Tanzania researchers call for global lobby to approve GMOs

Researchers in Tanzania have said there is a need to have an independent commission for scientists worldwide that would conduct studies on Genetically Modified crops so as to establish their safety to humans and animals.

Tanzania Alliance for Biodiversity (TABIO) Coordinator Abdallah Mkindi made the revelation at the just-ended workshop on GMOs held in Dar es Salaam.

There is a need to have such an independent commission because majority of scientists argue that GMO foods that are on sale in many areas have side effects to humans while majority of the customers don’t have knowledge on them.

Apart from that once genetically modified crops begin to be imported to Tanzania, local researchers should be allowed to conduct research on them before they are supplied in the supermarkets.

The main focus here is just to advise the firms that produce GMO foods to produce products and then allow other institutions to conduct a research on what they produce so as authenticate their safety.

They have to allow other researchers to carry out a study for what they produce to protecting human health and the environment that GMOs food may pose.

“As Tanzanian researchers and scientists we advise them to allow other institutions to conduct research on what they produce because initial examination has shown that GMO foods have bad effects to humans and animals,” he noted.

According to a survey conducted by different researchers in the world all animals fed with GMO products experienced some effects in their sex organs, stomachs, small and large intestines, blood, and had allergies, cancer, kidney and liver diseases.

Due to these causes, he said, there is a great need to create awareness to Tanzanians on what GMO crops are and the effects they have on humans and animals.

Apart from that the government should take extra care on imported food and products that are on sale in the supermarkets, he said, adding that some businessmen are only concerned with the increasing profit margins while they leave people suffering.

According to Mkindi, yields depend on a number of factors and the inserted trait of GM crops is only one factor among others.

“It is worth recalling (OECD, 1999) that first generation genetic modifications address production conditions, (pests, weeds,) they do not increase the intrinsic yield capacity of the plant,” he said.

Elaborating on TABIO’s position, he said, “it is that the principle of strict liability should neither be weakened nor abandoned in the biosafety regulations so as to provide a balanced approach in utilising the benefits of modern biotechnology but at the same time protecting human health and the environment from the likely adverse effects that GMOs may pose.”

Protecting the rights of vulnerable citizens against the profit oriented interests of multinational GM companies whose sole aim is profit maximisation at all cost is also of paramount importance, he said. 

SOURCE: IPPMEDIA

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