REPORTER: Bronwyn Adcock
Not many people make the journey to this remote village in Kazungula, a district in southern Zambia. The family who live here, though, are happy to see any visitor. They want outsiders to know what's happening.
VILLAGER (Translation) Look. See how we're suffering? Can you see? We can't survive.
In the south of the country, millions are suffering after their primary source of food, their maize harvest, was destroyed by a drought back in March. Since then, they've been living on wild fruits and nuts and very occasional handouts of food. This storage area for grain should be full.
VILLAGER (Translation): There's nothing, just grass. What can I do? Look. Nothing. Completely. There's nothing. There's only grass left. The maize finished sometime ago. We've got nothing. Zero. Nothing. These are all my children. We were given one bucket of food. It's all gone. We don't even have water. If only we could get some water to drink. There's nothing. Help me, quickly. I'm begging. If it wasn't for wild fruit and nuts, thousands would almost certainly be dead. While many of these foods are rich in vitamins, they are scarce and not nearly an adequate diet. This boy is not at school today. He's waiting around for his first meal in days - a porridge made out of ground nuts. CHIEF MUSOKOTWANE: We need maize even now, even today. Chief Musokotwane is the traditional leader in this area. He says that, of the 38,000 people he looks after, not one produced a maize harvest this season. CHIEF MUSOKOTWANE: The situation is quite serious. We have lost humans from starvation. Because of communication between the remote area and the town, that's why the situation is not so dramatised. But definitely we have lost human beings because of starvation. REPORTER: So people have died? CHIEF MUSOKOTWANE: It's true. International aid agencies say that so far, there's not enough evidence that attributes death directly to hunger. However, illness and severe malnutrition are increasing. An estimated 2.5 million Zambians are teetering on the brink of a massive humanitarian disaster. The only thing that can prevent this is international food aid. BRENDA CUPPER, CARE INTERNATIONAL: If CARE and others like us need to wait until we get the pictures we've seen from Sudan and Ethiopia, other countries, of starving children, if we have to wait that long to get the food in, CARE will not be able to save those children and neither will anybody else. We need a confirmed and adequate supply of food, which is acceptable to the Zambian Government and the Zambian people, every month. In this warehouse in the south of the country, maize donated by the United Kingdom is being unloaded and prepared for distribution. The bulk of the space in this warehouse, though, is being taken up by maize that won't be distributed. In an unprecedented move, it's been rejected by the Zambian Government because it's genetically modified. MAHERE TAKAWIRE, LOCAL DISTRICT ADMINISTRATOR (in warehouse): This is GMO, all this. REPORTER: There's a lot of it. MAHERE TAKAWIRE: All this is GMO, GMO. This is just a portion of the 14,000 tonnes of maize donated by the US which is currently sitting in warehouses around Zambia. It's up to the Mahere Takawire, the local district administrator, to explain to the hungry people in his area why they can't have this grain. MAHERE TAKAWIRE: It's very difficult, it's quite difficult. It's a task, it's a challenging task, and it's not easy because you are talking to people who are hungry. You know, it's not easy, it's quite tough, but we are managing, and you just have to explain to them properly and maybe make them understand why the government is saying this.
Zambia has a proud history. In 1964, it was one of the first countries in southern Africa to gain independence from its colonial ruler, in this case Britain. After independence, Zambia went on to support the liberation movements of its neighbours. President Levy Mwanawasa was elected last year. His so-called new deal government is focusing on stamping out the corruption of the previous regime. Recently, though, his attention's been diverted. PRESIDENT LEVY MWANAWASA (at UN General Assembly: The offer of genetically modified foods has created a difficult situation for the Government. President Mwanawasa is spending his time trying to justify Zambia's position to the world. PRESIDENT LEVY MWANAWASA: It is not my government's intention to sacrifice lives of the Zambian people by taking this position. However, given the lack of, and the conflicting international information on the possible consequences of genetically modified products on humans, I therefore wish to request for your understanding of Zambia's position on GMO.
There's been little understanding of Zambia's position. It's been condemned and ridiculed in the international media. "Food luddites let Africa starve," screamed one headline. It's also come under extraordinary pressure from a stream of overseas visitors. The World Food Programme - the UN agency charged with distributing donated food - has just arrived in Johannesburg after assessing the food crisis in southern Africa. The GMO controversy was high on its agenda. American GM maize makes up approximately half of all donations they received. When they began their tour, three of the six countries requiring aid were threatening to reject it. JAMES MORRIS, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: My sense is that the issue has been resolved in a way that is workable in five of the six countries. Zambia is still sorting through it.
The World Food Program was unable to change Zambia's mind.
