DID ZAMBIA MAKE AN IRRESPONSIBLE DECISION?

• This was not a question of choosing between starvation and GM food. Early warning of the food crisis gave the government enough time to look elsewhere for non-GM food.
• Zambia experienced a food crisis in the 2001–2002 agricultural season due to unfavorable weather conditions. This particular food crisis was not unique. Food shortages, and sometimes famine, in Southern Africa have historically been influenced by cyclical droughts.
• The northern parts of Zambia had a surplus of corn. The solution to the food crisis required resources to transport Zambian corn to areas with food deficits.
• A number of African countries had surplus corn that was non-GM and non-GM corn was also available at the global level, including in the US.
• Zambia overcame this crisis without GM food.

Other African nations have rejected GM food aid despite tremendous economic and political pressure from the US and other developed countries.

Angola, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique and Malawi refuse GM food aid unless the grains and seeds are milled (to prevent contamination of crops).

The US refuses to mill the grain. The US has refused to provide non-GM corn or cash, and refused even to provide cash to mill the corn. Milling would eliminate the threat of environmental contamination caused by farmers planting the grain.