NEWS FROM AFRICA
1.GM potato "of no use" in SA
2.Kenya civil society warns on dangers of importing GMOs
3.Kenya hosts First All Africa Biotechnology conference
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1.GM potato "of no use" in SA
11 September 2008
http://www.supermarket.co.za/news_detail.asp?ID=890

A pest-resistant strain of genetically modified potato, earmarked for possible commercial release in South Africa, will be of no use to local spud farmers, said the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) this week. It will also increase risk to the farmer in an already volatile agricultural sector.

This statement was in response to the Agricultural Research Council’s (ARC) application for permission to release the potato commercially.

A formal objection was made by the ACB to the Department of Agriculture (DoA) this week, and includes concerns expressed by key industry players, namely Potato SA, McCain Foods Limited, McDonald’s, Spur, Simba and Fruit & Veg City. ACB director Mariam Mayet said the organisation objected to the proposed “general release” of the tuber moth resistant potato, SpuntaG2, for which the ARC was seeking permission to release under the Genetically Modified Organisms Act.

Should the ARC’s application be approved, it will allow the ARC to make the SpuntaG2 potato available to South African farmers for general use, including commercial farming, thus allowing it to enter the food supply chain.

Farmers will be asked to participate in further tests on behalf of the ARC and monitor the potato’s efficiency. “It is highly unusual for a GM rollout, and the first time we’ve seen this kind of application where agronomic assessments are done by farmers” said Mayet, from the ACB’s offices in Johannesburg.

ACB and Potato SA questioned the appropriateness of the cultivar for South African conditions. "The tuber moth is not high on the list of problem pests for our farmers," explained Mayet. "This cultivar of potato appears to be a solution, developed in a foreign lab, to search for a problem that hardly exists in South Africa."

According to the ARC, this GM cultivar will help reduce tuber moth damage in the field as well as in stored potatoes. "But Potato SA tells us that this moth is ranked sixth in the list of priority pests and diseases, after leaf miner, late and early blight, scab and certain viruses. This is not a major problem for our farmers." Field trials have already been conducted locally on the SpuntaG2, which was engineered in the United States and contains a protein (CryIIa1) that kills the tuber moth. The ARC’s permit application is on the strength of these trials.

The ACB objection challenged the results of the trials, which it said were flawed both in their design and interpretation. Furthermore, the lobby questioned the socio-economic benefits of this potato to local commercial and small holder farmers. Independent socio-economic studies found that this strain of

GM potato will not benefit the sector by reducing input costs of pesticides, nor reduce the resultant toxins in the environment, since the same chemicals used to control more serious pests are used to control the tuber moth. It will also increase risk for farmers because of a lack of consumer confidence in genetically modified organisms.

"Our farmers want new cultivars that are drought, pest and disease tolerant. But they don't list the tuber moth as a significant pest," concluded Mayet.

Consumer concern

A consumer petition was included in the ACB's objection submitted to the DoA, signed by over 2 100 people from around the country.

The overarching objection from the public is about the lack of labelling legislation in South Africa, in a context where GM foods are not proven to be safe.

"Consumers are outraged that they have no right to choose what they eat or feed their families because legislation does not require products to show on the labelling whether or not food contains genetically modified organisms," Mayet concluded.
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2.Kenya civil society warns on dangers of importing GMOs
African PA, 11 September 2008
http://www.apanews.net/apa.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=74978 

Nairobi (Kenya) - Ten civil society groups in Kenya on Thursday warned Kenyans that there is strong scientific proof that genetically modified foods (GMOs) are detrimental to human health.

The warning comes in the wake of government plans to import GMOs.

Last month, Agriculture Minister William Ruto told off civil society groups campaigning against the introduction of GMOs.

He said there is no scientific evidence that GMOs are harmful to human health and the government planned to import GMOs to save millions of Kenyans facing starvation.

Addressing journalists in Nairobi, the civil society groups slammed the government for not consulting the public while drafting the bio safety bill now before parliament to legalize the use of GMOs.

They warned the bill has serious loopholes that need to be addressed before passing it into law.

"The process of drafting the bill was both science and boardroom driven. The process involved only scientists and did not involve consumers or farmers," said Wanjiru Kamau, director of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition.

"The bill was called bio safety but the contents only referred to GMOs. We now want the government to address in the bill concerns of modern biotechnology on human health and environment," she said.

Kamau said clinical tests have shown that rats fed on potatoes that are genetically engineered later show signs of inhibited growth of brains and testicles.

She further explained that the bill does not even address compensation for farmer nor consumers in any case there is contamination between GMO and non-GMO plants.

The civil society groups warned that the introduction of GMOs would lead to the collapse of sustainable local agriculture.

They called, instead, on the government to increase support for agriculture and rural development.
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3.Kenya hosts First All Africa Biotechnology conference
NAIROBI 21-27 September 2008
African Biotechnology Stakeholders' Forum [a spin off from ISAAA], press release
http://www.newsahead.com/preview/2008/09/21/nairobi-21-27-september-2008-kenya-hosts-first-all-africa-biotechnology-conference/index.php

Kenya, one of several African countries developing genetic modification (GM) technology to increase food production, is hosting the First All Africa Biotechnology conference. It's a forum for biotechnology scientists to work on some of the barriers to increasing GM farm products on the continent. One is the resistance to GM foods in Africa's important export markets.

The keynote speakers include some from countries where the technology is an anathema.

Thousands of municipalities and tens of thousands of farmers and food producers in Europe have declared themselves GMO free and refuse to allow the use of GM farm products in their areas. The technology is less controversial in the United States -- some 75 per cent of America's corn and soy are genetically modified -- and has mainly become an issue of whether GM products should be allowed in food labeled "organic."

A prominent Kenyan scientist, Dr. Florence Wambugu, sees this resistance as the European biotech lobby's effort "to keep safe and nutritious food out of the hands of starving people." The president of A Harvest Biotech Foundation International in Kenya said in a 2003 address to the United States Congress that the African continent, more than any other, urgently needs agricultural biotechnology, including transgenic crops, to improve food production. "This is why the debate over providing genetically modified (GM) corn in food aid shipments is so troubling." she added.

The genes incorporated into crops include those that confer insect, fungal, viral and bacterial resistance, protein quality improvements, herbicide tolerance, and salt and drought resistance. Applications have been performed on 21 crops in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Egypt and South Africa, according to a 2004 report, but the results have been mixed.

There are reports that biotechnology scientists in Africa also have to deal with the slow passage of GM crops from experimental to commercial stages and difficulties in meeting regulatory requirements.

Global companies and other regional companies dealing with biotechnologies relevant to Africa’s development needs are encouraged to exhibit at the congress. The official theme -- "Harnessing the Potential of Agricultural Biotechnology for Food Security and Socio-Economic Development in Africa" suggests there is little room for GM opponents on the agenda.

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