FSG demonstrates against GM products

Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG) on Saturday embarked on a public march to create awareness on some critical agricultural policies on the introduction of Genetically Modified food into the local food chain.

The exercise, which was part of international solidarity campaign against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), saw staff and members of the group trekking through some principal streets of Accra beginning from Kwame Nkrumah Circle and finally converging at the Abgogbloshie market.

FSG is an advocacy movement dedicated towards the promotion of people’s right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods.

Addressing the gathering at the Abgogbloshie market, Mr. Duke Tagoe, Deputy Chairman of FSG, said there has been no testing for the safety of GMOs in the human diet.

He said testing and observation of animals fed GMOs revealed serious health problems including “infertility, accelerated aging, deregulation of genes associated with cholesterol synthesis, insulin regulation, cell signalling, and protein formation, and changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and gastrointestinal system”.

Mr. Tagoe said GM food is killing the Ghanaian market, with grave consequences for sovereignty of the nation in terms of economic justice, safety and diversity of the food Ghanaians eat.

“We are at Abgogbloshie market... to educate market women not to go in for GM food and to also let them know the difference between the Ghanaian food and GM food.”

Mr. Tagoe said FSG will draft a petition to government for it to make an independent research into GM food.

Some of the market women interviewed by Ghana News Agency said they were not aware of GM food and urged government to take action against its importation.