November 19, 2002	Tuesday	Ramazan 13, 1423

PARIS: A bitter row over genetically modified food is casting a shadow over efforts to rush aid to millions of Africans facing starvation.

A relief campaign has been launched to help some 14 million people in six drought-stricken southern African countries and another operation is likely for Ethiopia, which on Thursday warned that up to 15 million people were at threat.

But even as millions of people suffer from malnutrition, thousands of tons of food stockpiles are lying unused — or are even being shipped away.

The problem: genetically-modified corn (maize) provided by the United States, by far the biggest single supplier to the aid effort and a fierce supporter of biotech food.

Five of the six southern African countries are imposing tough restrictions on the corn, fearing it either is unsafe to eat or could contaminate their environment.

Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe say they will only accept the grains provided they are milled to prevent germination in the event of spillage, while Zambia has imposed a total ban, milled or not.

Only one, Swaziland, has not raised objections.

In Zambia, whose president Levy Mwanawasa has gone on record as branding GM food “poison”, the WFP will have to ship out 18,000 tons of rejected grains that are already in the country, 7,500 tons of which have been ground up.

“One concern is security. If you’re pulling food out of a food-insecure area, there is always a risk”, said Richard Ragan, the WFP’s representative in Zambia. He said he knew of two cases of looting, both of them minor, on GM food stockpiles at WFP facilities.

The United States has angrily condemned the Zambian ban as groundless and likely to worsen the starvation peril, although it says it is willing to look for alternatives to the contested corn.

But it reserves its bitterest ire for Europe’s greens, who accuse Washington of wanting to exploit the famine crisis to widen international acceptance of GM food.

US Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman has branded their actions as a scare campaign, a “disgraceful” attempt to spread “misinformation and create an atmosphere of fear.”

Environmental groups “can play these games with Europeans, who have full stomachs,” Andrew Natsios, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said at the Earth Summit in August. “But it is revolting and despicable to see them do so when the lives of Africans are at risk.”

Geert Ritsema, campaigner on GM issues for Friends of the Earth Europe, said it was unfair and untrue to tar green groups this way.

Even though his group and others fiercely opposed GM foods, “our position is that it’s up to the governments to decide,” he said from Brussels.

The United Nations became embroiled in the debate last Tuesday, when one of its officials, Jean Ziegler, declared GM foods “could pose a danger to the human organism and public health in the medium and long term.”

But this is not the universal view within the UN. The WFP says the food aid can be eaten safely, and Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the WHO agrees.

The main evidence for this is from the US population, which eats tens of millions of tons of GM corn, tomatoes and other crops each year.—AFP