Opponents of breakthroughs in genetic food improvements are dooming Africa’s poorest people to starvation, says Florence Wambugu in the Washington Post. Wambugu directs the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications-AfriCenter, where she tries to import field-tested biotech crops (e.g. virus-resistant sweet potatoes) to African countries where they are needed most. “Why aren’t these types of biotechnology applications more readily available to African farmers?” she asks, before answering her own question: “I believe blame lies with critics who claim that Africa has no chance to benefit from biotechnology and that our people will be exploited by multinationals. These critics, who have never experienced hunger and death on the scale we sadly witness in Africa, are content to keep Africans dependent on food aid from industrialized nations while mass starvation occurs.”
