Posted on 1-4-2004
Angola Rejects GM Grain
30 March 2004
A surprise decision by Angola to reject genetically modified
(GM) food aid
threatens to disrupt distributions to 1,9-million vulnerable
people --
many of them newly returned after the country's two-decade civil
war --
the United Nations food agency said on Monday.
The decision, announced by Angola's Council of Ministers on
March 17,
comes at a time when the World Food Programme (WFP) is already
battling
funding shortfalls for its programme in the oil-rich Southern
African
country.
UN officials are currently in discussions with Angolan authorities
to
determine the implications for a 19 000-ton shipment of United
States
maize that had been earmarked for the country.
If there is no clarity by Wednesday, the US could redirect the
maize to
another country, officials said.
Angola, a nation of about 14-million people, was ruined by a
war pitting
the government against Unita rebels. Up to a half-million Angolans
fled
their country before it ended in 2002.
The fighting also drove about four million people from their
homes within
the country.
About 3,8-million have now returned to their rural homes, but
about
1,5-million remain dependent on food aid, according to WFP figures.
Despite pressing needs, Angola is struggling to compete for
funds with
other aid-dependent countries.
Donors have privately questioned the government's commitment
to resolving
humanitarian problems in a country where one in every four dollars
in oil
earnings is unaccounted for, according to anti-corruption activists.
So far, the WFP has only been able to raise 24% of the $143-million
it
needs for the year beginning April 1, the agency's regional
director, Mike
Sackett, said in Johannesburg.
Next month, it will be forced to reduce its cereal rations by
30%, he
said. If no new donors are found by June, they will be cut again
to 50%.
"The GM question is, I think, a further blow to the achievements
of the
objectives set out by [the] WFP in Angola," Sackett said.
Details of the ban, which does not apply to milled grain, remain
unclear,
and the decision has not yet been officially implemented.
But it could have major implications for Angola, which receives
up to 77%
of its food aid from the US.
American biotech companies have been at the forefront of promoting
genetically modified food, or GMOs, which can be made to resist
insects or
disease.
Europe, however, has imposed a moratorium on growing or importing
GMOs
because of fears about the environmental and heath risks.
African countries such as Zambia and Zimbabwe have also rejected
biotech
food aid.
The WFP respects their wishes, Sackett said. But importing milled
grain is
more expensive, and it can take months to source alternatives,
he said. -–
Sapa-AP
|