Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG), believes Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto’s position on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), is enough justification for their call that the yet-to-be vetted minister nominee for the Ministry of Agric be disqualified.
Despite the absence of any legal basis for the call, the Communications Director of the Group, Edwin Kwaku Bamfo, argued that allowing Dr. Afriyie Akoto to become the Agric Minister would be a slap in the face of campaigners.
Following Dr. Afriyie Akoto’s nomination to head the Agriculture Ministry pending parliamentary approval, the group has been making reference the his comments on the controversial Plant Breeders Bill in 2014, which were in favour of giving enough room for the advancement of genetically modified foods in Ghana.
Thus FSG has maintained that, Dr. Afriyie Akoto’s position on GMO’s does not qualify him to head the office as Minister of Agriculture as independent research shows that, genetically modified organisms in food affect the health and the environment because of the chemicals they depend on to grow.
“It is for this reason that we are fundamentally opposed to his nomination because the case made to justify GMOs in Ghana is first of all one based on a falsehood. Ghana grows enough food to feed itself. There is wastage of food. We actually throw away food that we harvest. Wherever we have agriculture produce, we have phenomenal post-harvest losses in Ghana,” Mr. Bamfo said on Eyewitness News.
“Ghana’s problem is to concentrate on investing in roads from the farms to the market or investing in warehouses so that we can add value to harvest and reduce the losses; but there is nowhere in Ghana where this genetically modified agriculture must be justified especially in a time where all around the world, everybody is pulling away from GMOs.”
“On what basis do you think that advanced countries such as Germany, France, Holland, Italy and Russia have abandoned GMOs and we want to pursue it. I’m raising issues that are serious. They are red flags. Burkina Faso, our neighbour is experiencing a negative experience with GMOs as we speak,” Mr. Bamfo stated.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
