FOCUS ON AFRICA
http://www.gmwatch.org/africa.asp

In the first item from Florence Wambugu's PR outfit - Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International, in explaining why the "anti-GM activists" regard South Africa as such an important front in the GM war, A Harvest precisely delineates the industry's reasons for targeting SA - "our continent's food chains are dominated by South Africa".

So when Rosa Seleke of A Harvet claims SA is "the main focus for anti-GM activity", just substitute the word "pro" for "anti" and you get a real insight into the industry's agenda - something confirmed by Monsanto's MD for Southern Africa in item 2. The headline alone says it all: MONSANTO FINDS SA A HANDY LABORATORY AND THE GATEWAY TO AFRICA.

Just what kind of laboratory we're talking about is highlighted in a quote from Peter Lowins, a South African farmer who represents the local grain growers committee. Lowins and his fellow grain growers are worried that the GM pharma crops planned for testing in SA will have unintended consequences: "And that's why they try using Third World countries to do these experiments. If it's wrong or if it's a failure in the future, it doesn't affect them."

Listen to Lowins in the following radio broadcast:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/morning_report/2004/08/25_mmr.html
or
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/play/audio.php?media=/morning_report/2004/08/25_mktmorn0650&start=00:00:04:32.0&end=00:00:08:20.6

1.Are there cracks in SA's GM strategy?
2.MONSANTO FINDS SA A HANDY LABORATORY
---

1.Are there cracks in SA's GM strategy?
By Rosa Seleke
© Copyright 2002 AHBFI - Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International, August 3, 2004
[shortened]
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=subtopics&topic_id=4&subtopic_id=17&doc_id=8313&start=1&control=434&page_start=1&page_nr=151&pg=1

DESPITE the facts on the ground, anti-GM activists still harbour the desire to keep Africa "GM free".

Why is Africa - which is light years away from being a real stakeholder in this new technology the battleground for the US and Europe? This question is best answered by analyzing the GM debate in South Africa.

It is an open secret that the anti-GM activists' superobjective is to shut South Africa down as far as GM crops are concerned. If they were to achieve this, then they would effectively shut down Africa. Since 1994, our continent's food chains are dominated by South Africa. Nigerians drink South Africa's Ceres juice, Namibians eat South Africa's bacon and Kenyan's eat South African apples. Many African countries are studying the South African GM law with a view to modeling theirs on it. South Africa remains the only country to commercialize GM crops.

Although Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe have been associated with advances in gene technology, South Africa is the main focus for anti-GM activity. The current line of attack is to undermine the existing national GM strategy. After anti-GM activists lost a legal battle to re-open discussions on the GM Act, their new argument is that the law is not transparent. This is far from the truth. South Africa's GMO approval policy like her Constitution is fresh, modern and highly efficient, placing anyone wishing to acquire a permit to work with GMOs under stringent scrutiny.

Anti - GM activists operating in South Africa have been arguing that the existing policy is not stringent enough to identify risk. This position is totally unfounded. The argument should rather be that South Africa needs to build the capacity needed to efficiently entrench the well structured GMO Act we already have which places major emphasis on field trials...
---

2.A growing taste for genetically modified food
MONSANTO FINDS SA A HANDY LABORATORY AND THE GATEWAY TO AFRICA
Business Day, 24 Aug 2004
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1687711-6094-0,00.html

RELAXING by the terrace bar at the Malelane Sun Hotel in Mpumalanga, the man charged with overseeing local operations for the world's biggest seed company, Monsanto, has no difficulty explaining why the company has invested millions of rand in local experimental plant nurseries.

"South Africa is the gateway into Africa," says Monsanto's MD for Southern Africa, Kobus Lindeque.

The electric-fenced nurseries are the living laboratories where Monsanto researchers are hunting for the best locally adapted strains of crops such as maize and cotton to carry tiny pieces of genetic code that will offer the plants protection against insects or chemical sprays.

Monsanto is researching both conventional and genetically engineered versions of wheat, maize, soy and sunflower varieties at various sites in SA, the only African country planting a significant acreage of genetically modified crops for human consumption. SA's adoption of the technology has been swift, with the total plantings of genetically modified cotton, soya and maize rocketing from just 7000ha in 1998, to almost 1,5-million today, according to Monsanto.

The seed giant is not the only global agrichemical company sizing up the region's taste for genetically modified crops, says independent consultant Wynand van der Walt, but the complex licensing agreements between seed companies make it difficult to determine exact market shares.

Delta Pineland dominates the local cotton market; Pioneer Hi-Bred and Monsanto are the key maize players; and on the soy front, Monsanto is the only major player, licensing its technology to Durban-based Panaar.

Monsanto holds patents on two kinds of genetically engineered traits one uses part of a common soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to kill pests like the stalk borer; the other confers resistance to the weed killer glyphosate.

Glyphosate is the key ingredient in Roundup, the world's biggest-selling agrichemical.

Global sales of Roundup top 620m, contributing 40% of Monsanto's operating profit.

The company has launched herbicide-resistant maize, soya and cotton in SA, and cotton and maize strains with Bt genes. It is also waiting for South African regulatory approval for "stacked gene" maize seeds that contain both insect-killing and herbicide-tolerant genes.

"We are living proof to the world that genetically modified food is acceptable," says Lindeque, "(as) SA is one of the few countries where genetically modified maize goes straight in our mouths."

In the US, by contrast, most genetically engineered maize and soya is used as ingredients in the processed food industry.

Not a single person has gone to hospital with so much as a stomach ache since genetically engineered yellow maize first hit the South African market in1997, says Lindeque. Genetically engineered white maize, the staple food for many poor South Africans, was first harvested in 2001.

"We don't have evidence of harm, but it's impossible to track genetically modified ingredients because these guys refuse to label it," says Glenn Ashton, the co-ordinator of SafeAge, which is campaigning for a moratorium on genetically engineered crops.

Lindeque counters activists' claims that these crops pose risks to the environment, saying that the technology has been thoroughly screened.

"We do about 65000 tests before we release anything into the environment," he says, adding that South African laws on the release of genetically engineered crops are amongst the toughest in the world.

Ashton disagrees, saying that SA's regulatory regime favours commercial interests because the public does not have the resources to oppose big business's applications to investigate or commercialise genetically engineered plants.

Activists, led by Biowatch, have taken the agriculture department to court to try and force it to provide details of all the trials on genetically engineered crops in SA, but no ruling has yet been handed down.

"The activists sleep under the best duvets, drive nice cars, and don't care about hungry people," says Lindeque, arguing that genetically modified crops offer millions of small-scale farmers the technology to extract themselves from the insecurity of subsistence farming.

But he concedes that more than 95% of Monsanto's business in SA is with the large commercial growers.