{UAH} Attn Mps: Say No! GMO Bill in Uganda & put escape clauses

I also recommend that Mps invite farmers from Canada  and peasant farmers from South America who have been put out of Business because of GMO seeds.

I had only read abut such stories then I met a Canadian white married to an Afrikan sistah.

He told me he went bankrupt coz he could not afford the GMo seeds (patented) plus he could not plant organic plants near a field which had GMO plants since they said his crops would contaminate his neighbours GMO crops.

Also issues with cross pollination and yada yada yada.

Where is uganda going to sell GM products ? They were banned in Kenya!!!!!

Also who is going to compensate families of people who have died of cancer in the digestive system i.e. moth to colon. or the people who have got cancer in their digestive system as a result of GMos and the recently banned GMO related agro chemical called glyphosate!

CSOs call upon public to reject GMO patents

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A farmer shows his harvest. Experts have advised Ugandans to study the content of the GMO Bill before passing it as a law to govern the Agricultural sector. FILE PHOTO 

By  ESERI WATSEMWA

Posted  Friday, June 5  2015 at  01:00

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Kampala- Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called upon the public to guard against Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) Patents.

Speaking at an event dubbed Media Training on Tuesday , Mr George Asiimwe, the programmes officer, Eastern and Southern Africa small scale Farmers' Forum (ESAFF), said the GMO patents will leave farmers, who control the largest part of seeds in the country, with no or limited control over seeds.
"The informal industry supersedes the formal sector.

More than 80 per cent of seeds are controlled by farmers leaving 10 per cent under the formal sector. There are about 2,500 Agro traders marketing and distributing seeds. All these will be affected by GMO patents therefore," said Mr Asiimwe.

Meanwhile, Ms Primah Kwagala, a Trade and Human Rights Lawyer for Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), said these patents will impact negatively on the local farmers, members of the public domain, business community thus retarding development.

Ms Kwagala explained: "When companies or individuals acquire a patent to a product, the company is granted exclusive rights for a period of up to 20 years of monopolising the said product hence undermining development."

She advised government to critically study the content of the Bill before passing it as a law to govern the Agricultural sector.

CSOs fear that the effect left by Monsanto Seed Company in South America and some African nations such as; Ghana and Mali, will affect Uganda.

Contentious issues in the Bill are; title ownership versus content therein, that the facilitator and regulator are different, that GMOs are labelled to differentiate with other products.

Dr Giregon Olupot, the Soil Scientist, Makerere University College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said GMOs lead to extinction of different species save for the ones they are interested in modifying.

Mr Olupot, therefore, urges farmers in Uganda, Agriculturalists, Civil Society and Members of Parliament to stand against the passing of this Bill before review.

editorial@nationmedia.com

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