JAMES MORRIS: The World Food Programme has been distributing GMO food now for between seven and eight years, we've never had anyone turn it down, and we've never had any problems. And not being able to use a large percentage of what is available to us, which we consider to be perfectly safe, would put a major roadblock in our ability to do our job.
REPORTER: Can the job be done without GMO food? JAMES MORRIS: It would be very difficult. MUNDIA SIKATANA, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE: I am saying do not force GMO on us just because, for the time being, we have been hit by drought. Mundia Sikatana is Zambia's Minister for Agriculture. MUNDIA SIKATANA: Look at our varieties - typical African. It's so nice, all colours. All this will be wiped out through the GMO. The Minister for Agriculture has a passion for indigenous African plants. He's been leading the campaign against accepting the GM food aid and for finding alternatives. MUNDIA SIKATANA: My answer to you - the crisis is critical. We must face it. We must appeal to those that have non-GMO. We must go to our other varieties - millet, sorghum, cassava -to feed these people. There's no doubt the government is facing a huge challenge. MUNDIA SIKATANA: But for America to force GMO on underdeveloped countries, we say no. We know how powerful they are, but they cannot be as powerful as to force us to swallow, not our pride, but food that we are suspecting will be dangerous to our bodies. The Zambian Government says that the World Food Programme, which brought the maize into the country, didn't tell it the maize was genetically modified. The government only found out after the maize had arrived. In August, it called a public meeting to work out what to do. MUNDIA SIKATANA (At meeting): We, as a government, are sensitive to the plight of our own people because we belong to those people and can never, ever risk - deliberately or otherwise - risk the lives of our own people. There was immense pressure to make a decision, quickly. Ships with more GM maize were already on their way from America. Zambians were warned that, if they didn't take it, someone else would. RICHARD REAGAN, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME ZAMBIA: I would urge that a decision on this issue be made expeditiously, or some 42,000 tonnes of GM maize which is currently en route to Zambia will have to be diverted to other countries. Already angry that GM maize had been brought in without their knowledge, the next revelation only heightened the tension. In an apparent attempt to placate the government, the World Food Programme publicly stated that there was no need for concern because it had, in fact, been delivering GM food aid to Zambia for the last seven years. Again, this was news to the government. MUNDIA SIKATANA: And I didn't hear it officially from anybody, I just heard one official of the World Food Programme bragging around saying, After all these people we have been feeding these people on GMO for the last seven years, - I was very angry about that. I told them they were not fair and we would never accept such conduct because in America, in Europe, they know they are obliged to notify the consumer, to give him a choice, you know. The head of WFP in Zambia refused to speak to Dateline. A PR person said the situation was too sensitive. We were told to speak to the South African office instead. JUDITH LEWIS, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME SOUTH AFRICA: No, we don't have an obligation to directly inform a government of the GM. As I said, we certify food under the Codex Alimentarius, which certifies that food is safe for human consumption and that donor countries eat the products that they are providing to recipient governments. Judith Lewis acknowledges that GM maize has been coming into Zambia for at least seven years, but says it was up to Zambia to find out for itself. JUDITH LEWIS: The GMO issue became public, and became part of the US food chain in 1992. Since then, we have been providing this food in the region. Governments are tasked with the responsibility of finding out what commodities they want to bring into the countries. They accept these commodities. REPORTER: Do you think, though, they would have known that food aid, in particular, had GMO in it? JUDITH LEWIS: Well, here again, I think the onus is on the recipient country to ask the questions. In deciding to reject the GM maize, the government relied heavily on the advice of Dr Mwananyanda Mbikusita Lewanika. Dr Lewanika's one of Zambia's foremost scientists. He represented Zambia and Africa during negotiations for international protocols on genetic modification. He, along with two major scientific institutions in Zambia, advised the government to reject the food. One of the reasons given was uncertainty about the effects on human health. While millions of people have been eating GM food for years, and there is a body of evidence that says it's safe, dissenting views do exist. Dr Lewanika decided to adopt the precautionary principle. DR MWANAYANDA MBIKUSITA LEWANIKA, SCIENTIFIC & INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH CENTRE: The precautionary principle basically says, in case of uncertainties, and if there is no scientific unanimity in a position and there is doubt, the onus is on the receiving environment to take appropriate action, and in this case was to refuse GMO. And Zambia is not the first country to use the precautionary principle. Even the European Union - their de facto moratorium on GMO is based on the precautionary principle.
