GMW: Fake Blood on the Maize

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GMW: Fake Blood on the Maize

" GM WATCH " <info

Mon, 20 Jun 2005 12:44:46 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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As Bush and Wolfowitz & Co - in an effort to rebrand post-Iraq - get

ready to bestride the international stage as the saviours of Africa, it's

worth remembering the kind of treatment they and their corporate

associates dole out to even the most vulnerable of African countries

if they

fail to toe the U.S. line.

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Fake Blood on the Maize

BY JONATHAN MATTHEWS

6.20.2005

http://freezerbox.com/archive/article.asp?id=339

 

The PR exploitation of drought and hunger in Zambia shows that for the

GM lobby there are no limits, even when it involves rewriting history

and manufacturing crimes against humanity.

 

 

This year, following scanty and erratic rainfall, many of Zambia's

maize fields have had the life scorched out of them. In some provinces

the

severity of the drought may mean a crop failure of 100 percent. With

maize reserves falling short of the country's requirement, the Zambian

government has banned the export of maize meal to neighbouring countries

in a bid to forestall the looming food deficit.

 

This crisis is reminiscent of the crises Zambia faced in 2000 and 2002.

It's not only the threat of hunger, though, that's reviving painful

memories; it's also the way in which that threat is being exploited. For

the genetically modified foods lobby, tragedy spells opportunity, with

drought and crop failure providing the perfect platform to pressure the

Zambian government over its resistance to genetically modified

organisms.

 

So far, instead of going down the GM route, Zambia has been looking to

alternatives to feed its population. Three years ago, when that

strategy was first adopted, it led to Colin Powell's denunciation of

Zambia at

the Earth Summit in Johannesburg. And Powell's attack was just one

element in a virulent US/industry campaign of pressure and dissimulation

that continues to this day.

 

The backdrop in 2002 was crop failure across much of southern Africa.

Famine was said to be looming in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique,

Swaziland, Lesotho and Angola. The US had responded by offering as

relief its surplus GM maize, but several countries including Zambia had

rejected it.

 

Eventually, all but Zambia were pressured into accepting the GM grain,

at least in a milled form which prevented replanting. But the Zambian

President, Levy Mwanawasa, would only make his final decision after a

team of Zambian scientists and economists completed a fact-finding tour

of laboratories and regulatory offices in South Africa, Europe and the

US. Their report concluded that studies on the safety of GM foods were

inconclusive, and that the GM maize should be rejected as a

precautionary measure.

 

From the start, the US responded forcefully. " Eat GM or starve, America

tells Africa, " ran one Reuters headline. " Beggars can't be choosers, "

an unnamed state department official told the Washington Post. When the

Zambians replied that even beggars shouldn't be denied the dignity of

self-determination, the Americans accused them of risking a " human

catastrophe " .

 

Despite US intransigence, alternative food supplies were found and

starvation was averted, as President Mwanawasa noted when addressing a

public rally in Zambia's Copperbelt recently. " In 2002, there was

hunger in

the country and [the] government had rejected GMO maize from donors who

predicted that a considerable number of people would die of hunger, but

this did not happen " .

 

America's use of potential starvation as a bargaining chip shocked

many, particularly when--as ActionAid's Emergencies Programme Adviser,

Donald Mavunduse pointed out--African governments and civil society

organizations had raised legitimate concerns about GM. " They worry

about its

safety for health and the environment, how it is controlled and by whom,

and about the impact of GM on the future livelihoods of their

citizens, " said Mavunduse. " These concerns should be addressed, not

ridden over

roughshod. "

 

Even among British government ministers and advisors, there seemed a

palpable unease at what was happening. According to The Observer

newspaper, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser denounced the United

States'

attempts to force the technology into Africa as a " massive human

experiment " . The paper reported that, " 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. "

 

But for the GM lobby, the failure to offload GM food even onto a

country wracked by hunger made for a humiliating global spectacle, and

they

weren't about to back off. The tone had been set at the Earth Summit

when Andrew Natsios, the head of USAID, had gone after the organizations

opposing GM. " The Bush administration, " Natsios warned, " is not going to

sit there and let these groups kill millions of poor people in southern

Africa through their ideological campaign " .

 

Also on the US hit list were Zambia's leaders. The US Ambassador to the

UN Food and Agriculture Agencies, Tony Hall, called for African leaders

who had refused US food aid to be tried " for the highest crimes against

humanity in the highest courts of the world. " The US Trade

Representative, Robert Zoellick had the European Union firmly in his

sights.

Zoellick linked Zambia's refusal of GM grain to sanctions he claimed

the EU

had threatened. The EU's Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, described this

claim as " very simply immoral " .

 

" Zambia is a sovereign country and makes its own decisions, " Lamy said

in an interview with Newsweek. " Zambians do not need to be heroic to

assert their sovereignty. GM-free supplies are available in surplus in

southern Africa. Europe's policy is to provide food aid procured in the

region, rather than as a means of disposing of domestic stocks... The

simple solution is for the US to behave as a real aid donor. "

 

The EU's Development Commissioner, Poul Nielson, also waded in,

describing the claim that the EU had threatened the Zambians as " a very

negative lie. " He told reporters that he wanted to propose a deal to the

Americans: " The deal would be this: if the Americans would stop lying

about

us, we would stop telling the truth about them. "

 

The reason for Zoellick's targeting of the EU became clearer a few

months later when the US Trade Representative announced plans to sue

the EU

at the World Trade Organisation unless it opened up its markets to

American GM products. The WTO case was filed in the name of Africa.

