Anti-GM Nonsense in Zimbabwe

The citizens of Zimbabwe don’t have a lot of rights under the dictatorial regime of psychopathic criminal Robert Mugabe, but at least they have a consumer protection agency in the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe. Only, the CCZ isn’t interested in protecting consumers so much as watching them starve. Like a lot of countries whose governments don’t understand simple science, Zimbabwe has banned the importation of genetically modified foods on the baseless grounds that they’re “unhealthy”. Unfortunately, Mugabe’s disastrous economic policies have forced most of the country’s home-grown food suppliers out of business, out of Zimbabwe, or out of their lives. So the government lifted its anti-GM policy in the case of GM corn imported from the U.S. Still, GM food is cheap and abundant, so many local stores have been buying it from South Africa and Brazil and stocking it on the sly. Now, the CCZ has swarmed in and closed many of these stores, leaving local citizens to starve while their health is being “protected”. According to the CCZ, many people have become sick after eating these GM foods. But there’s another important factor they seem to be overlooking. From their own spokesperson: “We have received a lot of reports of people, mainly children, getting sick after consuming the foods which in most cases will be expired.” Yes, there’s nothing in that statement that would seem to suggest these people are getting sick for any reason other than the fact that these foods were genetically modified. Nothing at all. More details here.