August 2022 - 19

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conversation - one is either for or against it. However, what baffled
me was that the people who were against biotechnology wanted
everyone to be against it and would go to great lengths to block
access to the technology.
My question was: Who gave them the authority to speak on everyone's
behalf? One person actually suggested that Ugandans don't need
bananas that are resistant to Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW). " If BXW
is destroying their bananas, let me eat squash. " The nerve! As a bananaeating
Ugandan I wondered, " What is squash? And who told this person
that they can decide for us what to grow and eat or not? "
decided that GMOs are universally bad for the planet and stands against
their implementation anywhere for any reason. Am I painting the picture
you have experienced?
Patricia: Sadly, I also noted that these people in their faraway countries
didn't even care to know our culture or preferences. They just didn't care
for us as people. They cared about their " superior " ideals and forcing them
onto everyone.
That is the moment when the African advocate in me was awakened. We
Solution
need to raise our voices internationally so that choices are not made for
us. Thankfully, the pro-biotech side at least had the decency to study our
challenges and work with local researchers to come up with appropriate
solutions, and the advocates strived to give us an international platform to
air our views about this technology. This is what the Alliance strives to do.
As I mentioned earlier, my heart beats for choice and access. I am
not against a sovereign nation that says no to biotechnology if evidence
shows they do not need it. I am against countries being forced to
decline technology in ignorance. Just because country X wants organic,
everyone else should. No way! In simple language, that is being a bully,
and we shall not allow being bullied. Lay out all the choices, and based
on what challenges countries face, they should be free to choose from a
suite of solutions.
Peter: There's another layer to this topic, Patricia - a deeply
ethical one. Developed countries are beginning to acknowledge that
many underdeveloped countries practicing subsistence agriculture
are suffering from unstable growing conditions resulting from global
climate change. A reciprocal take on the debate about a country's
autonomy is that, while it is common knowledge that these countries
minimally contribute to causing the climate crisis, they are often
experiencing the most severe consequences. This outcome should
bother the rest of the world, particularly those countries contributing
most to climate change.
At a more specific level, tell us about one application of biotechnology
that the world may not be in favor of, yet having access to it is a big
deal for a small African farmer. You mentioned leveraging vitamin
A-enhanced bananas; tell us about another that makes this subsistence
farmer more productive.
Patricia: Any herbicide-tolerant variety. Unless you operate at a small
scale in a developing world country, you will surely not understand how
backbreaking weeding is. Unfortunately, this is a role that is left for women
generally, and yet they are already burdened by other backbreaking
activities such as fetching water from a well or borehole that is usually far
from home or fetching firewood to make food for the family while bent over
a low cooking area. And all this with an infant strapped to their back.
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Peter: One description that sent shivers down my spine actually
haunts me. During that 2020 presentation, the former director, sharing
your voice, spoke of the North American and European home gardener
standing in a pristine backyard vegetable garden laid out in neat rows
with manicured perimeter. Some even have borders of flowering annuals
and perennials and many have this garden within a beach ball's toss of
an in-ground swimming pool.
This gardener often stands by the garden with a designer cup of
coffee or other exotic drink and assumes this is gardening, this is
farming ... across the world. This gardener and consumer also has
Peter: I am grateful for today's opportunity to begin discussing this
important topic, Patricia. I want to thank you for sharing a view of
agriculture that I have been ignorant of and unable to acknowledge
until now. Understanding your passionate request to " Let Africa decide
for herself " has changed me. I hope I can become a worthy advocate.
Guided by science, the world community will be better equipped to solve
global challenges if we show respect for and make the effort to do the
hard work to understand one another. As the world gets smaller, may our
hearts get larger.
Patricia: Thank you, Peter, for giving me and, by extension, Sub-Saharan
Africa, an opportunity to reach a wider audience through your column.
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August 2022

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