It is incorrect to relate the life expectancy to the use of GMO. While computing the life expectancy, so many factors are put into consideration the most important being access to health care. However, if you argued that it is better to eat the GMO (whether you will die 5 years after because of it) than die now of starvation, i'd go for GMO any time....


However, where we are now, IMO, i feel it is our priorities that are not right, otherwise, we should be able to sustain ourselves. For example, there are many farmers that are willing to sell their maize in Eldoret and its environs, but the govt would rather buy a bag of GMOs at 3,500/= than buy from our farmers at 3000/=.... how do we empower the farmers to produce more when the government wont support them in a case like this? it is acts like these that do not encourage the young people to see farming as a business.... hence, farming is not taken seriously in this country.

Those that are willing to accept GM foods are accepting eventual destruction to the health of the people, who have already suffered under AIDS, for the sake of ease. They are also accepting that GM crops can infect natural crops, thereby affecting total food output safety and quality for the worse.

The REAL solution is desalinization of seawater from the coast and using it to irrigate the land and make Kenya more fertile. We could turn Kenya into the breadbasket of Africa. But this takes VISION and COMMITMENT, unlike the easy fix being tossed to us like feed to cattle by the West. The REAL solution is better training, better fertilizers, cloud seeding, reservoirs, etc. The risky, destructive shortcut is GM food, which is PATENTED and, if you look close, is intellectual property of a few US companies, so they will feel that they have the right to fees and licensing for anyone who uses it.

Those that are willing to accept GM food are the same people that would be willing to accept Britain re-colonizing Kenya because they feel that sovereignty and self-destiny are worth trading for "quick fixes" and lazy ease.

Besides, GM crops aren't magic. They still need water, fertilizer, and hard work! It is not manna from heaven! Can anyone here even tell me what percentage proven greater yields can be achieved with GM crops versus natural crops?

Anyone?

Best,

Hill

I asked someone the same, why we flock the Kenchics, Galitos, etc to feed on chicken that are 'fully grown'. Kuku porno ni GMO, if you asked me. Si kama ya kienyeji, and many buggers will be against GMOs while ripping these kuku pornos apart.

Mr Hill your points on what we need to do to fix our food crisis is correct but your points on why we shouldn't accept GM food looks like idological more that factual, first over 80% of Grains in US especially corn are GM so if you want any corn from USA they will be GM corn. Secondly people are starving to dead right now so we need to solve the short term problem first, we need food right now not in 6 months, now!
Thirdly, Kenyans have always known what they need to do to achieve food security and no one is doing, everything you said up there have been said before but we're still starvingg!

@Drunkard

You say we need food NOW, which we do. Once again, GM crops aren't instant! They still require hard work, water, sun, and a growing period. So it is not an immediate solution. They are just SOMEWHAT more resistant to pests and SOMEWHAT more resistant to having less water. But how much so? No one has shown me any PROVEN numbers of how well this poison outperforms the growth of of natural crops, using Kenyan soil, in a controlled lab environment in Kenya, where Kenya scientists can witness the results. We just see the Westerners wink, nod, and tell us that it's good for us, just because they poison their own slaves with it (and then offer free health care and welfare to keep the slaves alive). Well, Kenya does not have the slave safety net that the US has. So what is to become of Kenya when this GM food causes massive, widespread diabetes, cancer, obesity (yet malnourishment), imbalance of the ecosystem due to pest over-elimination, and a poisoned water supply? What then? The US has bankrupted their own selves with these experiments; what is to become of Africa?

Reject this nonsense. It is only to be used for biofuel. In other words, don't eat it, BURN IT.

I'm so tired of all the NGOs and charities TALKING about solving food crisises, water crisises, malaria... We have ALL the solutions, yet billions of dollars go to these organizations, yet, who is planting jacaranda trees? Who is desalinizing water? Who is irrigating and teaching better farming practices? Who is teaching farmers how to build refrigerated trucks? Who is converting old matatus to freezer/reefer trucks? I see a lot of money collected charitably, and a lot of salaries being paid to weepy-eyed Westerners, who assuage their guilt by helping the "helpless African", but I don't see many SOLUTIONS. Just endless handouts. Because they don't want solutions. They want to "Play god, and Play master".

If we know the solutions, yet none have be achieved, then the problem isn't scientific, it's political. So GM maize won't help, because there will still be the same problem- people unwilling to act in the best interest of the nation, instead of themselves. So let's focus on the issue at hand, instead of handouts from "the man".

We are able, we are passionate, when will we be WILLING to solve our own problems. The problem and the solution is within our hearts.

Who. Has. A. Heart. For. Kenya?

Best,

Hill