ActionAid distances itself from aggressive campaign against GM crops
One of the world’s leading aid charities has admitted its staff told Ugandan farmers genetically modified (GM) crops would give them cancer.
A concerted campaign by ActionAid Uganda used pictures of rats with tumours to warn impoverished farmers against using GM seeds.
The Christian charity has mounted an aggressive campaign against GM products in Africa but admitted its tactics were wrong on this ocassion.
Jane Moyo of ActionAid said: “They should not have told farmers that GM causes cancer. We got in touch and they stopped it.”
Apart from cancer warnings, the charity had also commissioned radio adverts warning of the dangers of eating GM foods despite a ruling by the World Health Organisation that they have “no effects on human health”.
Moyo said that ActionAid as an organisation was “neither for nor against” GM but preferred to take a precautionary approach to the technology.
It has been alleged other NGOs have also used “wildly inaccurate scientific allegations” in their campaigns against GM food, despite the promise it can bring of greater food security.
Dale Sanders, head of the John Innes centre for research and training in plant and microbial science, said: “I find it very sad that NGOs whose stated aim is to improve food security and prevent malnutrition should be making false suggestions that GM crops are any less safe than conventional breeding.
“GM technology offers huge potential to improve yields and combat disease in crops that millions of people rely on.”
