The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media
platforms spanning newspaper print
operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The
Standard Group is recognized as a
leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national
and international interest.
I have been to enough funerals of individuals, including my own relatives, who succumbed after battling that beast called cancer. Some of them are village-bred types who eat the so-called natural foods. The closest they have, perhaps, come to munching processed or minimally processed food is taking salt or sugar.
Frankly speaking, most parts of rural Kenya have never seen the demonised Genetically Modified (GM) foods, often derived from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
Much as I don’t know how these victims get cancer, I can swear it is not from eating GM foods, just like the granny in my village — and her daughter — who succumbed to the deadly disease earlier this year.
Around here, GM foods remain shrouded in mystery. Research is like law — you arrive at a deduction dictated by whoever pays the bill. So we are much aware of the games the NGO types have been playing to demonise GM food.
So on one hand, you have people saying they are harmless. But then you also have others swearing that they cause cancer, without slapping hard facts on the table.
In recent months, the debate has been vicious. Unfortunately, the people making the loudest noises have been politicians. The few knowledgeable scientists who raised their voices were ignored.
Not too long ago, one of our most eminent sons came to speak on the subject. Internet sources describe Prof Calestous Juma of Harvard University as an “internationally recognised authority in the application of science and technology to sustainable development worldwide”.
In his view, the only way developing countries — indeed the whole world — will manage to feed its growing masses is by turning to technology — read GMOs — to increase food yields.
His belief is that GM foods are safe. A scholar of his stature, who is an expert on the link between science, technology and sustainable development, does not go around saying things he does not know.
Interestingly, in Kenya at least, the last time issues surrounding GMOs were raised, they were made the subject of ‘health’ and not science and technology, a department in the Ministry of Education, or even Agriculture, which has been splintered so much that it is not even in charge of irrigation.
People opposed to GMOs, and who have successfully petitioned for a Government ban on biotech products, are well meaning. But if they imagine we are going to feed over 40 million Kenyans — and rising — on organic foods, they are daydreaming.
Only recently, media were awash with tales of how there is a shortage of chicken and eggs in Western Kenya. Lack of chicken and eggs in Western, of all the places? When reports of how badly maize crop was doing in Rift Valley and other parts of the country known for supplying the food started flying around, I knew we are toast.
It got even worse when I heard that there are deadly crop diseases ravaging all manner of crops. The fertilizer scandal? The Galana-Kulalu irrigation scene cam? The failed rains? All the while the authorities were promising this and that and sending around messages of assurance of food security.
Even without factoring in the effects of climate change, land sizes in agriculture-rich areas are becoming too small to feed us, as more and more people migrate to cities. But unlike the anti-biotech food campaigners, the slum dweller, who fears getting killed by stray bullet and thugs, would rather burp on GM food and damn the consequences than die of hunger to avoid getting cancer.
Are you still wondering how we ended up with maize flour retailing at over Sh150 per 2kgs? Go figure.
join