The second argument was that Zambia has no regulatory process in place to monitor GMOs. The final concern was about harm to the environment, due to the potential for contamination of non-GM crops. DR LEWANIKA: That if GMO maize was distributed, and this is very close to the planting season, there was a very high likelihood that some of the people would sow the seed and plant it. Dr Luke Mumba opposes the decision to reject the maize. An advocate of biotechnology, he says the food is safe to eat, and, that while concerns about contamination of non-GM crops are valid, there is a short-term solution. DR LUKE MUMBA, UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA: My suggestion was that government should put in place measures to ensure that people do not get access to the grain itself, and one alternative was to mill the grain as soon as it comes into the country. Mr Mumba is a lone voice of dissent in Zambia. His position has isolated him from former colleagues like Dr Lewanika. DR LUKE MUMBA: People really do not understand what genetic modification is, and, because of that, it has been very, very easy for the populist voice to take the day. But it makes me feel really lonesome in the sense that my colleagues in the bio-safety community in the country have also more or less deserted me on the subject.
Dr Mumba says he suspects the decision was in part to do with the way it was handled by the World Food Programme. DR LUKE MUMBA: There's a lot of nationalism in this country. Historically, as people tell you, how this country had helped to liberate other countries in the... So really, they felt that the underhand method - if I may call it that - which was used, to bring the undermining our integrity, undermining our systems. In fact, the mistake which the World Food Programme mentioned was that, in fact, we've been bringing this GM maize in this country for many years, and what are you crying about, and that really produced this counter-reaction - that, how could they do this? There's no doubt that this whole debate has become political, with accusations on both sides. Dr Lewanika says he felt political manoeuvrings were under way at the recent World Summit in Johannesburg. DR LEWANIKA: All these are UN agencies, came up with a statement, saying that Zambia should accept the GMO maize, based on saying that it is being eaten worldwide. There, I felt, was some pressure, because I thought the timing by those UN agencies was wrong, and they were trying to influence national policy. REPORTER: Did you feel that your scientific judgment was being questioned? DR LEWANIKA: No. I thought actually that, even the pressure from the UN agencies, even them, somebody else was putting pressure on them. REPORTER: Who? DR LEWANIKA: My suspicion is the US Government.
The Zambian office of USAID - the American government agency that coordinates food aid - declined to give an interview with Dateline. While there is no doubt that America is the most generous of all food donors, some critics say its motives are not altogether pure. America is the biggest global player in biotechnology. It produces around 80% of the world's GM crops. But there are problems with the export market for GM maize. NETH DAQO, SEARICE: Because the major trading partners in corn in the developed world, like the EU, Japan, and South Korea, have strict labelling requirements that are put in place. Which means that as much as America would like to bring in genetically modified corn in those parts of the world, they cannot. Neth Daqo, who works for a Philippino-based NGO, was recently in Zambia for a conference. She's critical of the way biotechnology is being promoted in the developing world. NETH DAQO: And I think this effort to twist the arm of Africa to accept GMO maize in the form of food aid is America's way to find a market, to find a niche for all this flood of genetically modified maize produced by its farmers. After all, that's what the US Government is subsidising corn farmers for - to produce more, and find a market. Even before the GM maize was sent to Zambia, America was aware that at least one African country was reluctant to import GM products. But the US Government aid agency - USAID -was already taking measures to ensure that these concerns were overridden. In a written statement to a Congress Committee back in June, USAID noted that one of its targeted countries for aid, Zimbabwe, had legislation that "Restricts the import of US whole kernel yellow corn, because it contains corn produced through biotechnology." According to the US, if Zimbabwe wanted aid, these laws needed to be dropped. It directed its local agencies to look at "actions that can be undertaken to remove importation restrictions related to the importation of US whole kernel corn, perhaps via a humanitarian waiver." The GM food aid arrived in Zambia at a time when many countries in Africa were involved in a debate about whether to adopt biotechnology. Many powerful people and organisations are advocating biotech for the developing world. USAID, for example, funds biotech companies like Monsanto to conduct GM research in Africa. Monsanto, who operate a laboratory near Johannesburg, is well established in South Africa. The company makes no secret - it would like to extend its reach. KINYUA MMBIJJEWE, MONSANTO: Yes, it's an important market. By virtue of US dollars, it's not a huge contributor to the company's revenues, but our vision in Monsanto for many years has been to improve food production and environmental sustainability. And I think nowhere in the world needs it as much as Africa. Even the UN's World Food Program is spruiking biotechnology for the developing world. JAMES MORRIS: The rationale for biotech food is that the use of these seeds dramatically increases the yield. It becomes much more drought resistant, it requires less use of herbicides and pesticides, and oftentimes, it's nutritionally enhanced. Norman Borlog, the great father of the green revolution, the Nobel prize winner in agriculture, would tell you that the use of biotech GM foods is the way the world is going to discover to feed itself. While there is clear reason for the US Government to be promoting