According to the United Nations, 795 million people currently live with chronic malnutrition and most of those people live in developing nations.
In Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and northeast Nigeria alone, more than 20 million people face hunger and even starvation. Several factors have contributed to this tragedy–drought and crop failures as well as internal conflicts and wars.
Yet, it's worth noting that radical green activists are also to blame. These activists have actually focused on Africa, telling vulnerable populations that modern agricultural techniques—like the use of GMO seed to grow crops—is associated with a myriad of health problems. These lies have led some government officials of these African nations to ban GMOs and reject modern technologies that could increase agricultural outputs.
For example, in 2016, Zimbabwe faced dangerous food shortages due to drought. Despite the desperate situation, Zimbabwe’s government decided to reject food aid containing GMO ingredients after activists told government leaders that GMO food was dangerous and would injure their citizens (nevermind that the famine was also a major threat to the lives of their citizens).
This immoral behavior must stop. People–particularly those who live in developing nations–deserve the truth about the heath and safety of GMOs.
GMOs have been the subject of thousands of safety tests and are considered safe by every major scientific and medical association on the planet. That includes:
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• U.S. Department of Agriculture
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American Medical Association
• National Academy of Sciences
• World Health Organization
• French Academy of Science
• Food Standards Agency of Australia/New Zealand
• Union of German Academics of Sciences and Humanities
• European Commission
• Royal Society of Medicine
• The academies of science in Brazil, China, India, and Mexico.
People should also know that farmers who use GMO seeds have higher crop yields, use less land to grow those crops, and utilize far fewer chemicals on the land. That’s good for both humans and the planet!
There’s a lot of work to do countering activist lies and fearmongering. We at IWF hope this video does a little to push back on those alarmist messages and to reassure people about the promise of modern agriculture and genetic engineering.