Ghana Temporarily Bans GMO Commercialization
Will the ban stick?
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Yet another country has put banning GMO’s on their agenda.
Though the case will still be reviewed by high courts in Ghana, Judge Kwadwo Yeboah ruled for a temporary halt on any further commercialization and development of GMOs until the case submitted by plaintiffs Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG) against the Ministry of Food & Agriculture and the National Biosafety Committee is concluded.
The case was heard February 17th and the court adjourned until March 3 in order for His Lordship Anthony Kwadwo Yeboah to review documents requested by the court in lieu of verbal presentations in court.
In true biotech style, The Attorney General’s (AG) representative requested that the court join the National Biosafety Authority as well as the AG’s department to the case as 3rd and 4th defendants respectively.
Food Sovereignty Ghana is a grass-roots movement of Ghanaians, home and abroad, dedicated to the promotion of food sovereignty in Ghana. FSG still maintains that:
“. . . the National Biosfety Committee has unlawfully been operating in the place of a National Biosafety Authority and is in clear breach of the provisions of the Biosafety Act 2011 Act (831), as regards the need for public awareness and participation in decisions affecting the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment.”
It has taken over four years of active petitioning for the court to hear the evidence presented by FSG. Hopefully, the ban will continue after the court adjourns and makes a decision April 2.
If so, Ghana would join countries as diverse as Thailand, Venezuela, Brazil, Russia, Switzerland, and Australia that have also banned GMOs, among many others. Could it be looking to Kyrgyzstan,which decided to become one of the first countries in the world to ban all GMO crops as well as the sale and importation of genetically modified organisms? Perhaps allowing citizens to enjoy better reproductive, cellular, and digestive health while the environment evades millions more pounds of pesticides is a leading factor for the ban.
Joining the trend of other Asian countries to ban GMOs, with China’s recent refusal of 8 different shipments of GMO corn and the nation of Bhutan also going 100% organic, the tide seems to be turning for Monsanto and biotech monopolies who would push herbicide-‘resistant’ seed on the world.
| Christina Sarich is a humanitarian and freelance writer helping you to Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga. |