biotechnology, questions are raised when the World Food Programme does the same, particularly when it's bringing GM food into a country which says it doesn't want it. MUNDIA SIKATANA: It's WFP. And WFP is not America. It is our institution. It belongs to the United Nations, and we say to the United Nations, this is not fair to these poor...to this country. The commercial farming community in Zambia is divided. There is a lobby for Zambia to remain a completely GMO-free country to preserve export markets. Even proponents of biotech want regulations in place before any GM crops are introduced. There is a concern that food aid is being used to force a decision. NETH DAQO: If you analyse it closely, if Zambia, for example, accepts GMO maize as food aid, so it has no reasons later to say no to GM maize, commercialised by Monsanto, because, like all the questions on contamination, health risks, adverse effects on the environment, are defeated because why? You've accepted it before as food aid. What's the difference? It's there already in Zambian soil. JAMES MORRIS: It's absolutely ridiculous. The plan is to provide commodities to feed people who are going to starve to death if they don't have it, and the countries that help us in this way are very generous. And there is no trickery, no chicanery and no hidden agenda. The agenda is strictly one of humanitarian concern. Monsanto is confident that the recent controversies over GM food aid will die down. KINYUA MMBIJJEWE: But the truth will always win out. And science and technology, given time, will prove itself to be useful. And I think we will see that these countries, once they're assured on the safety of this technology, and the benefit and the need for it, that acceptance will move ahead. The American Government responded to the rejection of its donation by offering to send a group of Zambian scientists on a fact-finding tour of the United States. The scientists recently returned from this trip. The President left open the possibility of reversing the decision if the scientists recommended it. Dr Lewanika was one of those on the trip.
DR LEWANIKA: I learnt a whole lot. REPORTER: Can you tell me more? DR LEWANIKA: It would be very difficult to tell you more without getting into actual report. But there are a few things I wasn't aware of, or a few things which I didn't look at, which we now see that maybe we should have considered as well. MUNDIA SIKATANA: I'm asking them what's the purpose of taking our scientists? They say so that they get to know more about GMO. We will see. Earlier today, the Zambian Government announced their final decision. The GM food aid has been completely rejected, and the World Food Programme asked to remove it from the country. In a village in Kazungula district, a truckload of non-GM food from CARE International has arrived. Every grain is precious - there's simply not enough food coming in. The race is now on to procure enough food for Zambia without the help of the United States. While 70% of maize grown in the US is not GM, GM maize is all that's being offered to Africa. And, as long as Zambia rejects it, it must look elsewhere for help. MUNDIA SIKATANA: I have a letter here where the Kenyan High Commissioner says we will give you non-GMO if you want. China, only yesterday, they were reminding me that we've not accepted the consignment of non-GMO, and I'm rushing now. South Africa, it has given us non-GMO. Friends are giving us.
There is enough surplus food in the region to feed the hungry. But money is needed to access these supplies. JUDITH LEWIS: We are looking for cash to buy as much food here in South Africa as possible. We're asking our donors to give us cash, un-earmarked, so that we can continue to try to get something into the pipeline for Zambia. They will have to hurry. People on the ground are running out of patience. For three months, a warehouse in a small village near the town of Monze stored some of the prohibited GM maize. The temptation eventually became too much for the hungry people who lived nearby. Douglas Munga is the village storeman. DOUGLAS MUNGA (Translation): What happened on Monday? We had a Depot Committee Meeting. A crowd of people came. There were about 30. They had screwdrivers. Some had knives. They started throwing stones. People went inside and started grabbing the maize. In a small house about half a kilometre away, we find what happened to at least one of the bags of stolen maize. A few precious handfuls are all that are left. VILLAGER (Patrick) (Translation): It's because of the hunger, that's what made us do it. There's nothing else that made people steal the maize. Just hunger. We need to help the children. With eight children to feed, Patrick and Mary had no choice but to join in the raid on the storehouse. Their children have been going without proper food for days on end. VILLAGER (Mary) (Translation): I was very happy, but it was very little and it's almost gone. The one sack of maize this family took will feed them for only a week. While she's happy to see her children eating, Mary's never stolen anything in her life before and she's worried about what will happen to her. VILLAGER (Mary) (Translation): I'm scared of being jailed and leaving the children. They'll die of hunger. She and her husband also worry about the maize itself. They don't know what GMOs are, but say they heard on the radio the maize kept in the storehouse couldn't be given out because there was something wrong with it. VILLAGER (Mary) (Translation): We're scared the maize we took was poison. Even if it's poison, we've eaten it. What can we do? There's little that people like Mary and her husband can do but wait for international food aid to arrive. There's no doubt that the government's decision to reject GM food aid has made the relief effort so much harder. MUNDIA SIKATANA: My song is show me anybody that is about to die, we will feed him. But this is not the only battle the Government of Zambia is facing. MUNDIA SIKATANA: We are concerned because we have become vulnerable. The campaign will be huge all over. Why is it only you? That is what America doesn't like - to be told a tiny little country can resist.
