A short dispatch from Kenya by Sci Dev, the non-profit with a large profile in developing nation reporting, catches the eye for its deft revelation of flexibility in the supposed hard line rejection of GM crops in much of the world.  Peter Kahare filed from Nairobi on a move there to import genetically altered maize, or corn, from South Africa. A drought has made it hard to stick with principle.

Nicely done. And Kenya still won’t countenance any of its farmers diverting the corn to the seed bin so they can grow it themselves once the rains pick up.

The press in Kenya has been following things, an archive search shows:

• Daily Nation – Peter Ng’etich: Farmers’ lobby back GM maize imports ; The farmers, it appears, really do want to plant it. But a medical minister is convinced that eating GM maize will have bad effects on health.
• The Standard – Juma Kwayera: Scientists apprehensive over GMO import plan ; This story reads like a visit to upside down world. Scientists, in lock step, condemn GM food as unhealthy. Rapacious international organizations are imposing them on the poor of Kenya. To eat it is “sowing the first seeds of self-termination of humanity.” Anybody know what CDC reports is cited here, one that declared GM foods pose a powerful threat to public health?

  – Charlie Petit

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Environment & Energy Stories, Health & Medicine Stories, Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.