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Zambian
Leader Defends Ban on Genetically Altered Foods
September
4, 2002
By
HENRI E. CAUVIN
JOHANNESBURG,
Sept. 3 - The president of Zambia said today that his country, which
is inching toward famine, would continue to refuse relief food that
may be genetically modified, calling such food "poison" and
saying it is "intrinsically dangerous."
Speaking
to journalists at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable
Development here in South Africa's biggest city, President Levy
Mwanawasa said the desperate plight of his nation would not drive him
to disregard his better judgment and accept genetically modified food.
"I'm
not prepared to accept that we should use our people as guinea
pigs," Mr. Mwanawasa said.
Zambia
and five other countries in southern Africa are critically short of
corn, the staple in the region, and the World Food Program is
carrying out a relief operation for more than 13 million people.
The
food agency is already feeding just over a million Zambians, and
agency officials predict that the number will approach 2.5 million by
the end of the year.
Much
of the aid being earmarked for the region is from the United States,
where crops genetically engineered for better production are widely
grown and the foods produced from them are widely consumed.
The
United States says that it is donating the same food Americans eat
and that in any case, it has nothing else to offer.
Last
week, the head of the Agency for International Development visited
Zambia to urge the government to distribute the American food already
in the country and accept the additional supplies headed there. This
week, the world food agency's director, James T. Morris, is flying
into the region, seeking to allay the hungry countries' concerns.
Genetically
modified foods, which entered American commercial markets in the
mid-1990's, have been the subject of intense international debate
among environmental activists and consumer advocates, particularly in
European Union countries.
Critics
say such foods have not been sufficiently tested.
Regulators
in the United States, along with many scientists, counter that
extensive studies already carried out have not found any reason to
believe that the products are not safe to eat.
But
along with fearing possible health effects, critics have said that
planting genetically modified seeds could threaten the diversity of a
country's plant and animal life. In Zambia's case, that could
complicate and perhaps even jeopardize trade with the European Union.
Such
food is grown and eaten in parts of the union, but the union has
generally been more circumspect. It mandates, for instance, that
genetically modified foods be labeled.
With
its limited capacity for scientific food analysis, Zambia, now
nominally free of genetically modified food, would not be able to
keep modified crops separate if it did introduce them.
Lesotho,
Malawi and Swaziland have accepted the modified food. Mozambique and
Zimbabwe have insisted that corn be milled before being distributed,
to eliminate any risk that genetically engineered seeds could
cross-pollinate with naturally occurring seeds.
But
President Mwanawasa and his agriculture minister say that even if
the corn were milled, too many questions remain unanswered, namely
whether eating such food poses health risks. "We may be poor and
experiencing severe food shortages," Mr. Mwanawasa said,
"but we aren't ready to expose our people to ill-defined risks."
At
the invitation of the United States, a team of Zambian scientists
will be visiting to meet with American experts on genetically
modified organisms, said Mr. Mwanawasa, who added that he remained
"open to conclusive scientific evidence."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/04/international/africa/04ZAMB.html?ex=1032144904&ei=1&en=1ea59f31b3189789
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