[Lapg] The Solution to Famine in Africa is Organic Farming Not GMOs

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

The Solution to Famine in Africa is Organic Farming Not GMOs

Posted 6/27/05

 From The Independent (UK)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=649963

Hungry for an alternative Tewolde Berhan believes that organic farming is 
the only real solution to famine in Africa.Sally J Hall meets the quiet but 
formidable Ethiopian who has become a thorn in the side of the GM foods 
lobby 27 June 2005 Organic farming is a slow-to-grow, low-yield industry 
favoured by middle-class parents who have the time and money to meander the 
overpriced aisles of Waitrose, deliberating over wild rocket or white 
asparagus. Right? Wrong, says Tewolde Berhan. He thinks organic farming 
could be the solution to Ethiopia's famines. The chief of the country's 
Environment Agency has worked his way through academia and government to 
become one of the world's most influential voices in the biotechnology 
field. Berhan believes that, properly applied, his approach could save the 
lives of many of the thousands of Africans who die every day as a result of 
hunger and poverty.

He maintains that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) remove control from 
local farmers. He speaks for a growing number who believe that Africa 
should return to natural, sustainable methods of agriculture better suited 
to its people and environment.

Can one man hope to stand against governments and the huge multinationals? 
Visiting London, Berhan appears to be a frail - if nattily dressed - 
sexagenarian. But our conversation reveals his determination, intelligence 
and encyclopedic memory, combining to create an indomitable force.

Asked why bad harvests seem to have a greater impact on Ethiopia than its 
neighbours, he has a simple yet stark response. "It's largely because of 
the lack of infrastructure," he says. "The road system in Ethiopia has 
doubled in the past 10 years, but is still very poor.

"Ethiopia is still an agrarian society, and there isn't one such country 
that hasn't had famines," he adds. "The reasons are clear: some years you 
have plenty and others not enough. If you don't have the technological and 
financial capacity and the infrastructure to store in good years, you can't 
make provision for the bad. People here depend entirely on the crops they 
produce in their fields, so when one season fails, the result is famine." 
Born in 1940, Berhan graduated in 1963 from Addis Ababa University and took 
a doctorate at the University of Wales in 1969. Later posts as dean of 
science at Addis Ababa, keeper of the National Herbarium and director of 
the Ethiopian Conservation Strategy Secretariat kept him in touch with the 
agricultural needs of Ethiopia's people.

In 1995, he was made director general of the Environmental Protection 
Authority of Ethiopia, in effect becoming the country's chief scientist in 
agriculture. A strong critic of GMOs, he's a powerful voice in lobbying on 
food safety. His most notable triumph came in negotiations on biosafety in 
Cartagena, Colombia in 1999. Berhan acted as chief negotiator for a group 
of southern hemisphere countries. He helped to secure an agreement to 
protect biosafety and biodiversity, while maintaining respect for the 
traditional rights of the Third World population, gained against strong 
opposition from the European Union and North America.

So why is organic farming the answer? Given low yields, poor soil and 
drought, you'd think that industrial farming would help Ethiopia to 
maximise production. Not so, Berhan says. "Organic farming deviates little 
from the natural environment in supplying nutrients to crops. We've 
developed the ability to change things in a big way and, without 
considering the consequences, we create disasters. Look at what happened 
with DDT.

"Organic farming disturbs nature as little as possible and reduces those 
risks. Intensive farming has led to the exacerbation of pests and diseases, 
and loss of flavour in food."

These views are at odds with the "conventional" industry. Tony Combes, the 
director of corporate affairs for Monsanto UK, a big player in the GM 
market, says: "Going organic isn't the way to increase yields. But then, 
neither is going totally GM. Farmers need solutions suitable for local 
predicaments. This means choosing from a range of options - organic, 
conventional and GM. If yields can be increased, that surplus can be sold." 
Berhan is undeterred. He has persuaded the Ethiopian government to let him 
demonstrate his ideas in the Axum area of Ethiopia. Old field-management 
techniques have been resurrected, while methods new to the area, like 
compost-making, have been successful.

Those who think organic farming means low yields will be surprised by 
Berhan's evidence. "When well managed, and as fertility builds over years, 
organic agriculture isn't inferior in yield. Now, farmers don't want 
chemical fertilisers. They say, 'Why should we pay for something we can get 
for free?'" Berhan expresses gratitude for the West's famine-relief 
efforts, but he has reservations. "When countries want to help, they may 
not know how, so the intention has to be appreciated. But if you go beyond 
the intention and begin to dictate terms, it becomes more sinister. In 
times of shortage, making food aid available is helpful - for that year. If 
you keep making it available, you discourage production."

He believes there are times when food aid can be more about control by 
Western governments than assistance. "The feeling is strong that this is 
deliberate. I attended a meeting where farmers from the USA were present. I 
told them a story I'd read about how rice production in Liberia was 
depressed because of cheap imports from the USA. The American farmers said 
this was a deliberate policy by the US State Department to make countries 
dependent on them for food.

"I began to investigate and discovered that, while the EU has abandoned its 
policy of providing food aid, initially sending money so that food can be 
bought locally, the US still insists it will only give food in kind. This 
makes me feel those farmers were right."

Berhan insists on the necessity of further trials for GM crops, and 
believes extreme caution should be used in their growth and trade. His 
application for a visa to attend talks in Canada on GM labelling was turned 
down earlier this year, suggesting that his influence is feared. "We were 
finalising the labelling of grain commodities," he says. "A compromise had 
been reached in 2000 for labelling to say, 'This product may contain GMOs,' 
but we wanted to toughen it up, to say, 'This product contains these GMOs,' 
and to list them."

He also contests that GMOs give higher yield. "This is mainly hype. So far, 
there's not one GM crop that produces higher yields per acre than 
conventional crops. They offer an economical advantage to farmers as they 
can apply herbicide in large doses and not have to worry about weeds: 
that's all."

After protests from the media and groups such as Greenpeace, the visa was 
granted. Dr Eric Darier, GM campaigner for Greenpeace Canada, explained why 
it was so important that Berhan attended. "He is truly one of the key 
'fathers' of the biosafety protocol," Darier says. "It was convenient for 
the Canadian government [to refuse the visa], as it prevented a major 
critic and opponent of pro-GM Canadian policy from attending two of the 
three days of the workshop on liability. Canada has failed to ratify the 
biosafety protocol. In view of the fact that the Canadian government has 
done everything to undermine the efforts of the international community to 
adopt a strict, effective biosafety protocol, the delays in issuing the 
visa are evidence of Canada's bad faith."

Is Berhan bitter? Far from it. "I think [the visa refusal] was based on a 
mistaken calculation. If anything, it gave the labelling issue higher
visibility. We told the Canadian government: either you accept multilateral 
discussions, or the Office for the Commission of Biological Diversity 
[based in Montreal], must move to another country." The threat worked.

Berhan's message is compelling - and he is in demand worldwide. In the past 
month alone, he has travelled to Austria, the UK, Tunisia and Norway. He 
returns to the UK in July to give a talk for the Soil Association, where he 
will ask: "Can Organic Farming Feed the World?" He is a huge force in 
trying to prove that it can.

The Soil Association will be at the Royal Geographical Society in London on 
Tuesday 12 July (0117 987 4586; www.soilassociation.org)