Europe hits back at Bush in GM row

You would, if he were saying what you would like him to say.

True, Scrat.

frolic
Nothing short of stopping the ongoing ethnic strife and corruption will get the nations of Africa off the dole. If they don't help themselves no one else can. What is really needed Is for the UN, <joke.> to fulfill their charter and go in with a force 100,000 ready and willing to fight troops to restore order and maintain the peace for at long as it takes.

I think Scrat's Ayn Rand tagline kinda sums up the problem with GMO products....the dream of genetically modified foods feeding the world died when self-interested corporations took over the industry. Sure you get higher yields, but then there is the cost of special pesticides and treatments, and it goes on and on...the bottom line is profit in the GMO industry, and I would not be surprised if the government will be getting a kickback should they land the Africa contract.

I also think Ayn Rand was being ironic, but that's another story...

cavfancier


I am certainly not an expert on the subject however, that is just what the GM grown food does not need. It is one of the selling points.

One thing this discussion has shown clearly, is that the anti-GM side is woefully ignorant of the facts of this issue.

I find that very often this is the case with the liberal position on an issue. It is founded in good intentions and serious concerns but rarely in serious research and consideration of available facts and information. In fact--as in this case--it often flies directly in the face of what is known and measurable.

Hey, I'm apolitical, don't you dare call me a liberal I am left-leaning on some issues, and right-leaning on others, and I don't vote. If they want to sell GM foods to Africa, fine. I just don't want them myself. I just love how the USA proclaims to know what is right for the rest of the world.

cavfancier
That seems to be a concept that neither the far right or far left can grasp. It seems they must label people who do not agree with them.

Scrat - did you look at the pro-con links I dropped here last night? There is quite a bit of discussion about the different pesticides etc which will be required. There is also discussion about the possibility that 'superweeds' are inadvertently being developed, which will destroy other crops and ecosystems. It's not as if the GM plants are alone in a bubble on the planet.

The research on GM's is on-going, with arguments pro and con on many specific issues. Definitely something I think individuals need to assess for their own families. If it concerns them enough, they will consider the global as well as personal implications.

A couple of comments...

1) You stated that you were not willing to eat GM food. This is not the same thing as worrying about the impact of GM crops on the environment. The latter may be a reasonable concern. There is no evidence that the former is.

2) "Fears" that X could happen are not the same thing as showing the possibility or probability that X can happen.

3) I weigh concerns about remote theoretical harm to the environment against real deaths and come down on the side of preventing those deaths without reservation.

4) That some GM crops have been engineered to work in tandem with specific pesticides does not mean that all have. Further, I am unaware of the ability of a food crop (say corn, for instance) to cross-polinate any other plant than corn. So, unless I am wrong on this, the risk that a food crop could cross-polinate a weed and make it pesticide resistant is non-existant. It simply can't happen, as I understand nature. (If anyone out there can explain factually where I'm wrong on this, I would welcome the information. If I am wrong, I want to know it.)

That is because you have the option of driving to Walmart and buying your own food. There are many places in the world (and mostly the ones we are discussing) where that is not an option. They have a food line that has corn. That's it. wouldn't it be nice if they could become self-sufficient and be able to grow their own food?

Well someone's got to lead!

McG, I'm Canadian, and I don't buy food or anything for that matter at Wal-Mart. Who the hell buys food at Wal-Mart??? I digress here....I did a pastry class for a lovely young Brit who said she was fresh in Toronto after a brief stay in Rochester...not the one in New York. The only place to shop was Wal-Mart. On her first visit, she and her hubby ignored the vast plethora of frozen food and bought fresh produce, whatever looked best. The cashier looked at their cart, paused, and said: "You'se ain't from around here, are you..."

Scrat, we are in the middle of a heat wave here, so I am going to put on my shades, open up a can of real beer, and watch the global fireworks, and maybe laugh a little!

I still maintain that the problem is not lack of food, but poor distribution. The Masai are nomadic, and live just fine off their cows, drinking the blood and milk, but never eating the meat. Rugged individualists those Masai....

http://website.lineone.net/~yamaguchi/culture/kencult.html

If Africa has problems, it is because the Western World went in there to tell them how to be civilized. Now it's a mess, and America is trying to clean it up. Good luck folks, hope it works. I'll be cheering you on from a safe distance.

