In commencing my study of this topic, one of my primary questions was: Why are third world countries with extreme starvation, like Zambia and Zimbabwe, banning trade offers of GM corn from the United States? An article I found, titled "Famine-stricken Countries Reject GM Maize" by James Njoroge details the banning of these crops in these two specific countries, and offers two distinct reasons for the rejection.

Reason 1 - Scientific uncertainty. Zambia (2.3 million people starving) banned GM corn, according to minister for agriculture, Mundia Sikatana, because it could not "risk the lives of its people." Zambia felt that it needed the assurance of local scientists on the safety of these crops, since they do not have the proper safety-assessing technology to test it themselves that richer nations such as South Africa do have, before accepting a US loan to buy these US manufactured products. Representaives from USAID (US Agency for International Development) argue that the corn has been through intensive scans in the US and that there is no way to trade maize without genetic modification. Zimbabwe, a country with an even more severe starvation crisis with 3 millin people going hungry, also rejected the product claiming that it lacked safety certification.

Reason 2 - Trade with European Countries Could Suffer. As I have mentioned earlier in this blog, European countries are placing bans right and left on GM crops manufactured by the US. A lot of Zimbabwe and Zambia's economic revenue comes from trading with these countries. These countries are concerned that if they plant genetically modified food, it will not only harm their citizens, but it will also get into the systems of their animals. And the meat of these animals is what they trade with Europe. Zimbabwe and Zambia fear that Europe will reject the meat from animals that have fed off this crop, due to their very own misgivings against the product. Local researchers in Zimbabwe have assured that accepting GM maize "could jeopardise the country's beef markets in Europe and elsewhere."

So, I conclude, Europe's decisions seem to have a huge influence on the poorer countries that rely on its trade. Perhaps Zambia's and Zimbabwe's decisions to ban GM maize was made more out of economic concerns than scientific concerns. Either way - it is more business with Europe, and less with the United States.