Famine-ravished African countries need to introduce more organic crops into their agricultural systems, instead of using genetically modified organisms as many have suggested they do, former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda said yesterday in the Photonics Center.
‘In Zambia, in my time, we used new technologies to help growth production and reached our highest growth of maize in our country’s history,’ Kaunda told approximately 100 students and faculty in the Photonics Center’s Colloquium room.
During the event, entitled ‘Africa and the World’s New Food Technology: Threat or Bright Promise?’ Kaunda, this year’s president-in-residence for Boston University’s African Presidential Archives and Research Center, spoke about the potential effects of genetically altered foods on the current African famine.
Kaunda said the use of GMOs, which have been pushed for by many Western powers, has hurt, rather than helped, Africa.
‘Because of these technologies, our ability to reproduce naturally has been compromised’ he said.
Farmers have had to purchase genetically altered seeds from companies from year to year because they did not reproduce naturally, causing Africa’s national economies and agricultural sectors to suffer, he said.
‘Since 1980, food production has either remained low or declined,’ Kaunda said. ‘But those new technologies were far less complicated than GMOs.’
Though Kaunda insists he is ‘not an expert’ on GMOs, he said during his 27 years as president of Zambia, he saw the failure of agricultural technology, causing him to take a strong stance against the use of genetically altered food.
American companies and the World Food Program have been fighting to introduce GMOs into Africa because they believe the scientific advancement will end hunger on the continent. However, Zambia has been strictly against the use of GMOs throughout, according to professor and BU African Studies Department director James McCann, who during his introduction of Kaunda at the event said 38 million Africans and 3 million Zambians are affected by hunger.
Kaunda asked for the world to understand African skepticism when it comes to scientific advances. Dolly the sheep is evidence that science is not always perfect, he said.
‘I remember when they cloned Dolly,’ Kaunda said. ‘However, in February, Dolly had to be put to sleep. Yet, we can not put seeds to sleep, and they are going to Africa.’
Kaunda said the African public also fears GMOs.
‘Farmers will not use these seeds, and if they do, the public may not buy [the food that is grown from them],’ he said.
Despite Africa’s apprehension toward adopting new technologies, the world has still pushed to introduce GMOs onto the continent. He said the World Food Program has ‘attacked Africa’ with the science.
‘The position of the world is understandable,’ Kaunda said. ‘They have always known food.’
But regardless of African people’s negative views toward GMOs, Kaunda said the World Food Program continues to push for their introduction.
‘The World Food Program threatens, ‘GMOs or death,’ and says African leaders are committing crimes against humanity [if they don’t accept them],’ Kaunda said.
Kaunda said the World Food Program and other organizations that pressure the continent toward GMOs are trying to overrule African presidents. By stepping on elected officials’ toes, these groups are questioning Africa’s sovereignty, he said.
‘This is a basic rights issue,’ he said. ‘[They] will turn the continent of Africa into an experiment. We are not tools.’
College of Arts and Sciences junior Kate Thomas said she appreciated the gravity of the subject and the authority of Kaunda’s voice.
‘This issue is not just an agricultural one,’ said Thomas, who was required to attend the lecture for her Environmental History of Africa class. ‘This is an economic and political issue as well.’
Thomas’ classmate, CAS junior Walter Rogers, said Kaunda’s stature alone made the event worth attending, though he said he also feels very passionately about the issue.
‘I petitioned in London against the spread of genetic engineering,’ Rogers said. ‘I don’t see why people are so quick to act. We don’t know the implications.’
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