CPP challenges Deputy Agric Minister, CSIR boss to eat GM foods for six months

Deputy Director of Communications for the Convention Peoples' Party (CPP) has challenged any minister or deputy and all pro-GMO activists to a six-month reality show to test the validity of their position that Genetically Modified (GM) foods are not dangerous to consumers.

Ernesto Yeboah in particular mentioned the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Alhassan Ahmed and Dr Abdullah Salifu, Director General of the Council for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR).

Speaking at a press conference organised by Cedi Africa at the International Press Centre in Accra yesterday, he said it was wicked on the part of the country's leaders to sell a whole population of 25 million people as guinea pigs to scientists for their experiments. GM foods have altered DNAs which is believed to be the cause of diseases and deformities in consumers.

Ghana through the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is in the process of testing four genetically modified (GM) agricultural produce for mass production.These are cowpea, cotton, high-protein sweet potato and nitrogen-efficient, water-efficient and salt-tolerant rice.

The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei, and Deputy Minister of Agriculture in-charge of Crops Dr. Alhassan Ahmed has stated that Ghana would adopt the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) technology to improve agricultural production and income for farmers.

But the CPP and a civil society group Food Sovereignty Ghana who have been at the forefront of a crusade against the passage of a Plant Breeders Bill have said several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food,” including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system.

The Former Director General of the Ghana Health Service and leading member of the CPP Professor Badu Akosa has also warned the nation of the dire consequences regarding the passage of the GMO Plant Breeders Bill.

The Deputy Communications Director of the Party is taking the debate further by calling for the reality show to determine which camp is actually right on the benefits or otherwise of GM foods.

He went further to mention that the EU and countries like Luxemburg, Australia, Zambia, India have all banned the consumption of GM foods and asked why Ghana was in such an indecent haste to pass it.

He said he was ready to submit himself to a medical examination before and after the show.

“This would bring finality to the matter on whether GM foods are safe or not rather than testing it on a whole population without regard to the negative consequences such as deaths, birth related deformities, cancerous diseases, sterility and fake pregnancies as leading scientific journals have published", he explained. 

He further called on Ghanaians to begin a festival of massive protestations across the length and breadth of the country until order and sanity is restored.