CPP: Place moratorium on genetically modified organic foods

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has called on the government to withdraw the Plant Breeders  Bill from Parliament and place a moratorium on Genetically Modified Organic (GMO) foods in the country.

The moratorium, according to the CPP, would allow the government to study carefully  serious concerns born out of research and investigation that  have started emerging that GMO crops  and foods  were dangerous to the health of people.

Ms Samia Yaba Nkrumah, Chairperson of the CPP who addressed a round-table discussion on the Plant Breeders Right Bill which is at the consideration stage in Parliament, said apart from their health hazards, GMO crops  were not compatible with organic crops and tended to destroy organically naturally occurring plants and biodiversity.

She said GMOs were also  part of  the strategy of transnational corporations to have economic control over nations and their people .

Ms Samia said the introduction of the bill was unnecessary since the country, through conventional methods in agriculture research and development, could feed itself with sufficient reserve for export.

Therefore, she said, the country had come to the crossroads and could make a choice by either condemning posterity to certain genetic mutations they could not control and which would fester disease on the people.

The country, Ms Nkrumah added, could also choose the right route of truth, strength and freedom to feed and clothe itself without any bonds and hindrances.

Ms Samia also called on political parties to draw the attention of the public, especially peasant farmers, to the dangers that were looming over them in food production for them to fight for their rights.

According to her, notwithstanding the much-touted advantages  of GMO crops over conventional crops, GMO had been found through research to be nutritionally deficient compared with organic crops.

She said it was, therefore, not surprising that organic foods in the supermarkets of the so-called developed countries were more expensive than GMOs because of their good quality and nutritional value over GMO foods.

Ms Samia said developing countries such as Ghana risked abandoning their pride, freedom and opportunity immediately the country signed on to GMO crops and foods.

She commended the CPP UK branch for petitioning the President, John Dramani Mahama, not to sign the Plant Breeders Bill Act  2013 (PBR) into law and withdraw  the bill  which is  before Parliament.