Biotech critics are playing God

Business Daily via Africa News Network
July 19, 2007

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan always said he would become a farmer after leaving office. But one of his first acts as chairman of the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has been to respond to whether the alliance would promote the use of genetically-modified (GM) seed in African agriculture. (Annan said AGRA would not use GM seeds.)

One of the most critical aspects of innovation policy is balancing between the expected benefits or new technologies and their unintended negative consequences. Nowhere is this so vividly expressed as in the debate over agricultural biotechnology. Arguments against the use of biotechnology in African agriculture have been conducted with unprecedented ferocity. While critics of agricultural biotechnology claim to act on behalf of Africa’s interests, they are undermining the continent’s capacity to acquire the technology needed to meet its agricultural and economic needs.
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