Biotechnology Has No Health And Environmental Hazards - Expert

Professor Jonathan Padi Tetteh, a biotechnology expert, has debunked public perception that Genetic Modified foods pose health risks to humans.
He said GM foods posed no health risk since extensive test was made on them before they were released.

GM foods, he noted, had been consumed in many countries including USA, Canada, Brazil, India and China for over 16 years without any reports of adverse effects.

Prof Tetteh was speaking at the monthly session meeting of Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) on the theme: “Impact of biotechnology on Food production” in Accra.

He said: “Most of the imported foods into the country are GM foods, yet we eat and have no adverse effects and we speak against GMOs as if it is the work of Satan.

“God created man and impacted knowledge into man to discover and explore what He (God) created and that is what GMOs is all about. It is God’s creation and man only discovered it”, he said.

On the environmental hazard of using biotechnology, Prof Tetteh said a toxin known as Bt toxin had been produced by the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, which was toxic to insects of the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera families only, but not to man, and other animals.

“This toxin is formulated into insecticide, and used safely by organic farmers to control insects on their crops. The biotechnologist introduced the Bt gene from the bacteria, into crops now referred to as Bt crops. Bt crops can produce their own Bt toxin to protect themselves”, he said.

Speaking about some new discoveries in nature due to biotechnology, he said, biotechnology had provided a technology for Artificial Insemination (AI) in the livestock sector to allow superior male parents to father thousands of off-springs at a time.

Prof Tetteh said it was estimated that the number of AIs performed globally in 1998 included 100 million cattle, 40 million pigs, 3.3 mllion sheep and 0.5 million goats, of which the number in Africa was less than one million.He said due to the high demand of male tilapia because of it fast growing and taste; a genetically male tilapia could be turned into a female through oestrogen treatment and when mated with a normal male, would produce only male tilapia fingerlings.

He mentioned some advantages of growing bt crops as only target insects are killed, as against the use of conventional insecticides on the crop, no danger of insecticide poisoning of farmers and consumers, no chemical residue to contaminate the environment, no additional cost from insecticide application and higher yields because the entire plant is protected.

Prof Tetteh called on experts and the media to provide credible information on modern technology to the public to avoid misinterpretation.

He expressed the need for the country to embrace modern technology to solve the problem of food security in the country and Africa as a whole.

OFAB monthly meeting is aimed at bringing together stakeholders in biotechnology and facilitates interactions between scientists, farmers, journalists, civil societies, law makers.

The initiative serves as a platform to share knowledge and experience and explore new avenues for unleashing biotechnology.

OFAB Ghana Chapter, which is the sixth to be established in Africa, is a collaborative initiative between African Agricultural Technology Foundation based in Kenya and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

OFAB seeks to promote and sustain a well informed and interactive society capable of making informed decisions regarding research, development, regulation and commercialisation of agricultural biotechnology products.

Source: GNA

MSU to lead new global food security effort

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University will use a $7.3 million federal grant to cultivate the next generation of agricultural scientists in Africa and Asia, in hopes of improving food security and nutrition there.

The new Borlaug Higher Education Agricultural Research and Development program, named after Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug, is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Food Security. Part of Feed the Future, the government’s global hunger and food security initiative, the program will strengthen agricultural research institutions and support long-term training of agricultural researchers at the master’s- and doctoral-degree levels.

“MSU has 50-plus years of engagement in Africa, and we’re currently managing several M.S. and Ph.D. training programs whose objectives and program design are similar to those of this initiative,” said Eric Crawford, professor of agricultural, food and resource economics. “MSU faculty is well versed in planning, designing and managing training and human capacity-building programs, especially in plant breeding, food science and food security, which are key areas of Feed the Future.”

Crawford, who also serves as co-director of MSU’s Food Security Group, and Frederik Derksen, chairperson of MSU’s Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, housed in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, will lead the effort.

The program will begin in Ghana, Uganda, Mali, Mozambique and Bangladesh with potential to expand to other Feed the Future countries, Crawford said. The five countries have similar priorities: increase agricultural productivity; reduce trade and transportation barriers; develop sound market-based principles for agriculture; accelerate rural growth and development; and improve nutrition.

Starting in fall 2013, the first cohort of students will comprise 30 master’s degree candidates and 10 doctoral degree candidates, Crawford said. Women remain underrepresented in agricultural research, so the MSU-designed program will be gender inclusive.

Educational institutions haven’t yet been chosen, but will be those that focus on research, education and outreach in agriculture, Crawford said. MSU and USAID officials will search for strong local or regional degree programs, but most degrees will be awarded by U.S. universities.

After studying at the colleges and universities, many of the students will return home to research and to write theses with visits from their research mentors.

“An important part of the project will be to help create a network of fellows that links them together across universities and disciplinary areas as the basis for sharing experiences and developing longer-term professional relationships,” Crawford said.

The program was developed by USAID along with the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement in Mexico.