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GM crops 'won't solve hunger'
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Genetically modified (GM) crops could pose a considerable threat to poor farmers and will not feed the world, a UK-based development agency said on Wednesday. ActionAid, in a report called "Going Against the Grain," said GM crops are "irrelevant" to poor farmers' needs and could push them deeper into debt as they become more reliant on expensive seeds and chemicals. Also Alex Wijeratna from ActionAid, a known opponent of GM technology, told CNN that GM food could actually be a "threat" to the survival of Africa's poor and hungry. He said ActionAid had studied scientific evidence which it claimed proved that GM crops did not produce a greater yield. "Four big companies are dominating the market. They are profit-driven and they are not really interested in the needs of the poor," said Wijeratna. The four companies mentioned in the report -- Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer CropScience and DuPont -- were unavailable for immediate comment. The report comes a week after U.S. President George W. Bush accused Europe of impeding American efforts to combat famine and poverty in Africa and beyond by blocking the use of GM crops. Bush said GM crops could "dramatically'' boost productivity. "Our partners in Europe are impeding this effort. They have blocked all new bio-crops because of unfounded, unscientific fears,'' said Bush. "This has caused many African nations to avoid investing in bio-technologies for fear that their products will be shut out of European markets. European governments should join -- not hinder -- the great cause of ending hunger in Africa.'' He urged European nations to "match their good intentions with real resources'' to combat the spread of AIDS in Africa, while touting his own $15 billion plan to tackle the pandemic. Bush said he would discuss Europe's de facto ban when he tours the continent beginning May 30.
Support for Bush came from an unlikely source on Wednesday, when the UK liberal broadsheet newspaper, the Guardian, quoted Bob Geldof -- the Irish musician behind the 1985 Live Aid Concert -- as saying the European Union's response to Africa's plight had been "pathetic and appalling" in contrast to that of the U.S.. "You'll think I'm off my trolley when I say this, but the Bush administration is the most radical -- in a positive sense -- in its approach to Africa since (U.S. President) Kennedy," Geldof told the Guardian. (Full Story) Biotech crops are engineered to allegedly repel predatory insects and better withstand weed killers. But ActionAid said the development of "terminator technology" to produce sterile seeds, would prevent farmers from following their traditional practice of saving seeds from one harvest to the next.
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