Publication - 3 September, 2002
The famine conditions developing in southern Africa, and requests of African governments forGM-free food aid, have highlighted the fact that much of the maize and soy currently found in USfood aid stocks is actually genetically modified.Presently representatives of the United States government and the US Agency for InternationalDevelopment claim they are unable and they are certainly unwilling to deliver maize food aidto Africa that does not contain GMOs. However, significant quantities of GM-free maize areavailable on the world market today, and indeed are even available from US companies. GM-freemaize could be purchased with the financial food aid offered by the United States, if the US werenot insisting that the loan money be tied to purchase of only US grain.