VILLAGER (Translation): There's nothing, just grass. What can I do? Look. Nothing. Completely. There's nothing. There's only grass left. The maize finished sometime ago. We've got nothing. Zero. Nothing. These are all my children. We were given one bucket of food. It's all gone. We don't even have water. If only we could get some water to drink. There's nothing. Help me, quickly. I'm begging. If it wasn't for wild fruit and nuts, thousands would almost certainly be dead. While many of these foods are rich in vitamins, they are scarce and not nearly an adequate diet. This boy is not at school today. He's waiting around for his first meal in days - a porridge made out of ground nuts. CHIEF MUSOKOTWANE: We need maize even now, even today. Chief Musokotwane is the traditional leader in this area. He says that, of the 38,000 people he looks after, not one produced a maize harvest this season. CHIEF MUSOKOTWANE: The situation is quite serious. We have lost humans from starvation. Because of communication between the remote area and the town, that's why the situation is not so dramatised. But definitely we have lost human beings because of starvation. REPORTER: So people have died? CHIEF MUSOKOTWANE: It's true. International aid agencies say that so far, there's not enough evidence that attributes death directly to hunger. However, illness and severe malnutrition are increasing. An estimated 2.5 million Zambians are teetering on the brink of a massive humanitarian disaster. The only thing that can prevent this is international food aid. BRENDA CUPPER, CARE INTERNATIONAL: If CARE and others like us need to wait until we get the pictures we've seen from Sudan and Ethiopia, other countries, of starving children, if we have to wait that long to get the food in, CARE will not be able to save those children and neither will anybody else. We need a confirmed and adequate supply of food, which is acceptable to the Zambian Government and the Zambian people, every month. In this warehouse in the south of the country, maize donated by the United Kingdom is being unloaded and prepared for distribution. The bulk of the space in this warehouse, though, is being taken up by maize that won't be distributed. In an unprecedented move, it's been rejected by the Zambian Government because it's genetically modified. MAHERE TAKAWIRE, LOCAL DISTRICT ADMINISTRATOR (in warehouse): This is GMO, all this. REPORTER: There's a lot of it. MAHERE TAKAWIRE: All this is GMO, GMO. This is just a portion of the 14,000 tonnes of maize donated by the US which is currently sitting in warehouses around Zambia. It's up to the Mahere Takawire, the local district administrator, to explain to the hungry people in his area why they can't have this grain. MAHERE TAKAWIRE: It's very difficult, it's quite difficult. It's a task, it's a challenging task, and it's not easy because you are talking to people who are hungry. You know, it's not easy, it's quite tough, but we are managing, and you just have to explain to them properly and maybe make them understand why the government is saying this.
Zambia has a proud history. In 1964, it was one of the first countries in southern Africa to gain independence from its colonial ruler, in this case Britain. After independence, Zambia went on to support the liberation movements of its neighbours. President Levy Mwanawasa was elected last year. His so-called new deal government is focusing on stamping out the corruption of the previous regime. Recently, though, his attention's been diverted. PRESIDENT LEVY MWANAWASA (at UN General Assembly: The offer of genetically modified foods has created a difficult situation for the Government. President Mwanawasa is spending his time trying to justify Zambia's position to the world. PRESIDENT LEVY MWANAWASA: It is not my government's intention to sacrifice lives of the Zambian people by taking this position. However, given the lack of, and the conflicting international information on the possible consequences of genetically modified products on humans, I therefore wish to request for your understanding of Zambia's position on GMO.
There's been little understanding of Zambia's position. It's been condemned and ridiculed in the international media. "Food luddites let Africa starve," screamed one headline. It's also come under extraordinary pressure from a stream of overseas visitors. The World Food Programme - the UN agency charged with distributing donated food - has just arrived in Johannesburg after assessing the food crisis in southern Africa. The GMO controversy was high on its agenda. American GM maize makes up approximately half of all donations they received. When they began their tour, three of the six countries requiring aid were threatening to reject it. JAMES MORRIS, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: My sense is that the issue has been resolved in a way that is workable in five of the six countries. Zambia is still sorting through it.
The World Food Program was unable to change Zambia's mind.
JAMES MORRIS: The World Food Programme has been distributing GMO food now for between seven and eight years, we've never had anyone turn it down, and we've never had any problems. And not being able to use a large percentage of what is available to us, which we consider to be perfectly safe, would put a major roadblock in our ability to do our job.
