GMOs had previously been banned in Kenya since 2012. The ban was designed in part to protect small farmers, who account for the majority of the country’s farms. The decision to reverse it followed criticism from the United States, a major producer of GM seeds. Aside from the obvious health risks, activists and agricultural pressure groups fear allowing GM crops will open the Kenyan market to American farmers, who receive large subsidies, and that this will weaken small Kenyan producers.
Responding to the reversal of the ban, Kenya’s museums and partners are conserving and promoting indigenous seeds, saying that native forms are now at risk. In a further development, Kenyan lawyer Paul Mwangi has filed a court challenge against the lifting of the ban, saying it was unconstitutional, a threat to food security in the country, and that it goes against the right to food of acceptable quality, consumer rights that are guaranteed by Article 43 of the country’s constitution. Mwangi also argues that Kenya would become reliant on European technology, further going against the tenants of the country’s independence.
To read how, in a major setback for the biotech industry, insects are rapidly developing resistance to GM crops, see this article on our website.
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News
The Kenyan government’s decision to reverse a ban on the import and cultivation of genetically modified organisms was “hasty,” say activists and agricultural lobby groups, calling for the prohibition to be “reinstated.” [Source: africanews.com]
Comment
GMOs had previously been banned in Kenya since 2012. The ban was designed in part to protect small farmers, who account for the majority of the country’s farms. The decision to reverse it followed criticism from the United States, a major producer of GM seeds. Aside from the obvious health risks, activists and agricultural pressure groups fear allowing GM crops will open the Kenyan market to American farmers, who receive large subsidies, and that this will weaken small Kenyan producers.
Responding to the reversal of the ban, Kenya’s museums and partners are conserving and promoting indigenous seeds, saying that native forms are now at risk. In a further development, Kenyan lawyer Paul Mwangi has filed a court challenge against the lifting of the ban, saying it was unconstitutional, a threat to food security in the country, and that it goes against the right to food of acceptable quality, consumer rights that are guaranteed by Article 43 of the country’s constitution. Mwangi also argues that Kenya would become reliant on European technology, further going against the tenants of the country’s independence.
To read how, in a major setback for the biotech industry, insects are rapidly developing resistance to GM crops, see this article on our website.
Dr. Rath Health Foundation
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