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Showing posts with label Haidee Swanby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Haidee Swanby. Show all posts

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Experts urge GMO protection for Small-Scale Farmers in Africa


NaijaAgroNet
A study by the Friends of the Earth International, African governments must do more to control the planting of genetically modified (GM) crops that could affect smallholders.

The environmental Non Governmental organization (NGO) says international agricultural company exercise too much power over safety and trade legislation related to GM organisms (GMOs) in Africa which result, to many governments ignoring the threats these crops may pose to local farmers, it says.

The report with the title “Who benefits from GM crops?” was released last February 23rd and looks at the quality of GMO legislation around the world.

It was gathered by NaijaAgroNet that In Africa, only Burkina Faso, Egypt, South Africa and Sudan produce GM crops commercially, according to the report and In contrast, it says, Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe have strict controls on the growth and sale of GMOs.

Author Haidee Swanby, who is a researcher at the South Africa-based African Centre for Biosafety, which campaigns for food sovereignty, says the influence of pro-industry lobby groups lowers safety standards. Laws in many African countries are "essentially GMO-permitting" rather than safety focused, she says.

"The laws are there or are being developed, but they are the wrong laws promoting the interests of the wrong group," Swanby tells SciDev.Net.

Chidozie Anibueze/GEE
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