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The Government of Swaziland’s recent initiative on the Biosafety Policy and Bill which aims to regulate the importation of  Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) into the country is welcome. Meanwhile, local environment and development experts would like the Government to consider including human health issues in the Bill, in order to protect human welfare. GMOs are created through transfer of genes from one different living organism to another in order to create species such as plants and animals, which produce more or better quality grain or meat and which, are resistant to certain diseases that prevent them from flourishing.

Scientists the world over have pointed to human, plant and animal sterility, loss of indigenous knowledge on seeds, loss of certain plant and animal species and food insecurity as some of the possible negative impacts of GMOs on both the environment and human beings. While the idea of producing more and better quality grain or meat is praiseworthy in a world where we need to eradicate poverty, create and maintain clean and safe environment and protect and promote good human health; the GMO products’ ability to achieve these is questionable. 

In fact, a few years ago companies such as Monsanto allegedly advanced arguments internationally that GMOs would be the answer to the world’s food problems. Since then debate has been raging on whether or not the GMO industry has come up with an agenda to guarantee worldwide human welfare. However, it is now an open secret that the agenda of the biotechnology industry in producing GMOs or Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) is profit-driven. Attempts to produce the terminator seed, which produces grain with sterile seeds that cannot be used in the next cropping season, clearly indicate GMO companies’ strategy to increase their annual sales of GMO seeds. The creation of the terminator seed was therefore not an attempt to guarantee human welfare. In recent interviews with this newspaper Swaziland-based environment and development experts urged the Government of Swaziland to also consider including in the Biosafety Bill, a ban on field-tests on terminator seeds in Swaziland. 

In order to ensure that they increase GMO seed sales Biotechnology companies have made it illegal for farmers to grow crops using seeds from GMO crops grown in the previous season.  Some of the affected farmers are already committing suicide because they are failing to pay the high fines for violating the GMO companies regulations on the use of GMO seeds. Thank God a few countries in Africa like Zambia have stood their ground to say 'No' to GMOs largely for reasons mentioned above.

These countries are justified in taking anti-GMO stance largely because science has not advanced conclusive and positive findings that outweigh the perceived negative impacts of GMOs. Even within the Convention on Biodiversity which was signed by many nations, including Swaziland, the Precautionary Principle says that when managing biodiversity (all forms of living organisms)  it is better not to act or err on the side of caution, when in doubt about the perceived impacts of that action. The issue of GMOs falls within this category. The central question is, are countries that are accepting GMO seeds and products but lacking scientific and legal expertise and laws to prevent the negative impacts of GMOs acting on the side of caution?
 

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