By Edu Abade
Public Health experts and food sovereignty activists call on the Nigerian Government on the occasion of the World Food Day 2024 to stop the introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) into Nigeria’s food system as their use deprive Nigerians the right to safe food for better life and future.
The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) made the call during a Webinar to highlight the implications of modern agricultural biotechnology on the rights of consumers, farmers, the environment and other implications for the Nigerian food system.
A Public Health Expert and HOMEF’s Director of Programme, Joyce Brown, who moderated the virtual meeting, noted that the theme of the World Food Day: Right to Foods for a Better Life and Better Future is apt and urged the Federal Government to critically review its decisions regarding the use of GMOs in Nigeria’s food system through the human rights lens.
Brown noted that most Nigerians reject GMOs due to their economic, environment and health implications; and the government’s continued approval of permits for the products tramples on people’s rights.
Also speaking, Deputy Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, said: “Our socio-economic system doesn’t support the right of consumers to choose as labeling is not effective and consumers can’t tell which products are genetically modified or not by their physical characteristics. Our markets are not designed in ways to differentiate between organic foods and GMOs.
“Another major rights issue is the fact that farmers have to depend on biotechnology companies for seeds season after season, as productivity of GM seeds reduces after the first generation. This undermines the culture of seed saving and sharing among local farmers.”
On the right to information, Deputy Director of the Centre for Food Safety and Agricultural Research, Dr. Segun Adebayo, stated that the processes of GMOs approval in Nigeria remain largely flawed.
“It is not sufficient to announce notification of applications on the website of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), which many people do not know exists, in their office or in two national dailies. There is no risk assessment report and documents on the NBMA website indicating that proper due diligence is done before these products are released into the environment.”
The composition of the NBMA board with the presence of key promoters of GMOs, including the National Biotechnology Development and Research Agency and other flaws in the biosafety regulatory system in Nigeria necessitates an urgent review of the NBMA Act.
On his part, a Molecular Biologist, Dr. Ifeanyi Casmir, noted that GMOs directly disrupt the rights of peoples to a safe environment which they depend on for food.
“Studies have revealed that GMOs designed to resist pests, increase the dependence on synthetic pesticides which destroy non-target organisms including pollinators and soil living organisms, leading to loss of biodiversity and soil degradation. This has severe implications on food productivity.
“The Cry Proteins and toxins produced by the GM crops designed to be pesticides including the TELA Maize, Bt Cowpea and Cotton, disturb rhizospheric and soil eubacterial communities. Furthermore, Bt crops are produced using antibiotic markers, which are implicated in increasing cases of antibiotics resistance,” he stated.
Speaking on sustainable, just and healthy alternatives for the country’s food system, a farmer and women farmer group leader, Lovelyn Ejim, urged the Nigerian Government to focus on Agroecology, which uses ecosystem principles in the management of agriculture systems thereby assuring optimum and sustainable food productivity, while addressing the socio-economic barriers in food production.
She stressed the need to support the set up of markets for organic products and to focus on achieving food sovereignty through increasing support for smallholder farmers.
