MISLEADING propaganda about biotechnology from green organisations in Europe
is obstructing Africa鈥檚 attempts to combat hunger, claims a Kenyan academic.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 get data, we get opinions,鈥� says Margaret Karembu of the Department
of Environmental Sciences at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. She delivered a
scathing attack on the greens at a conference in London last week.
Greenpeace responded by saying biotech companies are as guilty as any green
group of spreading value-laden propaganda. It says it opposes the release of any
genetically modified organisms anywhere in the world, whatever the benefits.
Advertisement
But Karembu says green propaganda has so alarmed some farmers that they are
reluctant to adopt any new technologies鈥攅ven if they don鈥檛 involve genetic
engineering. For example, Faith Nguthi of the Kenyan Agricultural Research
Institute and Florence Wambugu of the Nairobi-based charity AfriCenter have
developed a method of tissue-culturing bananas to ensure seedlings are free of
harmful fungi and bacteria.
鈥淭he seedlings have improved vigour and grow very fast,鈥� says Karembu. 鈥淭he
yield differences are amazing.鈥� The bunches of bananas weigh twice as much as
normal and are of much higher quality, she says.
That means a farmer can break even with just 80 of the new plants, compared
with 200 normal plants. The technique also allows farmers to get the same yield
in a fraction of the normal area, Karembu says. That means it could have big
environmental benefits, reducing the need to clear virgin land for farming.
Yet persuading farmers to buy the seedlings, which cost just 80 US cents, has
been difficult. 鈥淲e find that when we talk to farmers, they鈥檝e already been
poisoned [with propaganda] about the dangers of biotechnology,鈥� said Karembu.
鈥淏ecause there鈥檚 so much negative publicity about biotechnology, even tissue
culture is confused with genetic engineering.鈥�
She is calling on green organisations to be more responsible. 鈥淕reenpeace has
a very loud voice, but most of what they say is not factual, and they don鈥檛
provide alternatives. We can鈥檛 make policy based on people鈥檚 opinions.鈥�
Greenpeace claims that Karembu鈥檚 views are shaped by the work that she and
Wambugu do at the AgriCenter, which is part-funded by biotech multinationals as
well as charitable organisations such as the Rockefeller Foundation. But Karembu
says she is an independent academic motivated by the desire to combat
hunger.
Third-world charity Oxfam says that it supports the use of GM technology
developed in Africa for poor farmers, provided that it is proven to be safe for
humans and the environment, and provided the farmers give full, informed
consent.