners to foreign colleges to learn modern farming methods. We have to feed them in the meantime. And, after many years of civil war, murders, and whatnot, with the brightest of optimism, they might be able to get loans from foreign banks!
Until then, I think that we'll be sending them food and it should not be of less quality than what we would expect to eat. That's because propaganda from sending them our garbage or substandard foods or risky foods is going to backlash at us one day when they board airplanes and force them to be slammed into more World Trade Centers. I think that in the long-run, it would be better to send them Prime Rib and Caviar and Champagne than genetically altered foods to use them as unwilling human laboratory animals for testing.
