Attempts to genetically modify food staples, such as crops and cattle, to increase their nutritional value and overall performance have prompted world-wide criticism by environmental, nutritionists and agriculture experts, who say that protecting and fomenting biodiversity is a far better solution to hunger and malnutrition.ย Two cases have received world-wide attention: one is a project to genetically modify bananas, the other is an international bull genome project.ย The reactions from environmental activists, nutritionists, and scientists could not be more critical.
The banana case has even prompted a specificย campaignย launched in India โ the โNo to GMO Bananas Campaign.โ The campaign, launched by Navdanya, a non-governmental organisation founded by the international environmental icon Vandana Shiva, insists that โGMO bananas are โฆ not a solution toโ malnutrition and hunger.ย The group argues that so-called bio-fortification of bananas โ โthe genetic manipulation of the fruit, to cut and paste a gene, seeking to make a new or lost micronutrient,โ as genetic expert Bob Phelps has put it โ is a waste of time and money, and constitutes a risk to biodiversity.
Actually, the most frequent reasons for malnutrition and starvation can be found in food access, itself a consequence of poverty, inequity and social injustice. Thus, as Bob Phelps, founder of Gene Ethics, says, โthe challenge to feed everyone well is much more than adding one or two key nutrients to an impoverished diet dominated by a staple food or two.โ
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Read the full, original article:ย Do not GM my food!
