Anti-GMO Zealots vs. Starving Zimbabweans

In Zimbabwe, the most food aid-dependent country in the world, officials and self-styled “consumer activists” have begun raiding shops suspected of selling genetically-modified food, The Zimbabwean reported earlier this week.

[The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe] which fights for the rights of consumers last week started to inspect and recommend that shops selling GMO foods should be closed. CCZ said the GMO foods which have flooded Zimbabwe were mostly powered milk, meal-mealie, rice and chicken.

“We have received a lot of reports of people, mainly children, getting sick after consuming the foods which in most cases will be expired,” said Comfort Muchekeza, the CCZ spokesperson. “We have raided and closed several shops and supermarkets in Bulawayo for selling expired GMO foods. We are working with the health ministry to bar GMO foods from entering the country. The health ministry has mounted check-up points at the country’s borders to inspect foodstuffs coming to into the country.”

So, the issue is expired GMO foods. Former CEI Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow and current Reason science correspondent Ron Bailey makes the following observation:

Reading further into the article, one finds the claim that people are getting sick because they are eating foods past their expiration dates. Could THAT be the problem rather than being made from genetically modified crops?

When you witness your fellow citizens going hungry day after day, it shouldn’t take a genius to realize that drastically reducing the already-dwindling food supply is a really, really bad idea. In fact, I believe most Zimbabweans would agree that expired GMO food is still better than no food at all.

(H/T Reason‘s Hit & Run)