GMW: Sparks fly in South Africa as pro-GM lobbyists disrupt protest

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GMW: Sparks fly in South Africa as pro-GM lobbyists disrupt

protest

" GM WATCH " <info

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 09:40:40 +0100

 

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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QUOTES: " Maize is a staple. That means poor people are ingesting large

amounts of GMOs, without being given any choice. " - Mariam Mayet, head

of the African Centre for Biosafety

 

" The reason we need to label GMOs is that they can fairly easily cause

allergic reactions. GMOs have also been implicated in immune problems

and they threaten the livelihoods of small farmers who are then forced

to continue buying seed and herbicide from the biotech companies. " -

Michael K. Hansen, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Public Policy and

Advocacy Division Consumers Union, USA

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PRESS RELEASE: Sparks fly as pro-GM and pro consumer choice activists

go head to head

 

When activists campaigning for the customer's right to choose whether

to buy genetically modified (GM) food or not in a Randburg Shopping

Centre yesterday, the pro-GM lobby, funded by biotech multinationals,

arrived bearing 'I love GM food' placards.

 

Feelings ran high as the 'right to choose' activists represented by

Consumers International, The African Centre for Biosafety, Safeage,

Earthlife Africa and numerous activists from around Africa asked the

pro-GM

people to please stop disrupting their 'street theatre'.

 

The environmentalists performance consisted of one of the young

activists, delightfully dressed in a Maasai-style kanga, pretended to

be a

concerned mother buying food for the family. The experts pointed out that

'she' could not choose to avoid GM-foods (or for that matter to buy it)

because the government does not require the mandatory labelling of GM

foods.

 

" The products most likely to contain GM ingredients are maize and

soya, " Michael K. Hansen, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Public Policy

and Advocacy Division Consumers Union of US pointed out. He is currently

in South Africa running workshops to educate people about the need to

accurately label foodstuffs containing genetically modified organisms

(GMOs).

 

" The reason we need to label GMOs is that they can fairly easily cause

allergic reactions, " he cautioned. " GMOs have also been implicated in

immune problems and they threaten the livelihoods of small farmers who

are then forced to continue buying seed and herbicide from the biotech

companies. "

 

Hansen estimates that as much as 50% of soya products grown

internationally is genetically modified.

 

Mariam Mayet, head of the African Centre for Biosafety says that about

15% of maize in South Africa is GM and hundreds of thousands of tons of

GM maize are being imported from Argentina. " Maize is a staple, " she

says. " That means poor people are ingesting large amounts of GMOs,

without being given any choice. This is unacceptable and

unconstitutional. "

 

Interestingly, although the pro-GMers and environmentalists differed on

many points, the industry disruptors readily conceded that GM products

should be labelled.

 

For further information, or to obtain pictures, please contact

011 615 4432

083 208 7902

michelle.nel

or Sandy cell: 083 653 6480

email: brash

 

 

 

 

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