Fwd: GMW:_US_CUTS_OFF_FOOD_AID_TO_SUDAN_OVER_GMOS

[Guest guest]

GMW:_US_CUTS_OFF_FOOD_AID_TO_SUDAN_OVER_GMOS

" GM_WATCH "

Sat, 13 Mar 2004 08:00:07 GMT

 

GM Watch daily: http://www.gmwatch.org

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR WORK:

http://www.gmwatch.org/donate.asp

---

US CUTS OFF FOOD AID TO SUDAN

 

According to testimony made by USAID before the Committee on International

Relations Subcommittee on Africa in the U.S. House of Representatives on March

11, as of March 7 USAID has stopped all further food aid shipments to Port Sudan

because the Government Of Sudan has asked that US commodities be certified free

of GMOs.

 

They are doing this even though they have been warned by the United Nations that

food stocks for relief operations will be exhausted by April/May of this year.

USAID in its owntestimony admits, " the potential humanitarian consequences of

this pipeline break for the needy in Sudan cannot be over emphasized " .

 

When this issue first arose in May, 2003, USAID informed the government that the

United States did not (read: would not) provide such certifications but instead

sent a team to Khartoum to lobby and reassure the Sudanese government on the

issue.

 

According to USAID, the United States is the major donor of food aid to Sudan,

providing some 70% of the World Food Program's total pipeline for the country.

The majority of US-donated food aid enters the country through Port Sudan,

including 40% of all food aid intended for southern Sudan.

 

Now USAID is upping the pressure on Sudan by refusing to make additional food

commitments to the humanitarian crises in Sudan, until this issue is resolved.

http://mathaba.net/x.htm?http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=40064

---

" It's wicked, when there is such an excess of non-GM food aid available, for GM

to be forced on countries for reasons of GM politics... if there is an area

where anger needs to be harnessed it is here. "

UK Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, speaking at a briefing of British

parliamentarians, November 27, 2002 about the food aid crisis in southern Africa

http://ngin.tripod.com/271102d.htm

 

" [uK Prime Minister] Blair's chief scientific adviser denounced the United

States' attempts to force the technology into Africa as a 'massive human

experiment'. In a scathing attack on President Bush's administration, Professor

David King also questioned the morality of the US's desire to flood genetically

modified foods into African countries, where people are already facing

starvation in the coming months. " The Observer, UK, Sep 1, 2002

 

" ..there is no shortage of non-GMO foods which could be offered to Zambia by

public and private donors. To a large extent, this 'crisis' has been

manufactured (might I say, 'engineered') by those looking for a new source of

traction in the evolving global debate over agricultural biotechnology. To use

the needs of Zambians to score 'political points' on behalf of biotechnology

strikes many as unethical and indeed shameless. "

Dr Chuck Benbrook, leading US agronomist and former Executive Director of the

Board on Agriculture for the US National Academy of Sciences

http://ngin.tripod.com/270902a.htm

 

more quotes like this

http://ngin.tripod.com/forcefeed.htm

 

-----------------------

SUBSCRIPTIONS

-----------------------

 

http://www.gmwatch.org/sub.asp

 

 

see end of this message

 

communicate

ngin

 

donate

http://www.gmwatch.org/donate.asp

 

archive

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive.asp

 

websites

http://www.gmwatch.org

http://www.ngin.org.uk

 

 

 

 

Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam