Government sued over GMOs

ACCRA. — Ghanaian civil group Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG) has filed a writ of summons at a high court in Accra against the National Bio-safety Committee and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture over the use of Genetically Modified (GM) food. The FSG said Tuesday that it was seeking an interim injunction to restrain the defendants from the release and commercialisation of genetically modified cow-peas and rice until the provisions of the Biosafety Act were fully obeyed.

“We are not only calling for an injunction on the commercialisation of GM rice and Bt-cowpeas but on all GM crops until the National Biosafety Authority is in place,” said a statement signed by George Tetteh Wayo, spokesperson on Legal Affairs at the Communications Directorate of the FSG. Section 13 of the Bio-safety Act states that only the National Bio-safety Authority has such a power to authorize the commercial release of GM foods in Ghana, according to the statement. The West African country is a signatory to the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety.

Article 23 of the Protocol requires parties on their own and in co-operation with other states and international bodies to promote and facilitate public awareness and education, including access to information, regarding the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms, the statement said.

It also requires parties to consult the public in the decision- making process, to make public the final decision taken and to inform the public about the means of access to the Bio-safety Clearing-House, it added.

“We maintain that none of these provisions are being respected and we find the situation of lawlessness surrounding the imposition of Genetically Modified Organisms on Ghanaians most alarming as bio-safety is a matter of life and death,” the group said.

“The most fraudulent aspect of this is the fact that in spite of the flagrant infringement of the Bio-safety Act, the scientists behind these dangerous experiments keep informing the public that everything is being done in accordance with the law,” it added. — Xinhua.