REPORTER: Can the job be done without GMO food? JAMES MORRIS: It would be very difficult. MUNDIA SIKATANA, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE: I am saying do not force GMO on us just because, for the time being, we have been hit by drought. Mundia Sikatana is Zambia's Minister for Agriculture. MUNDIA SIKATANA: Look at our varieties - typical African. It's so nice, all colours. All this will be wiped out through the GMO. The Minister for Agriculture has a passion for indigenous African plants. He's been leading the campaign against accepting the GM food aid and for finding alternatives. MUNDIA SIKATANA: My answer to you - the crisis is critical. We must face it. We must appeal to those that have non-GMO. We must go to our other varieties - millet, sorghum, cassava -to feed these people. There's no doubt the government is facing a huge challenge. MUNDIA SIKATANA: But for America to force GMO on underdeveloped countries, we say no. We know how powerful they are, but they cannot be as powerful as to force us to swallow, not our pride, but food that we are suspecting will be dangerous to our bodies. The Zambian Government says that the World Food Programme, which brought the maize into the country, didn't tell it the maize was genetically modified. The government only found out after the maize had arrived. In August, it called a public meeting to work out what to do. MUNDIA SIKATANA (At meeting): We, as a government, are sensitive to the plight of our own people because we belong to those people and can never, ever risk - deliberately or otherwise - risk the lives of our own people. There was immense pressure to make a decision, quickly. Ships with more GM maize were already on their way from America. Zambians were warned that, if they didn't take it, someone else would. RICHARD REAGAN, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME ZAMBIA: I would urge that a decision on this issue be made expeditiously, or some 42,000 tonnes of GM maize which is currently en route to Zambia will have to be diverted to other countries. Already angry that GM maize had been brought in without their knowledge, the next revelation only heightened the tension. In an apparent attempt to placate the government, the World Food Programme publicly stated that there was no need for concern because it had, in fact, been delivering GM food aid to Zambia for the last seven years. Again, this was news to the government. MUNDIA SIKATANA: And I didn't hear it officially from anybody, I just heard one official of the World Food Programme bragging around saying, After all these people we have been feeding these people on GMO for the last seven years, - I was very angry about that. I told them they were not fair and we would never accept such conduct because in America, in Europe, they know they are obliged to notify the consumer, to give him a choice, you know. The head of WFP in Zambia refused to speak to Dateline. A PR person said the situation was too sensitive. We were told to speak to the South African office instead. JUDITH LEWIS, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME SOUTH AFRICA: No, we don't have an obligation to directly inform a government of the GM. As I said, we certify food under the Codex Alimentarius, which certifies that food is safe for human consumption and that donor countries eat the products that they are providing to recipient governments. Judith Lewis acknowledges that GM maize has been coming into Zambia for at least seven years, but says it was up to Zambia to find out for itself. JUDITH LEWIS: The GMO issue became public, and became part of the US food chain in 1992. Since then, we have been providing this food in the region. Governments are tasked with the responsibility of finding out what commodities they want to bring into the countries. They accept these commodities. REPORTER: Do you think, though, they would have known that food aid, in particular, had GMO in it? JUDITH LEWIS: Well, here again, I think the onus is on the recipient country to ask the questions. In deciding to reject the GM maize, the government relied heavily on the advice of Dr Mwananyanda Mbikusita Lewanika. Dr Lewanika's one of Zambia's foremost scientists. He represented Zambia and Africa during negotiations for international protocols on genetic modification. He, along with two major scientific institutions in Zambia, advised the government to reject the food. One of the reasons given was uncertainty about the effects on human health. While millions of people have been eating GM food for years, and there is a body of evidence that says it's safe, dissenting views do exist. Dr Lewanika decided to adopt the precautionary principle. DR MWANAYANDA MBIKUSITA LEWANIKA, SCIENTIFIC & INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH CENTRE: The precautionary principle basically says, in case of uncertainties, and if there is no scientific unanimity in a position and there is doubt, the onus is on the receiving environment to take appropriate action, and in this case was to refuse GMO. And Zambia is not the first country to use the precautionary principle. Even the European Union - their de facto moratorium on GMO is based on the precautionary principle.
The second argument was that Zambia has no regulatory process in place to monitor GMOs. The final concern was about harm to the environment, due to the potential for contamination of non-GM crops. DR LEWANIKA: That if GMO maize was distributed, and this is very close to the planting season, there was a very high likelihood that some of the people would sow the seed and plant it. Dr Luke Mumba opposes the decision to reject the maize. An advocate of biotechnology, he says the food is safe to eat, and, that while concerns about contamination of non-GM crops are valid, there is a short-term solution. DR LUKE MUMBA, UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA: My suggestion was that government should put in place measures to ensure that people do not get access to the grain itself, and one alternative was to mill the grain as soon as it comes into the country. Mr Mumba is a lone voice of dissent in Zambia. His position has isolated him from former colleagues like Dr Lewanika. DR LUKE MUMBA: People really do not understand what genetic modification is, and, because of that, it has been very, very easy for the populist voice to take the day. But it makes me feel really lonesome in the sense that my colleagues in the bio-safety community in the country have also more or less deserted me on the subject.
