Can you speak further on the issue of GMO and its potential impacts on the ecology of east africa in particular.
Dr. Montague Yudelman Member
posted May 12, 2000 06:37 AM
One of the difficulties in dealing with your question is that there is still a great debate about the extent to which GMO's will be adopted in east Africa. The current thinking is that research on GMO's has been largely confined to products grown in the developed countries and that it will be some time before there is any significant development of GMO's for developing countries. Also, as you probably know, there is a great deal of debate and division of opinion as to whether GMO's will have a negative or positive impact on the ecology in countries such as the USA. There are still many unanswered questions. We will require much more research before we know about the potential impact of GMO's on the ecology. However, in my view it is unlikely that there will be a very large-scale use of GMO's in east Africa in the near future so that the potential impact on the ecology will be marginal. Over the long run, this is an open-ended question that will continue to be an issue in public policy for years to come.
posted May 11, 2000 09:59 AM
