June has begun with a very positive moment for
UK based Tanzanians.
ATUK, a
union (of all involved), is having its first huge meet in Reading (pronounced, “Redding”),
few kilometres from London- on Saturday 23 June. Before we yawn and moan here
we go again, another political coffee and blah- blah, hear, hear.
An ATUK forum
created by Joe Warioba on WhatsApp, accidentally, discussed the issue of GMO
and Bill Gates. I have used the word “accidentally.”
The intention of the forum is not to discuss
GMO, but, unity of Tanzanians and how to channel “this marriage” in engaging
progress back home.
I was
perusing through the various chats last week, and THIS topic interested me,
immensely.
Dear
reader, for the sake of semantics (meaning), imagine if you were asked to make
a list of your core values? Belief in
God? Family? Making money? One of my
main core values is health. You might have seen stuff on Instagram (@freddymacha14),
or You Tube channel...
So, having seen GMO and Bill Gates in Africa, I
beamed.
Take Ugali; beloved standard African meal.
Ugali is
to us Africans what rice is to South East Asians, or potatoes, wheat and bread
is to Europeans. No wonder each time I buy Non GMO organic maize meal at health
shops in London I am asked by cashiers (mostly Europeans) what is the Maize
Meal for?
Non GMO,
organic maize flour is sold at Whole Foods in London yes. Ironically not many
fellow Africans (here) are aware. The most commonly purchased, (also available
in mainstream supermarkets) is South African- Iwisa maize label. First
time I bought it without bothering to read the green – white packet description.
Several days later while making Ugali saw it was GMO.
GMO!
Genetically Modified Foods.
Biggest topic for decades. I heard about GMO around twenty years ago. Health
conscious farmers, traders and individuals started making Non GMO foods and now
health shops have made it their mission.
But what
about Africa?
Of late, and this was the WhatsApp forum
subject, Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda’s Foundation has set out a campaign
to promote GMO farming in Africa. The two claim they have genuine intentions to
help ending poverty in the world- including Africa. While being interviewed by
Wall Street journalist Rebecca Blumenstein in 2016, billionaire man and wife
chanted this theme.
Helping
poor farmers in Africa.
In another interview (“Conversation with Bill
Gates” – year not given) on You Tube with around 3,000 views, Bill Gates defines
GMO:
“You create a new seed by using biological
change that changes the gene. One example. You put a gene that prevents the
plant from getting disease...like a disease that is wiping out the crop and
causing thousands of poor people to starve you get rid of that. The techniques used here were invented for
human medicine. In medicine we do not have a total ban on all drugs that are
created this way nor do we have total acceptance...”
Now.
This has been applied, in some African
countries including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and South Africa. South Africa as we
have seen with the Iwisa- Ugali flour is leading. There is such a huge monopoly
via GMO that Mariam Mayet, Director of African Centre for Bio Safety, called
this whole experiment on ill informed Africans “food fascism.”
Food fascism?
Why?
Back in 2004 I read an article.
A pioneering piece of material. Lengthy and
detailed by Zakary Makanya. He outlined twelve reasons why Africa should not encourage
GMO farming. We are being used as a “dumping ground” for scientists. At a more
sinister level, this is slow genocide for Africans. Effects of GMO on health are not wholly known.
How?
For centuries we have farmed, naturally. For
instance, Africans have been utilising a natural seed called “bacillus thuringiensis”
as a pesticide. It costs nothing. GMO has new ideas. GMO favours large farms
and will cost lots of money to maintain.
There is
a profit motive in every big business model. No wonder the GMO plan, argued Mr Makanya-
then with the Participating Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) a network of
170 NGOs.
Most African farmers are small scale, and this
hardly suits them. GMO -Iwisa maize meal is a favourite of many Africans in the
UK. So far, Makanya wrote, there is not enough research on the effects of GMO
food to humans. Even without deep scientific knowledge, common sense dictates
eating food from manipulated genes as suspicious, long term.
Here is THE worry.
Are most
of our leaders informed about GMO?
Few
years ago I saw this Ugali packet, Made in Tanzania. It was GMO based. Despite
my eagerness to support, I did not buy it.
So far countries
like Zambia, Sudan, Angola and Benin have rejected GMO farming. But big
companies won’t give up.
Big,
means strength, right?
-Published in Citizen Tanzania , 1 June 2018
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