Dr Mumba says he suspects the decision was in part to do with the way it was handled by the World Food Programme. DR LUKE MUMBA: There's a lot of nationalism in this country. Historically, as people tell you, how this country had helped to liberate other countries in the... So really, they felt that the underhand method - if I may call it that - which was used, to bring the undermining our integrity, undermining our systems. In fact, the mistake which the World Food Programme mentioned was that, in fact, we've been bringing this GM maize in this country for many years, and what are you crying about, and that really produced this counter-reaction - that, how could they do this? There's no doubt that this whole debate has become political, with accusations on both sides. Dr Lewanika says he felt political manoeuvrings were under way at the recent World Summit in Johannesburg. DR LEWANIKA: All these are UN agencies, came up with a statement, saying that Zambia should accept the GMO maize, based on saying that it is being eaten worldwide. There, I felt, was some pressure, because I thought the timing by those UN agencies was wrong, and they were trying to influence national policy. REPORTER: Did you feel that your scientific judgment was being questioned? DR LEWANIKA: No. I thought actually that, even the pressure from the UN agencies, even them, somebody else was putting pressure on them. REPORTER: Who? DR LEWANIKA: My suspicion is the US Government.
The Zambian office of USAID - the American government agency that coordinates food aid - declined to give an interview with Dateline. While there is no doubt that America is the most generous of all food donors, some critics say its motives are not altogether pure. America is the biggest global player in biotechnology. It produces around 80% of the world's GM crops. But there are problems with the export market for GM maize. NETH DAQO, SEARICE: Because the major trading partners in corn in the developed world, like the EU, Japan, and South Korea, have strict labelling requirements that are put in place. Which means that as much as America would like to bring in genetically modified corn in those parts of the world, they cannot. Neth Daqo, who works for a Philippino-based NGO, was recently in Zambia for a conference. She's critical of the way biotechnology is being promoted in the developing world. NETH DAQO: And I think this effort to twist the arm of Africa to accept GMO maize in the form of food aid is America's way to find a market, to find a niche for all this flood of genetically modified maize produced by its farmers. After all, that's what the US Government is subsidising corn farmers for - to produce more, and find a market. Even before the GM maize was sent to Zambia, America was aware that at least one African country was reluctant to import GM products. But the US Government aid agency - USAID -was already taking measures to ensure that these concerns were overridden. In a written statement to a Congress Committee back in June, USAID noted that one of its targeted countries for aid, Zimbabwe, had legislation that "Restricts the import of US whole kernel yellow corn, because it contains corn produced through biotechnology." According to the US, if Zimbabwe wanted aid, these laws needed to be dropped. It directed its local agencies to look at "actions that can be undertaken to remove importation restrictions related to the importation of US whole kernel corn, perhaps via a humanitarian waiver." The GM food aid arrived in Zambia at a time when many countries in Africa were involved in a debate about whether to adopt biotechnology. Many powerful people and organisations are advocating biotech for the developing world. USAID, for example, funds biotech companies like Monsanto to conduct GM research in Africa. Monsanto, who operate a laboratory near Johannesburg, is well established in South Africa. The company makes no secret - it would like to extend its reach. KINYUA MMBIJJEWE, MONSANTO: Yes, it's an important market. By virtue of US dollars, it's not a huge contributor to the company's revenues, but our vision in Monsanto for many years has been to improve food production and environmental sustainability. And I think nowhere in the world needs it as much as Africa. Even the UN's World Food Program is spruiking biotechnology for the developing world. JAMES MORRIS: The rationale for biotech food is that the use of these seeds dramatically increases the yield. It becomes much more drought resistant, it requires less use of herbicides and pesticides, and oftentimes, it's nutritionally enhanced. Norman Borlog, the great father of the green revolution, the Nobel prize winner in agriculture, would tell you that the use of biotech GM foods is the way the world is going to discover to feed itself. While there is clear reason for the US Government to be promoting biotechnology, questions are raised when the World Food Programme does the same, particularly when it's bringing GM food into a country which says it doesn't want it. MUNDIA SIKATANA: It's WFP. And WFP is not America. It is our institution. It belongs to the United Nations, and we say to the United Nations, this is not fair to these poor...to this country. The commercial farming community in Zambia is divided. There is a lobby for Zambia to remain a completely GMO-free country to preserve export markets. Even proponents of biotech want regulations in place before any GM crops are introduced. There is a concern that food aid is being used to force a decision. NETH DAQO: If you analyse it closely, if Zambia, for example, accepts GMO maize as food aid, so it has no reasons later to say no to GM maize, commercialised by Monsanto, because, like all the questions on contamination, health risks, adverse effects on the environment, are defeated because why? You've accepted it before as food aid. What's the difference? It's there already in Zambian soil. JAMES MORRIS: It's absolutely ridiculous. The plan is to provide commodities to feed people who are going to starve to death if they don't have it, and the countries that help us in this way are very generous. And there is no trickery, no chicanery and no hidden agenda. The agenda is strictly one of humanitarian concern. Monsanto is confident that the recent controversies over GM food aid will die down. KINYUA MMBIJJEWE: But the truth will always win out. And science and technology, given time, will prove itself to be useful. And I think we will see that these countries, once they're assured on the safety of this technology, and the benefit and the need for it, that acceptance will move ahead. The American Government responded to the rejection of its donation by offering to send a group of Zambian scientists on a fact-finding tour of the United States. The scientists recently returned from this trip. The President left open the possibility of reversing the decision if the scientists recommended it. Dr Lewanika was one of those on the trip.
