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13 January 2009 | One Comment

I have been watching the news lately in Kenya with a lot of disgust. I am embarrassed at the policies developed by my government as I am by the statements and actions of my MPs.

I have always ignored a lot of it because i have felt like if were in the same shoes I would act the same or at least very similar: not pay taxes and constantly seek better pay. – i often said who wouldn’t.

But recently the GM foods issue came up in the media, regarding a bill in which our agricultural minister sought to have GM foods introduced into our food systems.

At first I had no idea what it was all about, being a young busy designer with aspirations of retiring by 40, my head was down and I was concentrating on making money.

This head-down-money-making concentration was broken by a friend who was so passionate about the issue that i raised my head up for a while to listen, hear what a friend had to say about the issue.

What I heard was alarming! I was hearing “patented”, I was hearing “design to work with only certain agro-chemicals” and I was hearing “only a few companies control these patents.”

Basically, what I was hearing is that our food would be controlled by just a few people who aren’t even Kenyan, or African for that matter.

So, not only do I barely contribute my money to real Kenyans except through tax (a contribution i am not so sure is really benefiting Kenya as much as it is a few individuals) and buying as much local produce as i can, what I was hearing is that even the food i eat would no longer benefit small farmers struggling to get by, who are by far the majority.

So I put my head down to continue my work but decided that at some point i would read up about GM foods and the implications it would have for Kenyans and perhaps Africans as a whole.

Less than a month later, the January 2009 isssue of the NewAfrican came out titled, GM Food – Is it good for Africa? Were they listening to me when I said I needed more information?

I have to say what I read was shocking! What was even scarier to me is that someone who claimed to have the interest of Kenyans at heart, and took a mandate from his own people to represent these interests was trying to push GM Food down our throats!

The history of GM foods reads like The Godfather – the original mafia story. We all know what the mafia is about – itself. Yet somehow, with all the evidence that would be readily available to someone as high up as a member of Cabinet, GM Foods are still being aggressively pushed onto us.

After reading that article I decided I had my answer… I now know that I am different. Who am I to speak out about anything I see?

I am different!

I would not shackle my own people with the irons of slavery (as introducing GM Foods to Kenya would do) I would not enroll my WHOLE country into a global experiment (such as the GM Foods industry really is) to determine if the FOOD they eat s even safe.

For goodness sake! This is food we are talking about here! Even the Cabinet Minister himself would eventually come into contact with these foods and what if the experiment is determined to be a failure? What then?

The few studies on the effects of GM Foods that have seen the light of day urge us to steer clear of these foods, much as the authors of these studies themselves have lost the privilege themselves of being seeing in a positive light (did i say mafia?), because GM Food has sought to ruin their careers in a big way, through smear campaigns and other similarly mafia-like tactics.

Again I say, I am different – not better, just different. I wouldn’t go near GM Food, much as it is touted to be the cure for Africa’s near incessant hunger. Other solutions are available, one of which was also addressed in the same issue of the New African, Jan 2009.

I haven’t gone into the detail of the articles i read because that isn’t what this post is about. I urge you, however, to find information on the independent studies done on GM Food, and also on what happened to the author’s of it.

Then ask yourself – Do I want to be part of this, or am I different?

Here are some links for you to read up on personally and form your own opinion (but get a copy of the NewAfrican Jan 2009):

Wikipedia – brief history of GM Foods, Wikipedia – controversies you should know about, BBC’s take on GM Foods from various angles, Read about how GM-Food manufacterers also produce the herbicides that go with their produce and the effects these have had and a bit more mafia-like stuff in this Wikipedia article based on one pesticide.