"GM food aid is being forced on Africa and... Africa may be a dumping ground for contaminated food rejected elsewhere. This is an attempt to have total control of our lives through food, following economic slavery and colonisation" (from item 2)
1.Nigerian consumer body rejects GMOs
2.RESOLUTION FROM CONFERENCE ON GMOS AND AFRICA
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Nigerian consumer body rejects GMOs
Angola Press, 16 March 2005
http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=326883
Lagos, 03/16 - Nigerian consumers, under the umbrella All-Nigerian Consumer Movements Union, have rejected genetically- modified foods (GMOs) and called on the federal government to change its position on "these dangerous products".
The union's stand was contained in a statement circulated at a workshop organised in the commercial city of Lagos Tuesday to mark World Consumer Rights Day in the country.
The workshop, jointly organised by the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), set up by the federal government in 1992 to pursue increased consumer awareness, and the local NGO Consumer Rights Project, focused on the theme of the 2005 observance of the Day:"Food security: Is GMO the answer?"
"Whereas it is true that GM technology may have the potential to increase food production and improve the nutritional quality of food, it is not being used by its dominant practitioners, the private corporation to produce either more of better food," the union claimed.
Nigeria has drafted a biosafety law allowing the use of GMO technology, though the National Assembly has yet to pass it.
The country also does not have a policy on GMO imports, unlike African nations such as Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho and Zambia, which have banned the import of GMO foods.
The union criticised the recent Memorandum of Understanding signed by Nigeria and the US Agency for International Development to jointly promote biotechnology and genetically modified products in Nigeria.
The consumer group called for the reversal of the memorandum.
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THE RESOLUTION ADOPTED AT THE FoE-AFRICA/TWN CONFERENCE ON GMOS AND AFRICA, 21-23 MARCH 2005, LAGOS, NIGERIA
THE RESOLUTION
WE, environmental, consumers and farmers' representatives from Africa participating in the African Conference on GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in Lagos 21-23 March 2005;
CONCERNED that the biotech industry and some Governments are pushing GMOs into our continent without due regard to our centuries old agricultural practice of seeds saving, sharing and development;
REALISING that GMOs have potential negative environmental, ecological, economical, cultural, ethical, political and health impacts. Today, it is known that the promises of GM crops have not proven to be true, that the concept that people will die if GM food is not embraced is incorrect, and that the problem of food insecurity is not a reason for promoting GMOs;
CONCERNED that GMOs are being presented as one of the means to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Multiple experiences with GMOs in many parts of the world have shown that there are serious problems and risks;
AWARE that the majority of the investment in the production of GMOs is in the hands of transnational corporations and the fact that these corporations have patented these products. The actions of companies like Monsanto in North America and other parts of the world clearly shows that if farmers in Africa adopt GM seeds in the continent they will lose sovereignty over their seeds;
WORRIED that the GM food aid is being forced on Africa and that Africa may be a dumping ground for contaminated food rejected elsewhere. This is an attempt to have total control of our lives through food, following economic slavery and colonisation;
NOW THEREFORE, WE, the groups participating in the FoE-TWN GMO Conference in Africa in Lagos, do hereby resolve as follows:
1) we demand a complete moratorium on GMOs in Africa until their safety for our environment, health, and socio-economic conditions is established beyond doubt;
2) we will embark on action-oriented research and campaigns and a massive public awareness campaign on the negative impacts of GMOs in Africa with the aim of securing a GM-free Africa;
3) we will intensify our efforts to create awareness of the existence of and problems with GMOs, especially in the grassroots, and the materials and our outreach should be in languages understood, and with methods accessible by, the people in our countries;
4) that effective networking is necessary to coordinate our work. National work should be the basis for the regional networking;
5) that African Governments should adopt and implement strict, comprehensive, and genuinely participatory democratic laws on GMOs;
6) that African Governments should ratify and implement the Cartegena Protocol on Bio-Safety and adopt the African Model Law on Safety in Biotechnology as the minimum standard to be used;
7) that African Governments should ensure democratic and qualitative public participation in decision making on this matter, and guarantee the public right of access to information;
8) we reject attempts to dump GMOs on Africa in the guise of food aid. Indigenous food crops remain the answer to the question of food security in Africa. We therefore call on African Governments to invest in research on, with a view to promotin g indigenous and sustainable food production systems;
9) we reject the commoditization, privatization and patenting of agricultural seeds;
10) and we strongly assert that decisions related to GMOs must include socio-economic considerations, in particular, an assessment of the impact of GM crops in local, farming and indigenous communities.
THANK YOU
Signed
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria
Third World Network (TWN)
Africa Centre for Biosafety, South Africa
ANCOMU, Lagos, Nigeria
Biowatch, South Africa
Centre for Environment and Development, Cameroon
Committee on Vital Environmental Resources (COVER), Nigeria
Development Communications Network, Nigeria
Earthlife Africa, South Africa
Friends of the Earth, Mauritius
Friends of the Earth, Sierra Leone
Friends of the Earth, Swaziland
groundWork, South Africa
Les Amis de la Terre Togo
Nigerian Environmental Society
Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia
Participatory Ecological Land-Use Management (PELUM), Tanzania
Persons with Disability Network (PEDANET), Nigeria
WARDC, Nigeria