A coalition of academics and civil society organisations has said genetically modified foods (GMF) pose severe risks to human health and the environment with a claim that the genetically modified crops have created novel and alarming problems, including genetic contamination and uterine fibroids in women of young ages.
In Nigeria, uterine fibroids account for 3.2–7.8% of gynaecological cases and 68.1% of hysterectomy cases. A study in Ogoni found that 14.2% of case files were positive for uterine fibroids. Another study found that uterine fibroids were shared between the ages of 30 and 39.
Insisting that Nigeria does not need GMOs, the coalition members who spoke at a press conference organised by Health of Mother Health Foundation called for a national ban on GMOs, arguing that “it is not in the interest of our people.”
Across the country, farmers have complained that GMOs reduce productivity in the second planting season, meaning farmers cannot replant these seeds but must purchase them continuously every new season.
“The experience with the commercialisation of GM crops abroad and its failed promises, recent developments, and reports in Nigeria already evidence GM crops’ failure. It undoubtedly illustrates that it will not be in the interest of our people to accept GM crops in our country. It will spell doom and disaster for our agricultural and food systems,” deputy executive director ERA/FoEN and Food Sovereignty Coordinator Friends of the Earth Africa, Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, said yesterday in a research paper that was presented at the press conference in Abuja. “We call on our government to be conscious that the future is assured only by agroecological or natural agricultural practices. Such will not be found in the laboratories of the profit-driven biotech industry.”
The coalition pointed to several studies that have linked the consumption of GMOs to a myriad of diseases, including antibiotic resistance. The commercially approved Bt Cowpea expresses an enzyme that confers antibiotic resistance: neomycin phosphotransferase. Multiple animal studies show significant immune dysregulation, including upregulation of cytokines [protein molecules involved in immune responses] associated with asthma, allergy, and inflammation.
“Multiple toxins from GMOs have been detected in 93% maternal and 80% fetal blood, including non-pregnant women’s blood. These toxins are designed to kill crop pests and reach humans and babies in the womb. They could lead to allergies, miscarriage, and cancer,” Independent Consultant Prof. Johnson Ekpere said in a memorandum to the National Assembly.
Chairman of Zimbabwe Antisanction Movement Rutendo Matinyarare said, “Not only is the soil dead, it’s not cohesive. It no longer sticks together because there are no bacteria, no living organisms to keep it cohesive, to keep it sticking together, to hold water,” while explaining the impact of the genetically modified products on the earth.
The executive director of Women and Youth in Agriculture, Lovelyn Ejim, said GM crops degrade the land by killing all the microorganisms, thereby reducing soil nutrients and impoverishing the farmer. Due to the high cost of purchasing the seeds, the farmers’ income is drained, among other risks.
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