Genetically Modified Foods Responsible For High Rate Of Fibroid – Coalition
Genetically Modified Foods Responsible For High Rate Of Fibroid – Coalition
A coalition of academics and civil society organisations has said genetically modified foods (GMF) pose severe risks to human health and the environment with a claim that the genetically modified crops have created novel and alarming problems, including genetic contamination and uterine fibroids in women of young ages.
In Nigeria, uterine fibroids account for 3.2–7.8% of gynaecological cases and 68.1% of hysterectomy cases. A study in Ogoni found that 14.2% of case files were positive for uterine fibroids. Another study found that uterine fibroids were shared between the ages of 30 and 39.
Insisting that Nigeria does not need GMOs, the coalition members who spoke at a press conference organised by Health of Mother Health Foundation called for a national ban on GMOs, arguing that “it is not in the interest of our people.”
Across the country, farmers have complained that GMOs reduce productivity in the second planting season, meaning farmers cannot replant these seeds but must purchase them continuously every new season.
“The experience with the commercialisation of GM crops abroad and its failed promises, recent developments, and reports in Nigeria already evidence GM crops’ failure. It undoubtedly illustrates that it will not be in the interest of our people to accept GM crops in our country. It will spell doom and disaster for our agricultural and food systems,” deputy executive director ERA/FoEN and Food Sovereignty
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Coordinator Friends of the Earth Africa, Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, said yesterday in a research paper that was presented at the press conference in Abuja. “We call on our government to be conscious that the future is assured only by agroecological or natural agricultural practices. Such will not be found in the laboratories of the profit-driven biotech industry.”
The coalition pointed to several studies that have linked the consumption of GMOs to a myriad of diseases, including antibiotic resistance. The commercially approved Bt Cowpea expresses an enzyme that confers antibiotic resistance: neomycin phosphotransferase. Multiple animal studies show significant immune dysregulation, including upregulation of cytokines [protein molecules involved in immune responses] associated with asthma, allergy, and inflammation.
Genetically Modified Foods Responsible For High Rate Of Fibroid – Coalition
