Here's a genetic engineering project based on lies. Reminds one of the 2003
invasion of Iraq, also based on lies.--Tom
==============================================
EXTRACT: Nothing could better illustrate deGrassi's point that "the
excitement over certain genetic engineering procedures can divert financial,
human, and intellectual resources from focusing on productive research that
meets the needs of poor farmers."
---
---
"Millions served" - the GM sweet potato
http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-myths/11132
"Millions served," ran the headline in the US magazine Forbes over an
article that declared, "While the West debates the ethics of genetically
modified food, Florence Wambugu is using it to feed her country."[1]
Florence Wambugu is the Monsanto-trained scientist who headed up a project
to create a genetically engineered virus-resistant sweet potato for
farmers in Kenya. It was a showcase project intended to position GM as the
saviour of Africa, and Florence Wambugu travelled the world promoting it.
"In Africa GM food could almost literally weed out poverty," she told New
Scientist.[2] In the journal Nature she wrote, "There is urgent need for
the development and use of agricultural biotechnology in Africa to help to
counter famine, environmental degradation and poverty. Africa must
enthusiastically join the biotechnology revolution."[3] Such a revolution, she told a
Canadian newspaper, could pull "the African continent out of decades of
economic and social despair".[4] She was also invited to contribute to the
New York Times, and to appear on CNN as well as several American TV shows.
Her media popularity was understandable. The results of sub-Saharan
Africa's first GM crop were "astonishing", according to the article in Forbes
magazine.[5] Yields were "double that of the regular plant", with "potatoes
bigger and richer in colour", indicating they'd retained more nutritional
value. For hungry Africa, we were told, "Wambugu's modified sweet potato
offers tangible hope".
In a report published in January 2004, the Nuffield Council on Bio-ethics
said the project "could prevent dramatic and frequent reductions in yield
of one of the major food crops of many poor people in Africa."[6]
Contrast such claims with the actual results of the 3-year trials -
quietly published at the end of January 2004. Under the headline "GM technology
fails local potatoes", Kenya's Daily Nation reported, "Trials to develop a
virus resistant sweet potato through biotechnology have failed. US
biotechnology, imported three years ago, has failed to improve Kenya's sweet
potato."[7]
In fact, far from dramatically out-yielding the non-GM sweet potatoes, the
exact opposite was the case: "The report indicates that during the trials
non-transgenic crops used as a control yielded much more tuber compared to
the transgenic". The GM crop was also found to be susceptible to viral
attack - the very thing it had been created to resist.
New Scientist also reported the GM crop's failure ("Monsanto's showcase
project in Africa fails"),[8] as did an article in the British daily paper,
The Guardian. The success of the GM sweet potato had previously been
reported in literally hundreds of articles, even generating headlines like
Transgenic sweet potato could end Kenyan famine.[9]
Even before the results were announced, Aaron deGrassi of the Institute of
Development Studies had revealed how people had been seriously misled
about the GM sweet potato project. According to a piece in the Toronto Globe &
Mail, "Dr. Wambugu's modified sweet potato... can increase yields from four
tonnes per hectare to 10 tonnes."[10] A piece in Canada's National Post
repeats exactly the same figures: "Dr. Wambugu... said the modified sweet
potato seeds should be able to produce 10 tonnes of vegetables per hectare
compared with a natural Kenyan crop that yields four tonnes per hectare."[11]
But deGrassi examined all the available data and discovered, "Accounts of
the transgenic sweet potato have used low figures on average yields in Kenya
to paint a picture of stagnation... FAO statistics indicate 9.7 tons, and
official statistics report 10.4."[12]
In other words, Wambugu's figures on average non-GM yields understate the
reality by as much as 60%. So if, as Wambugu claimed, her GM sweet potato
were producing 10 tonnes per hectare, then rather than roughly doubling
normal yields, the GM sweet potato would be performing no better than the
conventional crop.
Aaron deGrassi also drew attention to the contrast between the unproven GM
sweet potato variety and a successful conventional breeding programme in
Uganda which had already produced a new high-yielding variety which was
virus-resistant and "raised yields by roughly 100%". The Ugandan project
achieved success at a small cost and in just a few years. The GM sweet potato, in
contrast, in over 12 years in the making, consumed funding from Monsanto,
the World Bank and USAID to the tune of 6 million dollars.
Nothing could better illustrate deGrassi's point that "the excitement over
certain genetic engineering procedures can divert financial, human, and
intellectual resources from focusing on productive research that meets the
needs of poor farmers."
Notes
1. Lynn J. Cook, "Millions served", Forbes magazine, 23 December 2002,
accessed 10 June 2009
2. Fred Pearce and Florence Wambugu, "Feeding Africa", New Scientist, 27
May 2000, accessed in the Gentech archive, 10 June 2009
3. Florence Wambugu, "Commentary: Why Africa needs agricultural biotech",
Nature 400, 15-16, 1 July 1999, abstract here, full article reprinted here,
both accessed 10 June 2009
4. Chris Lackner, "GM crops touted to fight poverty", National Post, 28
June 2003, accessed 10 June 2009
5. Lynn J. Cook, "Millions served", Forbes magazine, 23 December 2002,
accessed 10 June 2009
6. "The use of GM crops in developing countries", Nuffield Council on
Bioethics, January 2004, p. 43, accessed 10 June 2009
7. Gatonye Gathura, "GM technology fails local potatoes", The Daily Nation
(Kenya), 29 January 2004, accessed 10 June 2009
8. "Monsanto's showcase project in Africa fails", New Scientist, Vol. 181,
No. 2433, 7 February 2004, accessed 10 June 2009
9. Naftali Mungai, "Transgenic sweet potato could end Kenyan famine", ENS,
15 September 2000, accessed 10 June 2009
10. Margaret Wente, "Breaking the food chains", Globe & Mail, 5 July 2003,
accessed 10 June 2009
11. Chris Lackner, "GM crops touted to fight poverty", National Post, 28
June 2003, accessed 10 June 2009
12. Aaron deGrassi, "Genetically modified crops and sustainable poverty
alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa: An assessment of current evidence", Third
World Network-Africa, June 2003, accessed 10 June 2009
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