 

Around this time I was forwarded an email that had been sent to a

leading environmental campaigner, demanding that he spell out his

position

on Zambia. The sender of the email was one " Max Russell-Bennett, "

ostensibly a private citizen, and he attached to his email a press

release

from the pro-GM lobby group AgBioWorld. The press release seemed to imply

that a few years earlier thousands had died in the Indian state of

Orissa--victims of resistance to GM food aid. AgBioWorld urged

" activists "

not to repeat " the mistakes of 'Orissa' " .

 

In reality, the deaths in Orissa had been due to a devastating cyclone,

and no one had died for want of GM food. And a check on the email's

technical headers revealed it had originated not with a private

individual

but with Monsanto Belgium. This message, crafted by a multinational

corporation in the guise of a fake citizen, with its deceptive history

attached, seemed to capture the cynical mendacity that has marked the

industry's Zambia campaign.

 

Just why the biotech industry was prepared to go to such lengths can be

seen from the comments of Berndt Halling of the Brussels-based lobby

group, EuropaBio. Halling told a reporter that " the green lobby " had

over-reached itself and the food-aid crisis in Africa provided " the first

issue that has the ability to destroy their credibility. " Halling went

on, " I want to know if they are going to accept responsibility for the

people that will die as a result of the refusal of GM aid. "

 

As with the EU, stories began to circulate about how environmentalists

had blackmailed Zambia into rejecting GM food aid. The

syndicated-columnist, Paul Driessen painted them as co-conspirators,

" environmental

radicals and the European Union are screaming `genetic pollution' and

threatening to withdraw aid and ban agricultural exports from any

countries

that plant or distribute the [GM] grains. " In a speech Driessen added,

" Radical Greens spread rumours that the corn was poisonous, and might

cause cancer, or even AIDS. So it got locked up in warehouses, while

children starved... "

 

Starving children and dead Africans were necessary collateral for the

Zambia campaign, so Roger Bate, a Fellow at the American Enterprise

Institute, helpfully put a number on the death toll. Bate told his

readers

that aid workers in Zambia had had to take " food away from the mouths

of starving children " and that " perhaps as many as 20,000 Zambians died

as a result. " Others went still further, claiming that " millions " of

Zambians had been " left to starve " .

 

The marketing of this heinous crime continues unabated. In early 2005,

the former Head of Regulatory Affairs at Syngenta, Willy DeGreef, spoke

of the need to identify those responsible for the " outrage " and

" tragedy " of having " children starve " rather than eat " genetically

enhanced

foods " : " How did we get that far; who was responsible for whispering

(those) messages to those policy makers... That is something that I would

rather sooner or later want to find out, because you're talking about

literally crimes against humanity. "

 

Even in a world awash with spin and disinformation, constructing a

deceitful public relations campaign out of starving children seems

peculiarly distasteful. Yet DeGreef's comments merely served as a

springboard

for Alex Avery, of the biotech-industry-backed Hudson Institute, to go a

step further and actually name those that had the " blood of the

starvation victims " on their hands.

 

At the top of Avery's list was Dr Charles Benbrook, a former Executive of the Board on Agriculture for the US National Academy of

Sciences. Benbrook's crime had been to tell the Zambian scientists during

their fact-finding mission that there was no shortage of non-GM foods

which could be offered to Zambia and that, " 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. " Dr. Benbrook added, " To use the needs of

Zambians

to score `political points' on behalf of biotechnology strikes many as

unethical and indeed shameless. "

 

Another of those with blood on his hands, according to Avery, was the

British campaigner Robert Vint. Vint responded, " the people you are

accusing committed the offence of participating in a consultation

exercise

organised by the US and UK Governments for Zambian scientists.

Discussing scientific matters as part of a dialogue in which opposing

views

were heard hardly constitutes murder. The Zambian scientists listening to

these various views were doctors and professors--mainly educated in

American universities. Surely you don't believe that because they were

black they could be easily brainwashed by Westerners? My specific crime,

by the way, was to suggest to the Zambian delegation that they obtain

and review the original safety research on GM foods. I'm a great

supporter of sound science and empirical research. Oddly, both the US

and UK

Government representatives refused to provide this data--or even to

confirm its existence. Maybe you could provide it? "

 

Clement Chipokolo from Zambia also took issue with Avery, telling him,

" you mentioned that there were several deaths that resulted from the

decision that the government took. May I put it to you that the only

recorded deaths that we know of were before the GM saga came to the

fore...

your statements are typical of a well funded lobbyist who would do what

ever it takes to achieve his mission, in this case promotion of GMOs. "

 

He went on, " just on Tuesday our government announced that the country

faces a maize deficit of 300,000 metric tonnes and has appealed for

help. I was wondering what kind of help would come from your end. Please

make sure it is not GM because it might just go back. " Chipokolo ended

by adapting a saying from the Book of Joshua, " Know today what you are

going to eat, as for me and my country we shall eat no GMOs. "

 

 

 

 

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