Food & Health

Whenever a disease breaks out, we are bombarded with doomsday predictions. Coverage of ebola has conformed to this pattern. Major newspapers have bombarded us with page after page of pharmaceutical puffery; some journalists speak as though we are headed for an apocalypse.

According to UNAIDS, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the region most heavily affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The disclosure by the National Agricultural Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) that Nigerian government is working to fast track the adoption of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) at a press conference in Abuja (17 July 2014) is shocking for a number of reasons.

For weeks now, an interesting controversy has been raging in Kenya about a popular seasoning product made by the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever.

This is a follow-up article. The first article looks at the questions of genetic engineering (GE) and human health, GE and the impact on the environment, and GE and socio-economic factors, particularly increasing corporate control of the food value chain.

We call for a total ban on everything GMO, including but not limited to, the introduction into the environment, contained and confined use or field trials, import, export, GMO in transit, or placement on the market.

They want you to believe that GMOs will feed the world; that they are more productive; that they will eliminate the use of agrichemicals; that they can coexist with other crops, and that they are perfectly safe for humans and the environment.

The issue of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) has received a lot of attention from decision-makers, scientists, industry, farmers, civil society, the general public and the media globally.

Recent reports on climate change have continuously stressed the unequal burden small states experience in comparison to their relatively low energy consumption. For many developing and low-income nations, this imbalanced and undue drain is the continuance of on-going historical injustices.