GMOs,ARE KENYANS READY TO EMBRACE IT

ARE KENYANS READY FOR GMOs

BY SAMWEL DOE

Do you know what’s in your food? The proposal to lift ban on genetically modified organisms in Kenya circulates around the production of certain truths that are at once political and scientific, contentious and technological; But GMOs issue is now articulated as a problem for both biology and power that can only be settled by truth.

Very soon if the government lifts ban on GMOs Chances will be that food on our tables might be genetically modified. But what does that mean, and what’s all the fuss about GMOs these days? The Kenyan government is to lift the ban on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) soon, Deputy President William Ruto said while he attended the official opening of the annual Bio-Safety Conference at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies in Nairobi recently.

  
In the world as of 2014, GMOs are grown, imported and used in 70 countries. Kenya is one of the countries listed as those approving research field trials. Chairman, Board of Management, National Bio safety Authority Prof Jenesio Kinyamario said that they are committed to ensuring safety in the application of biotechnology in the country. Prof Kinyamario said that the board is moving towards environmental release of reports as confirmed by two applications that has been submitted to National Bio safety Authority on two biotechnology products Bt Maize and Bt Cotton.

The National Bio safety Authority has in many cases approved World Food Program (WFP) to acquire genetically modified products for importation and trans boundary movement through Kenya for humanitarian assistance and relief supplies. These included: insect-resistant/herbicide-tolerant corn soya blend and insect-resistant/herbicide-tolerant maize meal. These approvals were said to have been granted after a food safety assessment process by eminent scientists and distinguished professionals concluded that the food products are as safe as the conventional counterparts.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), many of us in Kenya to them sound more like something out of this world rather than anything you’d expect to find on your dinner plate. They are plants that have been changed by scientists. But they aren’t something new. They’ve been sold since 1994.

Many people — including, I’m sure, many of you — may have greater expertise in this area than I do. These debates over genetically modified foods have lived since 1990s, hoping that some fact would one day come out clearly who is on the right. It is like the story of the blind men and the elephant: when they were presented with the beast all of them touched it but everyone noticed something different and built a theory around it, and nobody saw the whole picture.

Scientists take a plant. They change the plant by adding DNA from another plant, bacteria, or virus to it. DNA is what gives everything its special characteristics. So in this way, the original plant now has new qualities. The changes can make them more resistant to disease, bugs, or drought. It can give them other qualities too, like those that affect their taste or shelf life.

The application of genetic engineering to agriculture builds on the ancient practice of selective breeding. But unlike traditional selective breeding, genetic engineering vastly expands the range of traits that can be moved into plants and enables breeders to import DNA from virtually anywhere in the biosphere. Depending on the traits selected, genetically engineered crops can increase yields, thrive when irrigated with salty water, or produce fruits and vegetables resistant to mold and rot.

Genetic modification has made plants with extra vitamins, minerals, and other benefits. Swiss researchers created a strain of “golden” rice with a lot of beta-carotene. This antioxidant is said to be good for the eyes and skin

What's another benefit of using science to build better plants, according to people who are pro-G MO? You can combine plants that could never mate in the wild. An example of this is “Roundup Ready” corn. It can survive being sprayed by the weed killer. It is made of DNA from a few different types of plants.Our urgent need here is to alleviate poverty, improve the environment, and forced to face the fact that many of us with the introduction of GMOs will no longer trust the people who produce our food. 

Right now, our political class might be doing things in haste to only address GMOs narrowly without touching larger issues like the consumers attitude towards the GMOs. Apart from its advantages over the traditional methods of agricultural food production, its reliance to Herbicides complicates its ecological effects. Herbicide resistance is the main characteristic that the biotechnology industry has chosen to introduce into plants. Farmers can spray herbicide both before and during the growing season, leaving their crops unharmed. Ecological impact, such as effects on the butterfly, bees and other natural pollinators should also be considered.

Although as it is, whether we like it or not, genetically modified foods are almost impossible to avoid.The Republic of South Africa (RSA) is the first developing country to plant genetically modified staple food – Bt white maize. Development and spread of Bt maize in RSA that started in 1998. After that, based on surveys of 33 large commercial Bt maize farmers and 368 smallholders in 2001/2, it shows that Bt maize gives higher yields for both groups and reduces pesticide use particularly for the large commercial farmers.

Most studies with GM foods indicate that they may cause some common toxic effects such as hepatic, pancreatic, renal, or reproductive effects and may alter the hematological, biochemical, and immunologic parameters. However, many years of research with animals and clinical trials are required for this assessment. For others these facts are based largely on benign misunderstandings and wishful thinking as people on the other side of the GMOs debate worry about their safety. They ask, "Do we know whether eating them over the long run can hurt people?" They say that More medical problems; besides possibly leading to cancer, GMOs can cause new allergies and hurt the effects of antibiotics. But no studies confirm this. The rise of "super weeds": Crops built to survive weed killer could breed with weeds. These “super weeds” would also survive. Farmers would have to use more and more and stronger pesticide to keep up.

If feasible solutions to the food security in Kenya are to be found; Kenya’s environmental and food security activists argue that the government needs to recognize and support organic agriculture practiced by most small scale farmers to avoid imports of genetically modified (GM) foods or its practice.  GMOs should be our last option while embracing irrigation based agriculture will be the solution. As it is we cannot predict exactly what natural climatic factors can do to our agricultural production.

While in need to adjust to technological changes in rush to bumpy harvests, we also need to take control and care of our own natural environment by watching potential adversaries’ closely. Even with the persistence threats to food security the recent recommendation by the government towards embracing genetically modified organisms should be taken with lots of care. In a wide-ranging review of a broad and complex subject we had limited space to explore fully all the factors affecting the debate over GMOs, their relative sustainability and broader impact on the environment.

 In a way, we’re all amateur health scientists, doing our best to develop hypotheses about what to fear. As creatures that must eat to survive, we have all developed a trigger suspicion of potential poisons lurking in our foods. Unlike rats, with their highly refined sense of smell and taste, humans are pretty bad at sensing dangerous chemicals. Instead, humans (the social animal) avoid danger by watching each other, and by telling stories. Telling stories has worked well in some ways: Hunter-gatherers, for example, tend to have an exquisite knowledge of poisonous plants, passed down through stories. But stories also cause confusion.

I don’t expect to find solution to this problem now, but one way I will look at it that can make all the facts lineup is just hope to get a feel for the elephant as it is, like the blind men did.