Originally published August 25 2014
British think tank downplays GMO failures, claims unproven benefits in report urging Africans to submit to biotech
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) A new report by British foreign policy think tank Chatham House says Africa should open wide its doors to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), claiming that they offer incredible advantages over conventional crops. But the report is riddled with flat-out lies, revealing its true agenda to craftily supplant traditional agricultural systems with inferior, but proprietary, Western ones.
An analysis of the report by GMWatch's Claire Robinson points out its many false claims, including promises of faster yields and promotion of the public good, that simply don't match reality. Every GM crop thus far foisted on Africa has failed, wreaking all sorts of havoc along the way, not to mention the fact that both farmers and consumers in Africa have made it clear that they don't want GM technology.
The report claims, for instance, that regulatory barriers have prevented GMOs from gaining a considerable foothold in Africa. But the truth is that Africans don't want GMOs, as existing non-GM crops perform far better than GM varieties without farmers having to sell their souls to biotechnology companies.
Every GM crop that has ever been tested in Africa has also failed, fueling widespread distrust of their purpose. If GMOs don't even work as well as existing crops, why would African farmers ever be willing to submit themselves to the shady multinational corporations peddling them? Nobody in the Western media is addressing this question; rather, they are blaming regulatory "bottlenecks" for supposedly keeping this miracle technology from the poor and hungry.
"The report lists a number of GM crops with desirable traits in development in sub-Saharan Africa that are said to be stuck in a confined field trial 'bottleneck'. But it doesn't actually give the one pressing reason why Africans would want this alleged bottleneck to be cleared: that one or more of these GM crops has a valuable trait that enables it to outperform existing non-GM crops," wrote Robinson.
"Absolutely nothing is said about the performance or efficacy of these crops. Presumably it's a commercial secret."
Chatham House report intentionally obscures proven benefits of agrobiodiversity in GMO push
Nowhere in the Chatham House report is there any mention of the findings of a comprehensive, four-year study conducted by the World Bank and the United Nations, which found that agroecological farming -- not GMOs -- are the solution to world hunger. This report, which is endorsed by over 400 scientists and experts from 80 countries, as well as 58 governments, found that seed patents, chemical herbicides and other corporate agricultural technologies actually undermine food security in poorer countries.
Even when public research institutions are involved, the goal is still the same -- to create a pipeline of seed and crop technologies that are proprietary, patented and designed to make corporations rich at the expense of agricultural sovereignty. Most of Africa seems to recognize this, despite all the Western propaganda, yet the biotech kingpins are still pushing hard to gain control over this lucrative market.
"Through IP mechanisms, public research institutions have effectively become indistinguishable in their behaviour from corporations," added Robinson. "Whether a GMO is developed by a public institution or a private company, the end result looks exactly the same to farmers in Africa."
The Chatham House report also blatantly lies about the safety of GMOs, insisting that they have never harmed animals or humans. Such a claim is impossible to prove, of course, as not a single epidemiological study has ever been conducted on GMOs, not to mention the fact that they remain unlabeled throughout North America.
For a full analysis of the report, visit:
GMWatch.org.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.gmwatch.org
http://earthopensource.org
http://earthopensource.org
http://science.naturalnews.com
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