Government has revealed that it has no intentions of allowing the importation of Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs).
Agriculture Minister Given Lubinda said in an interview that reports that Government is considering lifting the ban on GMO imports are inaccurate.
Mr Lubinda was reacting to a statement issued by FDD President Edith Nawakwi who challenged Government to come out clean on the application by Shoprite to allow the chain store to import some GMO foods into Zambia.
He said there is no Government official who has even tabled a proposal to ask Government to lift the ban on GMOs.
“The PF Government is very responsible. We are alive to the fact that GMOs is a matter of government policy, it was a government policy in 2012 issued against GMO. If we decide to lift the ban, we will make it public in a similar vein, we shall engage the public,” Mr Lubinda said.
He added, “as far as government is concerned and as Minister responsible for food in this country, no member of government has made a proposal to go GMO, moreover, why should we even consider going GMO at a time when we are able to feed our people on non GMO food?”
Mr Lubinda said the FDD leader must stopping issuing alarming statements on key national issues.
“Madam Edith Nawakwi must desist from being an alarmist and from trying to pick on issues that are nonexistent just to try to win a little bit of public attention. I would like to advise my dear sister Edith to be truthful in her statement”, he said.
“I know Edith is not very happy that she is losing her plot very quickly and she is becoming irrelevant on the political landscape and is looking for ways of regaining her political relevance, let her do so by being truthful.”
What Edith is doing needs the attention of “Alangizi”. I suspect her problems cover a wide range, and marital ones cannot be totally discounted.
Her recent comments regarding closing Zambian mines in order to feed street kids, Zesco, and GMOs show that she is off the rails and intervention by trained counselors is needed to get her back on track.
She has been known to be a counselor herself but we know now that most counselors need counseling.
Why then is Shoprite advertising for a stakeholders meeting to discuss importation of GMO?
google this….African unhealthy Pregnant women (photograph)
Rubbish in zambian we just like talking we eat milk and eggs produced by confused animals why not research on gmo it’s seems genetics engineering is the future of food production in some countries so let’s find out why in those more developed than zambia his foods are accepted .I think even contraceptive pills confuse women but we use then is it becouse the benefits out ways the risk .who knows maybe when we go for treatment in south Africa we are even given gmos .and how many zambians buy groceries in South Africa gmos are being eaten right now in kalundu and other opar mwambas places buy the way chiluba and Edith may have data on yellow maize but maybe it’s politics of sata now everything you shot at
Shoprite did post something about this.i remember they said they are about to import foods that may or may not be gm, knorr and other items
95% of the food staffs in all the retail shops are imported from South Africa a haven for GMO foods. Lubinda you think we are safe from these foods. We have been eating GMO foods since 2003.
We eat we know not what!If GMOs be the remedy to immunity against low rainfalls,more tastier foods and high yields, who are we to defy the odds.Lets not act like archaic ignoramus beings like our fore fathers who believed that the earth was flat and looked at the stars with the ignorance of a cat starring at the moon! Let us embrace change!