Editor's note: We have received permission from Truth About Trade & Technology (TATT) to publish articles written by their board members and special guests -- to help keep you informed on important trade and technology issues. The article below was written by Gilbert Arap Bor, who grows maize, vegetables and dairy cows on a small-scale farm of 25 acres in Kapseret, near Eldoret, Kenya. He also teaches at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Eldoret campus. Mr. Bor is a member of the Truth About Trade & Technology Global Farmer Network.
The United States has survived its debt-ceiling showdown, but it just found an extra $17 million for famine relief in East Africa. This new commitment, announced earlier this month by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, boosts the amount of aid for Ethiopia, Somalia, and my country of Kenya to more than $580 million this year.
The humanitarian aid will reach 4.6 million people. They need it: Over the last three months, almost 30,000 East African children have perished as victims of the region’s worst drought in years.
The assistance shows that even in the hardest of hard times, the United States is a generous nation.
As much as East Africa needs help right now, the long-term solution isn’t more of the same. Food aid is at once an urgent need and evidence of a deeper problem. In East Africa, we must begin "breaking the cycle" of food shortages, as Clinton put it, so that we can support ourselves rather than depend on the charity of others.
For that to happen, Africans must accept 21st-century agricultural methods, including biotechnology and modern fertilizers. This is the best way for farmers to increase their yields and start to make it possible for the continent’s farmers to feed themselves.
Kenya took a positive first step by gazetting the country’s biosafety regulations on August 15th, paving the way for commercialization of GM crops in the country. By this gazettment, Kenya is now fully compliant with the international requirements on the development and utilization of the technology. It became the fourth African country to do so, following Burkina Faso, Egypt, and South Africa.
For years, Kenyans have battled needless fears about biotech crops. Let’s hope that Agriculture Minister Sally Kosgei put these worries to rest a couple of weeks ago with her blunt talk. "I have been consuming soya beans imported from Britain which are GMO, yet they have not had an effect on my health," she said. "So nobody can die out of eating GMO foods."
The Roman Catholic bishops of Kenya also have embraced biotech. They endorsed the government’s decision to permit GM crops, advising people to eat genetically modified foods to check starvation amid a serious drought that has threatened the lives of 2.9 million Kenyans and more in the Horn of Africa. This is contrary to opposition from some non-governmental organizations and MPs to a government plan to import genetically modified maize from South Africa, saying "We are in favor of non-genetically-modified-foods, but if there is a crisis and they can resurrect the person for one week, eat them."
I agree with Minister Kosgei and the bishops: I plan to grow GM crops on my small farm as soon as possible because it will help my land produce more food. All Kenyan farmers should welcome biotechnology, just as a previous generation welcomed hybrid seeds.
The time for full acceptance of biotechnology has arrived: "Most Kenyans wear clothes that have been made using cotton that is grown using GMOs and a sizable number have consumed GM foods bought from supermarket shelves," observes a Tanzanian newspaper.
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