Toxic Rice Floods Nigeria, ERA Indicts U.S.

AKANIMO SAMPSON,
Port Harcourt

FOREMOST environmental rights advocacy group in Nigeria, Environmental Rights Action (ERA) has accused the United States of America (US) of flooding the Nigerian and other West African markets with contaminated rice.

The environmental rights group which is also an affiliate of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), a global federation of environmental rights advocacy organisations based in the US, raised the alarm and the indictment of US in a statement e-mailed to our correspondent on Monday.

ERA claimed that the legal action instituted against Bayer CropScience AG by farmers in the US for allegedly contaminating their farms with Genetically Modified (GM) rice seeds in 2006 was a further confirmation of the validity of tests carried out on rice samples collected by them (ERA) in Nigeria and other West African countries within the same period which showed contamination.

More than 1,000 farmers from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri, have sued Bayer AG, based in Leverkusen, Germany, in a case filed with US District Judge Catherine Perry who is guiding both sides in talks over out-of-court settlements.

Lawyer for Bayer and attorneys representing Missouri farmers made opening statements on November 4 to a nine-person jury while a second such trial is to start in January, next year, involving farmers from Arkansas and Mississippi claiming that the export market for their crops was curtailed when the US Department of Agriculture in 2006 announced that trace amounts of Bayer's GM rice had been found in US long-grain stocks.

Reacting to this development, ERA said the US litigation showed the extent the biotechnology industry and its allies will go to "undermine food supplies" to unsuspecting consumers especially in Africa where there are weak biosafety laws.

"While we hail the suits, it is extremely disheartening that these startling revelations have not compelled the Nigerian government to acknowledge the result of the Nigerian tests or put in place effective legal, administrative and infrastructural framework to check the illegal dumping of unwholesome foods in the country," said ERA Executive Director, Nnimmo Bassey.

Bassey noted that the unauthorised distribution of GMO seeds in any guise voids the precautionary principle and that the biotech industry and transnational agribusinesses have over the years pushed GMO to Africa in the guise of food aid while hiding under the cover of the World Food Programme (WFP) funded majorly by the US.

Our correspondent however, reports that after the revelation that the LLRICE601 had contaminated food supply in Europe and Japan Friends of the Earth Africa under the coordination of ERA embarked on monitoring rice supply in Western Africa, a region that imports most of the rice destined to Africa.

Samples collected from market shelves in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone and tested in a laboratory showed that LLRice601, the same variety that contaminated the US farms, were in circulation in the countries sampled.

"It is now evident that the US and other GMO producing countries do not want GMO on their soil but will do everything to push it down to Africa. ERA reiterates its earlier and unchanged demand for a prohibition of all rice imports from the US unless such imports are certified and confirmed GM-free.

''Nigerians demand that the Federal Government as a matter of urgency put in place strict bio-safety laws using the African Model as the minimum standard to be applied. Anything short of this will undermine our food sovereignty and the health of Nigerians," Nnimmo said.

ENDS

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