By Busani Bafana
South Africa is Africa’s leading producer of biotechnology products, including genetically modified (GM) crops. GM crops include food and non-food crops that scientists developed by altering the structure of their genetic material (DNA) to make them exhibit specific new traits such as resistance to pests, tolerance to drought or increased yields.
In 1999 the country approved the commercial release of transgenic (Bt) cotton and subsequently maize and soybean using the 1997 GMO Act, overseen by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The newly introduced technology has triggered polarised debate in South Africa. In an effort to promote awareness and understanding about the issue, AfricaBio was established in 1999 as a biotechnology stakeholder association. The umbrella association is a platform for the key stakeholders in the sector to interact dialogue and disseminate information about biotechnology in South Africa and the region.
The mandatory GM labeling provision is envisaged to prevent exploitation or harm of consumers and promote their social well being, which critics like the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) feel is currently not the case. BioAfrica maintains that currently available biotech crops or biotech-derived products in South Africa have been proven to be as safe as their conventional counterpart.
AfricaBio’ CEO, Nompumelelo Obokoh, says public awareness, provision of science-based information, promotion of safe, responsible and ethical research, development and application of biotechnology and its products should be prioritized. This comes on the back of current debate on the mandatory GM labelling in South Africa, a right that seems wrong.
Obokoh said that in the past 14 years that biotechnology products have been commercially available in South Africa, there has been no evidence that such products, which are thoroughly evaluated, have had any adverse effects on humans and animals.
Question: Is the GM product labelling law enforceable given that many food items on the shelves do not have GM labels in South Africa?
The Consumer Protection Act was passed in April 2011, and the enforcement started in October 2011. There is a lot of confusion as to how the labelling would be implemented and enforced. Hence, some of the current products on the shelves are not in compliance with labelling requirements. Stakeholders have made submissions to the National Consumer Commission to provide clarification to prevent misinterpretation and misrepresentation on the labels.
Question: Why the heated debate on food labelling?
There is no resistance as such to food labelling. Generally, foods products are labelled when there’ a nutritional value, health and safety concerns. The GM crops commercially available in South Africa, undergo vigorous assessment for safety to the environment and human beings before commercial release and have been found to be as safe as their conventional counterparts. No approved biotech food has been recalled due to food safety issues.There are other, methods used to improve food crops and the products derived from these processes are not required to be labelled, as they are considered to be safe, thus the same can be said for GM crops and products derived thereof. Bt crops are even safer, as they have been shown to lower amounts of mycotoxins (cancer causing) due to the reduction of secondary fungal invasion of insect-damaged plants.
Question: And the position of AfricaBio on this issue?
AfricaBio position is that GM crops and products derived from GM have been vigorously assessed and found to be as safe as their conventional counterparts. AfricaBio supports labeling that communicates accurate information on the health, safety and nutritional composition of a product.
Question: Why is biotechnology misunderstood, if at all, in South Africa and Africa?
Like any new technology, lack of accurate information contributes to the misunderstanding of biotechnology. There has also been a strong anti-GMO activism, misinforming and instilling fears about the technology on the public. In Southern Africa this problem is further compounded by the fear of losing markets in the EU where overly stringent GM regulations are promoted to satisfy consumer concerns.
Question: How has the misunderstanding impacted on food security and investment in research?
To begin with, there’s already limited funding for agricultural research in Africa. Now when new technologies such as Biotechnology are misunderstood, policies and political will designed to promote the adoption of such innovations in agriculture will not be supported. This will have negative consequences on food security, as these modern technologies have been proven to have a huge potential to increase agricultural productivity for farmers. Africa missed the Green revolution, which saw a number of Asian countries pulled out of the food crisis in the 1960s. We now have the gene revolution, and it has been adopted by the same countries in Asia and Africa cannot afford not to take advantage of technological advances in agriculture. It is imperative for Sub-Saharan African countries to emulate the regulatory approaches pursued by developing countries like China, Argentina, Brazil, India that have adopted agricultural biotechnology.
Question: Do current regulations in South Africa favour trade in biotechnology products?
South Africa is the leading biotech producer on the African continent. The country has had an adept history of being ranked one of the top 8-9th biotech crop mega producing countries. By the virtue of this position, it is a net exporter of biotech grains. The SA GMO Act, the overarching GM legislation in South Africa created a progressive and enabling environment for trade in biotech products which could now be jeopardized by the Consumer Protection Act mandatory labelling requirements. This labelling requirement will have significant impact on trade and the ability of importers to source products or inputs from other biotech exporting countries as it requires all domestic and imported food products to be labelled.
South Africa grows Bt maize, do you see this modified maize being widely adopted throughout South Africa and the rest of the continent?
About 72% of the maize grown and produced in South Africa is genetically modified. Bt maize has been adopted by both commercial and small scale farmers in South Africa. Planting of GM maize in South Africa has continued to increase dramatically after more than 10 years of production. There is good indication that this trend of producing more maize on fewer hectares will continue in future. Much of the success of GM maize adoption in South Africa can be attributed to the presence of a relatively functional biosafety system. Farmers from other African countries want these improved seeds and the benefits derived from the harvests, but the lack of regulatory and biosafety frameworks is impeding the adoption of such promising technologies by farmers.