By Martin Plaut
BBC, London


The famine affecting 14 million people across southern Africa is likely to last at least another year, the United Nations food agency has warned.
This should be a time of rainfall across most of the region but in country after country the rains have been patchy and interspersed with dry spells.

The World Food Programme says this has resulted in farmers in a number of countries abandoning their planting.

And the United Nations is now warning that the prospects for the current growing season are poor.

Fallow land

"We've seen already failed crops in some areas," Judith Lewis, a spokeswoman for the WFP said.

"The rains came early in Zambia. People planted. Then the dry spell came and most of the plants wilted and died.

"So what we're seeing is that in many, many parts of Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia particularly, most of the productive land is just lying fallow right now."


The numbers of those facing starvation are growing

And poor rainfall is not the only problem.

Farmers who are attempting to cope with the failure of this year's harvest had little or no seed to plant.

And fertiliser was also in short supply.

As a result there is every prospect that the crops will be well below average in large parts of Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia.

And that will leave families across the region facing hunger for a second year in a row.

You are so right, cav!

There are some projects, pointing in the right way.

One example (I didn't know this, it was published recently due to the 40year jubilee of that organisation) is done by the 'German Foundation for International Development':
round a duck, a sack of corn, rice etc.
This means: local people are educated in agriculture, farming, gardening for some days or weeks and afterwards, they can rent a pair of ducks etc.
When they breeded enough ducks, got a good harvest, earned some money, they just return two (other) ducks, a sack of rice, potatoes etc.

UN slams aid 'double standards'

The head of the United Nation's food agency has accused western countries of ignoring Africa because of the war in Iraq.
The World Food Programme's James Morris said that 40 million people in Africa faced starvation and were in greater danger than the Iraqi population of 26 million.

Harvests in countries across Africa, from Zimbabwe to Eritrea to Mauritania have failed, leading to widespread food shortages.

He said that the WFP appeal for emergency food aid was currently $1bn short.

The Iraqi appeal could spiral to $1.3bn, he said.

'Blessing'

"As much as I don't like it, I cannot escape the thought that we have a double standard," he said.

"How is it we routinely accept a level of suffering and hopelessness in Africa we would never accept in any other part of the world? We simply cannot let this stand," he asked the United Nations security council.

Mr Morris said that Africa desperately needed food aid in the next few months to avert "severe hunger among refugees".

"There are nearly 40 million Africans in greater peril," he said. "They are struggling against starvation, and I can assure you these 40 million Africans, most of them women and children, would find it an immeasurable blessing to have a month's worth of food."

Mr Morris pointed to several countries and areas where the situation was especially worrying:


Eritrea: Two-thirds of the population face food shortages, funding situation "grim".
Zimbabwe: Concern over politicised food assistance. Offer of monitoring help spurned. Food situation will not stabilise any time soon.
Ethiopia: 11 million require assistance, 3 million more on the edge. Funding outlook good.
Western Sahel: Food security deterioration, feeding operations short of money.
Angola: Land mines restrict land suitable for cultivation as huge numbers of displaced return home straining feeding operations.
He also said that the full impact of Aids across Southern Africa, which is not expected to peak for several years.

In particular he expressed concern at how this would affect the government and food sectors.

Thanks for the parts, you copied from the BBC, McGentrix.

Indeed, the BBC published several articles last year:

Why famine stalks Africa

Famine and the GM debate

Africa: Globalisation or marginalisation?

The only nations involved in Iraq are the US and Britain. I cannot see how it effects the UN and especially the EU members. I should remind you the Africa was split up and raped by the nations of Europe. And if there is any blame to be assigned it belongs to them. As usual they look to the US to clear up the mess of their making. They are great critics but lousy doers.

I should note that the US donated vast amounts of GM foodstuffs to several African nations which was turned down. Their choice accept the food or starve or wait for help from {dont hold your breath] Europe.

The United Nations- what a misnomer