Minister’s misrepresention of Facts.
Note: On GMO food safety, here is peer reviewed evidence study findings by Dr. Arpad Pusztai – the scientist forced to retire over his public comments about genetically modified (GM) potatoes
From distortion of safety trial findings to assertions of retracted paper of Prof. Seralini, it is nothing but spinning the facts of the matter.
About Prof. Seralini’s work referenced without the minister mentioning his name, facts are here for all to see.
*Conflict of interest revealed, between Lancet editor who retracted Serelini’s paper and Monsanto.
And the two court cases he has won speak for themselves.
Whistleblower award goes to Prof Gilles-Eric Séralini.
FAQs about Seralini’s long term research study on rats fed GMO corn.
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Customer Protection 1st., GMO 2nd., Holding GMO Accountable.
Dear Mr. President, Yoweri Museveni,
Whereas I’m not a spokesman for anyone or any group, the people I’ve talked to, do appreciate and thank you for declining to sign the GMO Bill which did not put Customer Protection First.
In August, 2003, as you presided over the launch of a biotech lab at the Kawanda Research Institute, you told the audience that George Bush, the US president, had urged you to take on GMOs during his visit. You got applauses from the staff of the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO).
But you warned against abuse of biotechnology, saying the Government was against GMOs becoming a problem. It is the very same message you are now sending out, by declining to sign a GMO bill that potentially creates more problems than it solves. Except this time, NARO’s stuff is not ready to hear that warning.
Accountability:
Of the itemized 11 reasons you gave, one that upsets the pro-GMO agents the most is the one about “Accountability,” item #10, which calls for protecting the consumer and holding GMO developers “Accountable for the damages they cause.” Why are they opposed to that requirement if they believe their technology doesn’t create any problems? Continued…. Click here for More...
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WHY DID MUSEVENI DECLINE TO SIGN THE GMO BILL?
President Museveni
“On the subject of GMOs, let us all move as a block and all decisions should be based on sound science,” the president said. That was on the 27th. Sept. 2017 in an article by no other than the GMO supporter, Mark Lynas, titled “Ugandan president backs GMOs, condemns “misinformation” on biotechnology.”
On October 4, 2017 the parliament passed the GMO bill, on the same day, Isaac Ongu, agricultural journalist, stated that, “The President, who has on several occasions endorsed biotechnology and expressed frustration over the delay of the bill’s passage, is expected to sign the law, which will become operational immediately.”
So what could have happened to the apostle of GMO on the road to Damascus? It was not a sudden light from heaven that shone around the president for sure, nor was it anyone from anti-GMO confusing him as pro-GMO agents would like us to believe. The president took time to analyze the GMO bill and then provided sound reasons stated clearly, item by item, as to why he rejected signing the GMO bill. He has done his home work, he got to know that those promoting GMOs haven’t been telling the whole story.
In August, 2003, as president Museveni presided over the launch of a biotech lab at the Kawanda Research Institute, he told the audience that George Bush, the US president, had urged him to take on GMOs during his visit. He got applauses from the staff of the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO).
But he warned against abuse of biotechnology, saying the Government was against GMOs becoming a problem. It is the very same message he is now sending out. Except this time, NARO’s stuff is not ready to hear that warning because he has demanded Accountability.
GMO WEMA a Hoax?: …Continued, click here for more
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NARO BRINGS TERMINATOR TECH INTO UGANDA
Dr Imelda Kashaija, deputy director general in charge of agricultural technology promotion at NARO
Dr Imelda Kashaija, deputy director general in charge of agricultural technology promotion at NARO revealed that, NARO has genetically engineered crops which cannot be replanted and, every crop season, farmers must buy new seeds. In other words, NARO has been involved in Terminator Technology all along, contrary to the assurance that NARO would never introduce Monsanto’s Terminator Technology into Uganda. Continued..Click here for more..
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World Trade Organisation must serve Uganda’s needs
….. Agriculture: Uganda is predominantly an agricultural country with a population of 40 million people, of which 70 per cent depend on agriculture for subsistence and livelihood purposes. Therefore, 80 per cent of our export earnings are derived from the agricultural sector. Continued….Click here for more
But has someone forgotten to inform some of our leaders that all across the world, especially in EU, that their more advanced scientists per research findings, have educated their public as follows, “The technology is not only risky, it’s redundant,” he says. “And people and the governments that represent them are rejecting them outright.”?
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Successful Agricultural methods are Non-GMO
From famine to food mecca
One more reason to marvel: The Netherlands is a small, densely populated country, with more than 1,300 inhabitants per square mile. It’s bereft of almost every resource long thought to be necessary for large-scale agriculture. Yet it’s the globe’s number two exporter of food as measured by value, second only to the United States, which has 270 times its landmass. How on Earth have the Dutch done it? (And of course it doesn’t do it with GMO technology)
Check out the answer: “resembles no other major food producer—a fragmented patchwork of intensely cultivated fields, most of them tiny by agribusiness standards,” sounds more like Uganda, doesn’t it? But the agricultural yields are totally different. Wouldn’t this be the country that Uganda learns from if it is to succeed? Continued…. Click here for more….
