The neo-Luddites from organizations like Greenpeace and the Organic
Consumers Association are probably dancing in the fields - the organic
fields - after a tiny county in northern California yesterday caved to their
pressure and banned the production of genetically enhanced crops.
Despite this tactical victory for the technophobes, and similar
initiatives in other California counties, the more significant story is a
pair of recent studies reiterating (once again) the safety and benefits of
biotech crops. Thankfully, positive reports like these have not fallen on
deaf ears in developing nations, where genetically enhanced crops have the
greatest potential.

A recent report by the National Research Council (NRC), a division of
the National Academy of Sciences, concludes that genetic engineering is "not
an inherently hazardous process." Instead, it calls the fears of
anti-biotech technophobes "scientifically unjustified." The NRC`s study
actually reiterates its original findings from 1987: "No conceptual
distinction exists between genetic modification of plants and microorganisms
by classical methods or by molecular methods that modify DNA and transfer
genes."

A second study by the UK-based Institute for Food Science and
Technology found that "Genetic modification (GM) has the potential to offer
very significant improvements in the quantity, quality and acceptability of
the world`s food supply." Commenting on the study, one professor noted that
"with 30,000 people dying from diet deficiency diseases every day, foods of
the future will not be solved without GM."

Of course, these latest reports are hardly the first scientific
studies from respected institutions to endorse biotech crops. The balance of
evidence is so overwhelming that the European Union deemed GM foods "safer
than conventional plants and foods."

Happily, some leaders of developing countries are beginning to listen
to scientists rather than doomsday prophets. In just the last month, three
countries - Kenya, South Africa, and Argentina - all announced new
initiatives to cultivate biotech crops. "We must embrace and apply modern
science and technology in farming," argues Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki,
whose country faces an impending famine. "Indeed, there is evidence that
countries that have embraced modern agricultural technologies have improved
economic performance, reduced poverty, and ensured food security for their
people," Kibaki noted.

Other nations, unfortunately, have fallen pray to the technophobes.
Angola, Uganda, Zambia, and many other African countries have instituted
bans on biotech food, even in the face of widespread hunger. A recent
Washington Times editorial laments:

Greens and others of like mind repeatedly raised phantom fears about
the safety of genetically-engineered (GE) foods, even when it meant pulling
food from the mouths of malnourished babes ... Even though nearly half of
Angola`s children are malnourished, earlier this year its government banned
imports of GE foods, which stopped a shipment of 19,000 tons of U.S. corn
from arriving.


[www.truthabouttrade.org]