The health of the people is a concern to every nation especially, Ghana and Africa in general. The healthiness of the citizens are paramount to the development of the continent of Africa and to the individual nations at large hence, the need for authorities in Africa and Ghana in particular to ensure that, citizens are eating a healthy diet.
However, how true is the perceptions being created by some Africans as well as Ghana that, healthy diet can only be obtained in Organic food and not in GM food?
Among those against the GM foods is Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG), who are of the opinion that, GM food are less nutritious, GM create foods that can cause an allergic or toxic reaction to human, and harmful genetic changes.
They also believe that, there would be inadvertent transfer of genes from one GM plant or animal to another plant or animal not intended for genetic modification.
FSG is creating mass awareness about the political, economic, health and environmental impacts of genetically modified food technology and, defend the right of the people to define their own food and agricultural systems.
They advocate to ensure that, small farms are sustained by state provision and facilitation of necessary infrastructure: Security of land tenure, Water, Financial credit, Energy, Fertilizers, Transport, Storage, Extension service, Marketing, Technology and Equipment for production, harvesting, storage and transport, and Insurance against crop failures due to climate changes, or other unforeseen circumstances.
FSG also resist the theft, destruction, and loss of the commons, the natural and indigenous resources, by means of laws, commercial contracts and intellectual property rights regimes, and to generally serve as the watch-dog over all aspects of agricultural sustainability in Ghana.
FSG was of the view that, anything Organic is healthy and is advising authorities not to be deceived to accept anything GM because, it is dangerous to human health.
But the question is, how true it is and what are the scientific prove. Is there any explanation from the scientific point of view?
Is GM food healthy for human consumption? How can GM food be trusted and what are the perceptions people have against GM food when it comes to healthy diet. Do people know the benefit to be derived from GM food? Can any nutrients be found in the GM food?
GMO, it is said was developed to serve as a nutritious food, give taste, and disease and drought-resistant that require fewer environmental resources such as water and fertilizer.
Meanwhile, from the Scientist point of view, Ghana Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), support the introduction of the GM technology with the assurance that, GMO plays a major role in ensuring healthy diet in the life of human.
OFAB was launched on 18 August 2011, as a country chapter to OFAB Africa also in response to the need for better understanding of a range of products; benefits and concerns associated with biotechnology; and for providing an opportunity to agricultural scientists and experts in Ghana, to bring the benefit of their knowledge to bear on finding solutions to Ghana’s development problems.
OFAB Ghana seeks to ensure that the critical mass of knowledge possessed by scientists on biotechnology is made available to policy makers and the public. OFAB Ghana engages its stakeholders through Conferences, Workshops, and Stakeholder meetings to bridge the gap between scientists and policy makers on the one hand and the public on the other. OFAB Ghana is hosted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – the foremost scientific research institution in the Ghana.
OFAB Ghana as part of the activities have been training stakeholders on the facts of biotechnology.
Other benefits from the scientific point of view include, less use of pesticides, increased supply of food with reduced cost and longer shelf life, faster growing plants and animals, leads to food with more desirable traits, such as potatoes that produce less of a cancer-causing substance when fried, medicinal foods that could be used as vaccines or other medicines etc.
Based on the facts laid down by those against and in in favour of GM food, the people of Ghana and Africa in general can draw their own judgment as to whether GM foods are healthy to consume by human or not based on scientific proof.
It is a known fact that, African nations of which Ghana is not exempted, are said to be experiencing food shortages as compared to the developed nations yet, Africa is said to be having one of the richest Agriculture lands in the continent.
However, due to climate change effects on the environment, every nation across the world is doing everything possible to ensure that the citizens continue to survive and be healthy by eating healthy diet to keep body and soul together.
African continent have in their possession rich agricultural lands yet, the developed nations without such rich lands continue to supply Africa with healthy food.
The question is, have African leaders of which Ghana is part done any interrogation to find out the real secret behind why the Western Agriculture system is on top and continue to cultivate healthy crops in large scale to feed themselves and export some?.
Again, have the leaders found out the kind of methodology being used by the Western world to improve their Agriculture system?
A healthy diet is most essential aspect of human life as far as human health is concern. But due to the fast growing population in Africa, people have adopted different means with the intention of taking advantage of the over population of African continent to produce anything unhealthy and dump on them hence, the protest against GM food.
Meanwhile, Africans need to research on a modern scientific method to find out if indeed, GM foods are healthy for human consumption or not and to what extent can it be trusted.
African leaders and Ghana in particular, need to invest heavenly in their Scientist especially, Agricultural scientist to delve deep into the efficacy of GM foods to match up with the Western world on their modern agriculture technics that ensure a healthy food.
The issue on GM and Organic foods with section having the belief that, healthy diet can only be obtained in Organic foods seems not to have a solid grounds.
On the other hand, is there any scientific prove from the Scientist point of view as far as the healthiness of GM food on human is concerned.
It looks like FSG is skeptical of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) hence its effort in doing everything possible to halt the introduction of GM food into the country.
However, a market interview was carried out in some major markets in Accra to ascertain the views of sellers and buyers on the perceptions of GM food, not being healthy and safety by section of Ghanaians.
At Malam market in Accra where both sellers and buyers were interviewed, it turned out that people have little knowledge about GM food especially, the market sellers.
It looked like they were brainwashed because, their thinking against GM food far outweighed its positive which suggest that, serious education on the benefits as far as being healthy to consume are concerned.
Majority of foodstuffs buyers at the market place believed that, there were a lot of GM food available in the Ghanaian market and only distinguished between GM food and Organic based on the size.
Buyers have in mind that, anything big as far as foodstuffs are concerned, is attributed to GM product with the assumption that, GM food only attract and give appetite but is not healthy to eat.
A buyer stated, “In the past, when you buy tomatoes it was not big and it can last in the fridge and on the grounds for long but now, because of something they called GM, all the tomatoes are big, big and you put in a fridge or grounds for two days, it begins to spoil. What at all is going on in Ghana”?
Others were of the opinion that, because GM foods were bigger, they turned to be tasteless and did not last for long. Meanwhile
In an answer to a question asked to know if they have seen GM food before, the answer was no, which is a clear indication that they are relying on hearsay.
Unfortunately, traders who are deeply involved in the day to day activities in the various markets, seems to have very little or no knowledge about the GM foods.
A trader confessed that, she has not seen GM food for the past 27 years that she heard people saying it was not healthy to consume.
This means that, the continuous propagation about the alleged negative effects of GM food made positive influence in the minds of the people without knowledge about GM technology.
According to her, she went out to purchase food items from the farmers direct without asking them the type or kind of foodstuff it is.
Other traders interviewed disagreed on the grounds that, due to the introduction of fertilizer applications on crops and other modern farm practices applied by the farmers, had contributed to the size of some foodstuffs.
Per the information gathered, it was clear that most Ghanaians had little knowledge about GM food and all that the negative information are either myths or a calculated attempt to discredit GM food before its introduction into the country.
Information available from OFAB Ghana indicates that, there is no GM food in Ghana at the moment. This is a clear indication that, people are just relying on hearsay instead of pushing hard to know the benefits that the country can be derived from the GM technology like other African countries who have seen the light and have embraced it.
END