Uganda Ranked World’s Second Best Organic Foods Producer
Mr Kabuye noted that the organic foods unlike most of the other products, have ready market almost everywhere around the world.
“There is no excuse for markets, We can only hope that the trend remains like this,” he said. Source….
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Retailers say demand is at its highest for a decade with popularity spreading from fruit and vegetables to other groceries. Source…..
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U.S. organic sales post new record of $43.3 billion in 2015
Largest dollar gain ever for the booming organic sector even with supply challenges, says OTA survey
The booming U.S. organic industry posted new records in 2015, with total organic product sales hitting a new benchmark of $43.3 billion, up a robust 11 percent from the previous year’s record level and far outstripping the overall food market’s growth rate of 3 percent, according to the Organic Trade Association’s 2016 Organic Industry Survey.
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PLANS TO EXPORT
My comment to an article titled “MAAIF PLANS EXPORT-ORIENTED LARGE SCALE COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE”
All the following sound good:
“We shall be getting more money from exports. It is very easy to target export markets, once you organise the farmers. We are working with exporters. We are going to register all farmers that produce horticulture for export. That is vegetables and fruits for exports.”
FAO in Uganda
But the most intriguing one is: “We have already done it on paper and it is possible.”
There are a few things that must take place to succeed on some of those plans e.g. “Cotton, we are going to emphasize not only production of cotton, but also value addition”, in other words cotton cloth etc. There must be a ban on all second hand (used) clothes donated from overseas and sold cheaply all over the country, for local cotton so called “added value programs” to succeed.
Here is the tricky part about developing nations trying to export to developed nations, price influence through Agricultural subsidies of developed countries. One has to understand how subsidies work in developed nations to be able to plan effectively for those markets. Here is a simplified version that goes to the point, “Our crazy farm subsidies, explained”.
And it is not that this unfair competition has(n’t) been known for sometime.
Of the countries studied by the OECD, 94 percent of subsidies were spent by Asia, Europe, and North America—leaving only 6 percent for the rest of the world. EU spent over $106 billion on agricultural subsidies in total.
However, there are some areas that Uganda has an advantage in, and it is in Organic farming. Simple reason, for example in U.S. organic farming doesn’t get subsidies and there is a short supply of anything organic.
The organic food revolution that is minting millionaires.
https://www.ota.com/news/press-releases/19031
I don’t understand how the minister of Agriculture could have mentioned fertilizers’ contribution to increasing production but forgot to mention irrigation especially with this global warming that brings about un-predicitable droughts. Unless the value of irrigation is appreciated and given investment into, we will keep looking up the sky waiting for rain manna to fall from heaven, instead of using the water manna that God gave us long ago and is kept safely under the ground.
The role of water in agricultural development:
The problem is that Africans believe in free lunch, case in point: “In December 2015, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched an Emergency Appeal of 950,205 Swiss francs to meet the food security needs of 11,500 people affected by the drought in Namibia. However, the Appeal has only been funded 15 per cent, which means that only 1,200 people are being supported with drought relief by the Red Cross.”
The question is this: “How much investment has Namibian government put into irrigation since 2012 when massive aquifers were discovered?”
“Too soon to tap Namibia’s groundwater find, experts say”
Your guess is as good as mine why Namibia was told that it was too soon to tap under ground water, yet longer droughts are causing famine and deaths. “A disturbing trend in the water sector is accelerating worldwide. The new “water barons” — the Wall Street banks and elitist multibillionaires — are buying up water all over the world at unprecedented pace.”
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A 4-year-old Syrian refugee who was discovered alone in the middle of the desert
A Dead Syrian Child Washed Up On A Beach
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
For How Long?
PUBLICATIONS 2013 -------------------------------------------------------
Then and Now!
March on DC @50 - Forum - Pros and cons of foreign direct investment Why Uganda Parliament Should wait to pass a GMO Bill - Ugandan Priest Suspended for Suggesting Catholic Priests to Marry - Investment or Land Grab Disguised? - Policy Considerations - ARE YOU WHAT YOU EAT / DRINK?(The Big Cover up) - -GM debate forum records -Biotechnology -GM debate-The Anglican Church at cross-roads-The divided land ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PUBLICATIONS 2012-At Crossroads-(Rerun; it's time of the year) Vitamin D deficiency -Open letter to ASARECA Board of Directors-Links-Do you recite the Lord’s prayer, if so, which version?-Gold at last, once again!-Do you know Dengue Fever?-Putting Fun into Sportsmanship (Usain Bolt gets the Last Laugh)-Olympics-Boarding Schools-Austerity bites Britain-To nature or nurture your child-Sadistic Examiners-What a 'first' love!-Malaria and poverty +
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