DR LEWANIKA: I learnt a whole lot. REPORTER: Can you tell me more? DR LEWANIKA: It would be very difficult to tell you more without getting into actual report. But there are a few things I wasn't aware of, or a few things which I didn't look at, which we now see that maybe we should have considered as well. MUNDIA SIKATANA: I'm asking them what's the purpose of taking our scientists? They say so that they get to know more about GMO. We will see. Earlier today, the Zambian Government announced their final decision. The GM food aid has been completely rejected, and the World Food Programme asked to remove it from the country. In a village in Kazungula district, a truckload of non-GM food from CARE International has arrived. Every grain is precious - there's simply not enough food coming in. The race is now on to procure enough food for Zambia without the help of the United States. While 70% of maize grown in the US is not GM, GM maize is all that's being offered to Africa. And, as long as Zambia rejects it, it must look elsewhere for help. MUNDIA SIKATANA: I have a letter here where the Kenyan High Commissioner says we will give you non-GMO if you want. China, only yesterday, they were reminding me that we've not accepted the consignment of non-GMO, and I'm rushing now. South Africa, it has given us non-GMO. Friends are giving us.
There is enough surplus food in the region to feed the hungry. But money is needed to access these supplies. JUDITH LEWIS: We are looking for cash to buy as much food here in South Africa as possible. We're asking our donors to give us cash, un-earmarked, so that we can continue to try to get something into the pipeline for Zambia. They will have to hurry. People on the ground are running out of patience. For three months, a warehouse in a small village near the town of Monze stored some of the prohibited GM maize. The temptation eventually became too much for the hungry people who lived nearby. Douglas Munga is the village storeman. DOUGLAS MUNGA (Translation): What happened on Monday? We had a Depot Committee Meeting. A crowd of people came. There were about 30. They had screwdrivers. Some had knives. They started throwing stones. People went inside and started grabbing the maize. In a small house about half a kilometre away, we find what happened to at least one of the bags of stolen maize. A few precious handfuls are all that are left. VILLAGER (Patrick) (Translation): It's because of the hunger, that's what made us do it. There's nothing else that made people steal the maize. Just hunger. We need to help the children. With eight children to feed, Patrick and Mary had no choice but to join in the raid on the storehouse. Their children have been going without proper food for days on end. VILLAGER (Mary) (Translation): I was very happy, but it was very little and it's almost gone. The one sack of maize this family took will feed them for only a week. While she's happy to see her children eating, Mary's never stolen anything in her life before and she's worried about what will happen to her. VILLAGER (Mary) (Translation): I'm scared of being jailed and leaving the children. They'll die of hunger. She and her husband also worry about the maize itself. They don't know what GMOs are, but say they heard on the radio the maize kept in the storehouse couldn't be given out because there was something wrong with it. VILLAGER (Mary) (Translation): We're scared the maize we took was poison. Even if it's poison, we've eaten it. What can we do? There's little that people like Mary and her husband can do but wait for international food aid to arrive. There's no doubt that the government's decision to reject GM food aid has made the relief effort so much harder. MUNDIA SIKATANA: My song is show me anybody that is about to die, we will feed him. But this is not the only battle the Government of Zambia is facing. MUNDIA SIKATANA: We are concerned because we have become vulnerable. The campaign will be huge all over. Why is it only you? That is what America doesn't like - to be told a tiny little country can resist.