United Nations Helping Push
Frankenfoods on the Poor

From <www.organicts.org> 1/31/02

UN PLAYS PIED PIPER PUSHING GM FOOD TO THIRD WORLD

By Devinder Sharma via Norfolk Genetic Information Network (ngin),
http://www.ngin.org.uk

The United Nations has donned a new robe. After its failure to retain its
unique and trusted position as the world¹s only peacekeeper, it has now
decided to play Pied Piper ? leading the flock of discredited biotechnology
giants and agribusiness companies to the hitherto inaccessible and the vast
uncharted terrain and turf that the majority world provides.

Like the Pied Piper, it too plays an enchanting tune on the flute ? of
eradicating hunger. After all, there are an estimated 800 million people who
go to bed hungry every night and the mere fact that the rich and the
industrialised world is trying to aim at reducing global hunger and that too
under the UN flag, is sure to draw an applause. Topped with Ocheese¹ ?
direct foreign investment ? the mice in the developing countries eagerly
await the Onovel foods¹.

With genetically modified foods already so stigmatised in the west, the UN
has taken on itself the monumental task to reverse biotechnology industry¹s
flogging hope and fortunes. By paving the way and clearing the hurdles for
the biotechnology industry¹s take over of the sustainable farming systems,
the UN desperately aims at opening up the huge Third World market. And in
the bargain, what happens to the world¹s poor and hungry is certainly not
its concern. It never was.

The undue emphasis on genetically modified crops in the controversial Human
Development Report 2001, commissioned by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), was not an aberration. It was part of a covert design by
the UN to push in GM crops onto unsuspecting developing economies. No sooner
has the controversy and debate over the faulty prescription being doled out
showed signs of settling down, it is now the turn of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) to let loose the Onew momentum¹ ? support,
develop, rehabilitate, upgrade and sustain national food safety and quality
systems to enable biotechnology industry to make a smooth entry.

Financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), UNEP has launched a US $
38.4 million project, essentially to enable developing countries to import
GM food. It aims at training officials and business people in around 100
countries so as to sharpen their scientific and legal skills for evaluating
the health and environmental issues pertaining to the global trade in GM
foods. Signed by 107 governments in January 2000, the Cartagena Biosafety
Protocol has so far been ratified by only ten countries and for it to take
effect another forty countries are required to do so. Why then is the UNEP
in such a great hurry to start implementing the guidelines?

Klaus Toepfer, UNEP Executive Director provides the answer: "Industry is
convinced that genetically engineered crops are the key to boosting yields
in a more environmentally friendly way. But others are concerned that the
new technology may actually pose environmental as well as health risks".
Since when has the industry started setting the agenda for the UN agencies?
Isn¹t it strange that the UNEP, which should be more concerned about the
resulting environmental pollution from the spread of genetically manipulated
plants, instead is more than keen to promote crops and food products about
which serious doubts exists?

To begin with, UNEP has picked up the region with least resistance. Mr
Charles Gbedemah, the project¹s task manager for the Africa region was
quoted as saying: "It is no coincidence that the first activity under this
major biosafety, capacity building, initiative is taking place in Nairobi
for the benefit of the African continent. Indeed Africa is one of the five
priorities of UNEP operations." The pilot biosafety capacity building
project for Africa, launched for 18 countries in first phase, will involve
US $ 2.5 million.

UNDP and UNEP are not the only two UN agencies involved in promoting the
commercial interests of the American food industry. UNCTAD has been busy for
quite sometime in reconciliation of the trade and GM food concerns. It has,
in fact, been involved in directly influencing the trade officials in the
developing countries. The World Food programme (WFP) too for quite some time
has been distributing GM food in its humanitarian aid assistance programmes.
In Africa, the mid-day meal programme for school children that WFP had
launched on behalf of the United States, was actually meant to reduce the
huge stockpile of GM soybean that Europe had refused to buy from America.
While the WFP continues to ignore the health risks associated with GM food
and for obvious reasons, let us look at the role the Food and Agricultural
Organisation (FAO) is busy with.

At a time when the international community has very conveniently postponed
the Herculean task of feeding the world to the year 2015, FAO
director-general, Dr Jacques Diouf says: "Freeing the planet from hunger is
a formidable challenge and I am convinced that this objective is within our
reach." Acknowledging that Africa alone has the highest concentration of
undernourished people in the world, accounting for 28 per cent of the
continent¹s population, he finds the key factors contributing to the high
percentage of hunger include political instability, inappropriate economic
policies and strategies, weak regional co-operation and limited economic
integration. And yet, the FAO is banking upon genetic engineering to bail
out Africa !

FAO thinks that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a fact of modern
agriculture, and are here to stay. It recognizes the great potential and the
complications of these new technologies. It stresses on the need to move
carefully, with a full understanding of all the factors involved. In
particular, it calls for assessment of GMOs is terms of their impact on food
security, poverty, biosafety, and the sustainability of agriculture. Will
GMOs increase the amount of food in the world, and make more food accessible
to the hungry?

On the contrary, FAO hasn't initiated any serious debate on the issue. It
refuses to look for answers to the questions it often poses. It refuses to
provide a categorical answer to the question whether GM crops will increase
the amount of food and help in feeding the world. It even refuses to launch
a global study to know whether genetically modified crops are harmful for
the environment and human health. The reason is simple. It does not want to
be drawn into any controversy that may offend the American food industry. It
does not want to offend the US Department of Agriculture¹s open stand on
promoting its biotechnology industry.

Meanwhile, the Pied Piper continues to merrily sing and dance to the
biotechnology industry's tune. The poor and hungry should find solace in
commercial music even if they can¹t manage two square meals a day !

(Devinder Sharma is a food and trade policy analyst.
dsharma@ndf.vsnl.net.in)