Brussels Refuses to Back GM Food For Africa

The European Union on Thursday rejected a plea by Washington to give assurances to drought-stricken southern African countries about the safety of genetically modified emergency food relief.

The US State Department had urged the EU to assure African states that biotech food supplies were safe, and should be distributed immediately to the millions of hungry people in the region.

The dispute has erupted on the eve of the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg, which is expected to address southern Africa's increasing vulnerability to famine as a top priority. But some non-governmental organisations believe the US is using Africa's poverty to gain greater international acceptance for GM food.

Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique have turned away food relief shipments of GM grain. They fear that if it finds its way into their agricultural systems it could blight their crop and livestock exports, particularly to the EU. They also believe the food may be harmful to their people.

"We do not intend to get involved in what is a discussion between some of the countries of southern Africa and the US," said European Commission spokesman Michael Curtis. "It is our position that they have to sort this out for themselves."

Commission officials say the US could have solved any problems by buying food-aid maize locally, as does the EU, to provide countries with non-GM maize, or by milling corn so it cannot take root.

Acute food shortages in southern Africa threaten 14m people with starvation. The shortages are expected to peak over the next two months. The World Health Organisation says 300,000 people may die of starvation in the coming months.

The Geneva-based WHO is hosting a three-day meeting with regional governments from next Monday in Harare to try to forge a response to controversy over GM foods and widespread malnutrition. It said yesterday GM food was unlikely to pose a threat to humans, but that it was up to individual governments to decide whether to accept imports.

The US is supplying about 500,000 tonnes of food - about half the region's humanitarian food aid requirements - by the end of the year. But the rejected food, according to a UN World Food Programme official, is being stockpiled in Durban, South Africa's largest port. Some is on its way to Beira, a port in central Mozambique.

The State Department fears the rejection of its food could cost thousands of lives. "Despite the urgency of the need, misinformation about the safety of agricultural biotechnology is preventing some US food assistance from being distributed to those in need. The food is both safe and wholesome and can make the difference between life and death for millions of southern Africa's poorest people," it said.