Page 18 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 33
P. 18
Food Health
Community
By Rutendo Matinyarare
Harare, Zimbabwe
espite the El Niño drought, and from the U.S.?
South Africa experiencing a 23%
Dreduction in its maize harvest, it The answer may lie in a call I received
still managed to produce enough to export three months ago from a contact in the
its usual 2 million-ton quota to the SADC intelligence community of one of the SADC
region. Nevertheless, the U.S. is set to export countries. According to this source, since
close to a million tons of GMO white maize 2007, South African white farmers and the
to South Africa. U.S. government have collaborated on a
program to produce GM maize specifically
Now, if South Africa has a surplus of maize for Zimbabwe. Even when Zimbabwe has
to fulfill its export commitments to SADC had bumper harvests, South African officials
countries affected more severely by the reportedly visit Harare to persuade the
drought, and if the country’s GMO Act government to continue purchasing GMO
prohibits importing unlicensed GMO maize maize from South Africa. This is because
into the country—only permitting non-GM an entire ecosystem of white farmers—who
imports—why is South Africa bringing in produce about 1.5 million tons of maize
nearly a million tons of GM white maize annually—is sustained by Zimbabwe’s
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