If they are natural why patent them? – Nigerian food experts urge govt to ban GMO

A coalition of food safety experts and farmers under the umbrella of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, (HOMEF), has asked the Nigerian Federal government to ban genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the country. The experts made the call at a press briefing. 

The coalition said the call became expedient in light of the negative impacts of GMOs on the human system and long-term effects on the nation’s food sovereignty and security.

During the briefing, the Director of Programmes at HOMEF, Joyce Brown warned that GMOs were not safe as they involved the “unnatural” transfer of genes, often between unrelated species that mutate into destructive organisms.

‘The question we want to ask is if they are natural, why do we have patent rights over them? Why do some people claim ownership over them? So you are taking genes from bacteria and inserting them into beans, how is that natural? That is a distortion of natural order, even with pollination or mutation, we don’t have that sort of movement across species,” she said.

She went on to note that Nigeria does not need GMOs to solve its food insecurity problems. Rather, the government needs to diagnose the core factors that have led to food insecurity.

She enumerated factors causing food insecurity to include poverty and lack of adequate support for small and medium-scale farmers. She said these are the things that the government should be addressing instead of bringing in GMO crops.

”Our call is for the Nigerian government and other African governments to ban GMOs. It’s important, it’s critical to recognise the unique characteristics of our agricultural landscape and to adopt an approach that is more sustainable and rooted in local realities,” she said.

African countries are taking a stand on GMO

This development is coming just days after the Kenyan government approved the growing and consumption of genetically modified crops (GMO crops). 

In his announcement, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the country’s National Biosafety Authority (NBA), Nehemiah Ngetich said the government approved the growing of the first set of genetically modified crops following the High Court’s dismissal of consolidated petitions against GMO crops. The petition had challenged a Cabinet order to lift a 10-year ban on gene-altered foods in the country.

The CEO disclosed that crops already approved for commercialisation include cotton, maize and cassava.

“The Authority has already approved the commercialisation of Bt Cotton, which has been cultivated since 2020 without any adverse effects reported through our monitoring and surveillance system. Other crops, such as Bt Maize and virus-resistant cassava, are at advanced stages of variety testing towards their commercialisation,” Ngetich said.

In Nigeria, however, experts remain intolerant of genetically modified foods. A Professor of Agronomy, Johnson Ekpere, said the government should ban GMOs immediately because the country lacks expertise in Biotechnology management which would have helped in properly researching the crops.

Warning that Nigeria is not ready for GMOs at the moment, he advised the government to ensure that the basic tenets of the Cartagena Protocol, which establishes the biosecurity-regulating mechanism, are understood by those implementing biotechnology.

”If the government had the good sense to set up a biotechnology agency, it should have the sense to set up a biosecurity research facility to help them understand the dangers and risks involved. Research institutes in Nigeria have a lot of research information in their facilities that can be used to enhance and improve food production, GMOs are not the best choice,” he said.

On his part, a Zimbabwean anti-GMO advocate, Rutendo Matinyarare said South Africa is facing a major food security crisis, stressing that the country does not have seeds anymore because they embraced GMOs. He said soils are now destroyed and the land is dead because of chemicals and seeds from Monsanto and Syngenta.

”GMO seeds do not reproduce themselves or what you plant initially, you have to continue buying new seeds and you have to be dependent on chemical fertilisers that destroy the soil, kill the nematodes, kill the worms, and the living organisms, which gives you a dead soil,” he said.

The Coalition in its call also tasked the government to ensure that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council, FCCPC, did more to protect Nigerians from unlabelled GMO products and ensure that biotechnology research was used as a vehicle to develop the nation and not promote private interests.

See also: “Nigerians have been eating GMO foods for decades, it did not kill anyone” – Naija Farmer