ZNFU roasts biosafety over GMO imports

“WE are appalled by the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) decision to allow companies to import foods containing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs),” the Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) president Jervis Zimba has said.

Mr Zimba said in a statement yesterday that the NBA should realise that Zambia was a non-GMO country even historically and that the NBA had no jurisdiction to change that.

He said the fact that Zambia was a non-GMO country had given it an edge over GMO crop producing countries, as people preferred organically produced foods and Zambia’s decision over GMOs was a fact known in all corners of the world.

“That we are non-GMO has resulted in our farmers investing heavily in diversification into fruits and vegetables such as macadamia nuts, avocados, blue berries, cashew nuts and the greens, most of which are grown organically.

This is what has attracted huge international markets, such as the European Union (EU), to Zambia’s crop. “The sheer ignorance exhibited, or the choice to be insensitive to our local farmers’ plight and health implications on our people by the NBA deeply saddens us. We risk losing our non GMO foods export niche on the international market, which has opened doors to Zambia’s fruits and vegetables, once we are labelled a GMO country,” Mr. Zimba warned. He said all the investments farmers and the country had made over the years would count for nothing and that the diversification agenda would collapse once the importation of GMOs was tolerated.

He said that the authority did not have the capacity to police the importation of GMOs, and that it should be ready to face consequences when the country got flooded by GMO foods, adding that opening the door for GMOs in Zambia would render it overridden by them.

“We are demanding a full disclosure from the NBA on how much food containing GMOs or with traces of GMOs has been allowed to land on our soils, and which companies have been allowed to import GMO foods.

“ZNFU is, hence, calling on Government to come clean on the matter and tell the nation its position on the GMOs.

The Minister of Agriculture should also state which direction we are taking on this matter,” he said.

He appealed to President Lungu to intervene in the matter, warning that GMO imports would destroy agriculture and the diversification agenda.