3-Food: US offers Zambia assistance to assess GE food safety

[hartmut_meyer@gmx.de]

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TITLE:  US Offers Zambia Assistance To Assess Safety of GMO Food
SOURCE: Dow Jones Business New
DATE:   Aug 28, 2002

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US Offers Zambia Assistance To Assess Safety of GMO Food

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP)--The U.S. offered Zambia technical assistance Wednesday
to help it asses the safety of genetically modified grain.

Although aid agencies estimate almost 2.5 million Zambians are in danger of
starvation if they don't receive urgent aid, the government has refused to
accept donations of genetically modified food, saying it may be a health risk.
It has also expressed concern that Zambians may try to plant the biotech
grains of cereal, contaminating the country's crops that aren't genetically
modified.

Andrew Natsios, the director of the U.S. Agency for International
Development, said Washington had offered to help Zambia set up its own biotechnology
plant, which would enable its scientists to develop the capacity to research
genetically modified foods.

The U.S. would also make available a wealth of data on the subject collected
by its own scientists, he said.

Natsios made the offer at a meeting with Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa,
during a two-day visit to Zambia.

Natsios told reporters shortly before his departure that the U.S. had also
offered to assist Zambian scientists to travel to the U.S. to review the
safety of the corn produced there.

He maintained genetically modified food aid was safe, saying it was consumed
by Americans every day.

The U.N. estimates 12.8 million people in Zambia and five other Southern
African countries - Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland -
urgently need help to avoid mass starvation caused by erratic weather and
exacerbated by government mismanagement in some countries.

To date Washington had delivered 490,000 tons of aid to hunger-stricken
southern African countries through the World Food Programme, Natsios said.

Another 100,000 tons of grain was currently being shipped to the region and
a further 290,000 tons was on order from U.S. producers, he said.


*****

According to representatives of the Government of Zambia present at the WSSD
this offer has been rejected (HM/GENET, Aug 31, 2002).



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