Zambia not ready for GMO consequences - HIVOS

By Favourite Kalando

“We are not ready now to handle the consequences and costs that come with Genetically Modified Food (GMOs),” HIVOS Southern Africa Advocacy Officer for Sustainable Diets, William Chilufya has said.

Last year, the National Bio-safety Authority, a government agency tasked to oversee and regulate agricultural related products - less those inclined with GMOs, granted three distributors new permits to import products that may contain Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) after a risk assessment was conducted by the scientific advisory committee.

By allowing the import of products that may contain genetically modified organism Mr. Chilufya feels government has let the people of Zambia down owing to the fact that it has been assuring citizenry that it would uphold the late President Levy Mwanawasa’s legacy of saying no to GMO.

In 2002 the then President late Levy Patrick Mwanawasa described them [GMOs] as “poison” and refused to allow GMOs in the country.

He said there was no need for the country to run away from the consumption of local foods by resorting to GMOs.

Mr. Chilufya said Zambia has a lot of locally produced food that needs to be promoted as opposed to allowing the importation of GMOs into the country.

“What we are pushing for as Hivos Southern Africa is to bring about diversity especially when it comes to local foods. We have a lot of food locally that needs to be promoted and we should not quickly run away from them and move to the GMOs,” Mr. Chilufya added.

“Our colleagues who have GMOs, have better medical systems in place, but for us [Zambia] we don’t have, so we might not even know the effects of some of these foods [GMOs] if they are brought into the country , I think we need to be careful,”  said Chilufya.

“As Hivos we would like to emphasize and urge the government that we can still rely on our local foodstuffs for production and consumption.”

And Consumer Unit Trust Society (CUTS) International Zambia National Coordinator Chenai Mukumba says Zambia has always been firm on its non GMO stance

“The fact that we are considering an alternative speaks for fundamental shifts in the way we want to start dealing with our agriculture sector and so one of the things we think is of primary importance is to make sure that there is sufficient [wide] public consultation   [on GMOs]  in order to appreciate the exact needs and the will of the people [on GMOs],” Ms. Mukumba said.

She observed with concern that many meetings on GMOs are not open to consumers.

“It is important for the Zambian people to have a say in terms of the way we are changing the agriculture sector, I think many of us when we are in supermarkets, we need to know the food we are taking, and I think many people have already spoken about the effects that are seen in some parts of the world in terms of cancer and other diseases that come with GMOs.”

“It is important that as Civil Society Organizations we partner with the media to ensure that everybody is aware about what we are talking about the GMOs,” She added.

Meanwhile Civil Society for Poverty Reduction [CSPR] Executive Director, Patrick Nshindano (CSPR), has noted with disappointment that Genetically Modified Food are cheaper than organic produced products.

So consumers especially the underprivileged would rather go for something cheaper and subsequently bear the negative effects as a result of eating GMOs.

“We have raised a profile as a country of producing organic products, What we have noted is that they [NBA] are moving in gear one while the rest of the Zambians have not yet started off, so we need to ensure that people are brought on board.”

He purported that “ we know GMOs have been an agenda that is been pushed by multi nationals cooperation that have influence and have invested time and resources in ensuring that they undertake the technology and thereby reap the benefits and reach out to countries like Zambia. Who have the potential market.”

Amid these concerns from various stakeholders, National Biosafety Authority Chairperson, Paul Zambezi clarified that contrary to some reports from the public, the NBA has not approved the Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy to allow the introduction of GMO products.

Dr Zambezi said reports by some sections of the media that the NBA has allowed the importation of GMO foodstuffs in the country are misleading as the authority has only allowed processed foods made from GMOs and genetically modified micro-organisms for diagnostics and health research purposes.