Roger Gbegnonvi*
As soon as he was out of prison for his ‘crimes' of uprooting GM
crops, the Frenchman José Bové went to Larzac [1].
There he advocated civil disobedience to French farmers, in the face of continuing
imposition of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the fields of agricultural
globalisation. For José Bové and friends to sound the alarm in
this way throughout the world, it means that the situation is serious. Do Africans
who have been promised happiness – at last – through the use of
GMOs know their fate?
GMOs are to agriculture what egg-laying hens are to animal reproduction: these
eggs can only be eaten, they cannot reproduce. The same goes for genetically
modified (GM) maize. On the surface it looks a thousand times better than natural
maize from farmers in Bimbéréké or Savi, which is small
and puny. But the seeds from GM maize cannot be used as seeds for the next crop,
and the farmer needs constantly to go back to industry and its traders to buy
more GM seeds for the next year's crop. By contrast, today the farmer
simply needs to collect the amount of seeds required from his yield for the
next season's sowing, which makes the farmer dependent only on himself.
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The globalisation of agriculture through the imposition of GMOs will transform all farmers – including African farmers – into agricultural workers closely dependent on the large western companies which produce and sell GMOs. Farmers won't be the only ones dependent on the industry: all those whom they casually feed with their “chicken bicycles” [2] and their natural seeds will also be affected. Once the imposition of GMOs has succeeded, the companies will be able to sell anything they like and will have the power to determine what we eat. |
All the food will come from the same global ‘Worldfood bank, so that from
Bembèrèkè to Boston, via Cancun and Calcutta, we will all
eat the same GM produce; to the delight – that is to say the increased
profits – of large industry and trading organisations around the world.
Complete harmonisation of the food supply will be achieved, and the harmonisation
of our thinking will soon follow. When you hear that through the use of GMOs,
poverty will be fought off in Africa, you should not only be cautious, you should
rebel, as their use will only lead us to misery and dependence.
When the new wealth of the global traders and industrialists is at its highest
point, we will realise that Africa, far from emerging from anything, has sunk
further into epidemics, pandemics, famines, revolts and ridiculous wars. The
humanitarian ballet will then be in full swing. Religious protestations in Rome
will continue to support the Catholic-Italian campaign which has suddenly sprung
up to appease tensions in Africa which, of course, has nothing valid to say
about the merits of GMOs. This is a cynical and humanitarian bluff from the
universal do-gooders. We should not simply be cautious, we should rebel. Today
we need to fight against GMOs with our minds and spirits, so that tomorrow our
children do not physically take up arms in a war against themselves and against
us, their parents. In this way, we can stand up to the indecent crusade from
all corners from those who think that the GMOs are good enough for Africans.
Roger Gbegnonvi is Law Professor at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin.
Reprinted from Nouvelle Tribune N° 403, 2 September, 2003
| [1] |
an anti-globalisation festival held in August 2003 in France |
| [2] |
“Poulets bicyclettes” (chicken bicycles) are frequently seen in West Africa. These bicycles do the rounds of the villages before selling the chickens in town, and many families are dependent on this as a source of income. |