SOME AFRICAN NATIONS CHOOSE IGNORANCE AND DEATH.

Some African nations choose ignorance and death.
U.S. conscience is clear

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Published Wednesday
September 4, 2002

What a wrenching picture: starving Zambians standing outside a bulging grain distribution warehouse, grain sacks empty. "Please give us the food," an elderly blind man pleads with aid workers. "We don't care if it is poisonous because we are dying anyway."

Ironically - if that word is strong enough to cover impending death - the food isn't "poisonous" at all. It is the same food that Americans, Canadians and people from many other countries eat daily. It contains some grain that is genetically modified, but the major safety concern is the remote possibility of allergic reactions in some people.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has told the United Nations and the United States that his nation would "rather starve" than feed biotech corn to its people. He personally, of course, is not starving.

The country has turned down more than 50,000 tons of corn from the United States. About 2.5 million Zambians are in danger of dying if help doesn't come quickly. In rural areas of the country, where drought and government mismanagement have devastated the fields, many people are reduced to eating leaves and twigs.

Estimates indicate that 13 million people in six southern African nations, including Zambia, are facing famine. Zimbabwe and Mozambique have also refused American help. Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland have taken U.S. food aid.

As usual, it is the United States that stepped up to help these countries, not the well-fed European nations that are leading the mob against biotech crops. When that aid is refused by a president who would rather let his people die than believe the sweeping evidence that biotech grains are safe for the vast majority of people - well, the ignorance and callousness are just staggering.

The United States can only offer. It should continue to do so. Sad as all of this is, the innocent victims of famine and ignorance are not on America's conscience.