In my last post, I touched briefly upon the idea that several African nations are deciding to reject American GM corn products due to a fear that if they do so, Europeans will cease trade with them. In this post I am going to try to figure out where this fear has come from and just how reliant Africa is on its trade with Europe.

Since the introduction of GM crops, especially by major US companies such as Monsanto, there has been controversy between the EU and the US. A series of food crises in the 1990s heightened European consumer apprehension of food and food safety, and of government oversight of industry in general. One can imagine then, that with the GM crop craze, Europeans in general have been wary of their safety. (Source translated from French). Consumers demand the right to know where the food comes from, and whether or not their food has been genetically modified. Therefore, the EU has begun to enforce strict regulations that demand labeling and origin tracing for all food products containing more than 0.5% GM ingredients. In fact, in 2003 the European Parliament introduced the Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety proposal in order to set such labeling and tracing regulations into law. The United States disagrees with these regulations because they feel that they hinder free trade - however the EU demands consent in the realm of free trade. Clearly food awareness is a serious concern for Europeans, in that two European countries, Germany (81%) and France (89%), rank highest for the percent of people in any one nation who believe GM crops to be bad.

Now, on to African reliance on European countries for trade. Cape Verde relies on Europe for 80% of its revenues. Ghana for 75%. And these figures are only going up. Trade between these two continents has grown so much that the EPAs between the two (Economic Partnership Agreements) must be modified so that the development of certain African nations is not hindered by too high of a reliance on European markets. Africans who grow genetically modified crops or feed their animals with genetically modified feed are not likely to have much success trading their products with Europe due to the wariness of its consumers. And so, African nations continue to reject the potential famine-reducing crop in a desperate attempt to continue economic relations with Europe. Though, not so strong as to destroy development - a happy medium.

My point is: The EU has made its position on labeling and food tracing quite clear, and crops that are grown this way or animals fed this way in African nations that rely on Europe for trade are not going to be as heavily accepted by Europeans as other, more organic products. Therefore, Africa continues to reject American GM corn despite the fact that it could put an end to hunger.