[Scpg] Hungry for an Alternative: Organic Farming in Africa

[John Calvert]

Hungry for an Alternative
    The Independent UK

    Monday 27 June 2005
Tewolde Berhan believes that organic farming is the only real solution 
to famine in Africa. Sally J. Hall meets the quiet but formidable 
Ethiopian who has become a thorn in the side of the GM foods lobby.

    Organic farming is a slow-to-grow, low-yield industry favoured by 
middle-class parents who have the time and money to meander the 
overpriced aisles of Waitrose, deliberating over wild rocket or white 
asparagus. Right?

    Wrong, says Tewolde Berhan. He thinks organic farming could be the 
solution to Ethiopia's famines. The chief of the country's Environment 
Agency has worked his way through academia and government to become one 
of the world's most influential voices in the biotechnology field. 
Berhan believes that, properly applied, his approach could save the 
lives of many of the thousands of Africans who die every day as a 
result of hunger and poverty.

    He maintains that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) remove 
control from local farmers. He speaks for a growing number who believe 
that Africa should return to natural, sustainable methods of 
agriculture better suited to its people and environment.

    Can one man hope to stand against governments and the huge 
multinationals? Visiting London, Berhan appears to be a frail - if 
nattily dressed - sexagenarian. But our conversation reveals his 
determination, intelligence and encyclopedic memory, combining to 
create an indomitable force.

    Asked why bad harvests seem to have a greater impact on Ethiopia 
than its neighbours, he has a simple yet stark response. "It's largely 
because of the lack of infrastructure," he says. "The road system in 
Ethiopia has doubled in the past 10 years, but is still very poor.

    "Ethiopia is still an agrarian society, and there isn't one such 
country that hasn't had famines," he adds. "The reasons are clear: some 
years you have plenty and others not enough. If you don't have the 
technological and financial capacity and the infrastructure to store in 
good years, you can't make provision for the bad. People here depend 
entirely on the crops they produce in their fields, so when one season 
fails, the result is famine."

    Born in 1940, Berhan graduated in 1963 from Addis Ababa University 
and took a doctorate at the University of Wales in 1969. Later posts as 
dean of science at Addis Ababa, keeper of the National Herbarium and 
director of the Ethiopian Conservation Strategy Secretariat kept him in 
touch with the agricultural needs of Ethiopia's people.

    In 1995, he was made director general of the Environmental 
Protection Authority of Ethiopia, in effect becoming the country's 
chief scientist in agriculture. A strong critic of GMOs, he's a 
powerful voice in lobbying on food safety. His most notable triumph 
came in negotiations on biosafety in Cartagena, Colombia in 1999. 
Berhan acted as chief negotiator for a group of southern hemisphere 
countries. He helped to secure an agreement to protect biosafety and 
biodiversity, while maintaining respect for the traditional rights of 
the Third World population, gained against strong opposition from the 
European Union and North America.

    So why is organic farming the answer? Given low yields, poor soil 
and drought, you'd think that industrial farming would help Ethiopia to 
maximise production. Not so, Berhan says. "Organic farming deviates 
little from the natural environment in supplying nutrients to crops. 
We've developed the ability to change things in a big way and, without 
considering the consequences, we create disasters. Look at what 
happened with DDT.

    "Organic farming disturbs nature as little as possible and reduces 
those risks. Intensive farming has led to the exacerbation of pests and 
diseases, and loss of flavour in food."

    These views are at odds with the "conventional" industry. Tony 
Combes, the director of corporate affairs for Monsanto UK, a big player 
in the GM market, says: "Going organic isn't the way to increase 
yields. But then, neither is going totally GM. Farmers need solutions 
suitable for local predicaments. This means choosing from a range of 
options - organic, conventional and GM. If yields can be increased, 
that surplus can be sold."

    Berhan is undeterred. He has persuaded the Ethiopian government to 
let him demonstrate his ideas in the Axum area of Ethiopia. Old 
field-management techniques have been resurrected, while methods new to 
the area, like compost-making, have been successful.

    Those who think organic farming means low yields will be surprised 
by Berhan's evidence. "When well managed, and as fertility builds over 
years, organic agriculture isn't inferior in yield. Now, farmers don't 
want chemical fertilisers. They say, 'Why should we pay for something 
we can get for free?'"

    Berhan expresses gratitude for the West's famine-relief efforts, 
but he has reservations. "When countries want to help, they may not 
know how, so the intention has to be appreciated. But if you go beyond 
the intention and begin to dictate terms, it becomes more sinister. In 
times of shortage, making food aid available is helpful - for that 
year. If you keep making it available, you discourage production."

    He believes there are times when food aid can be more about control 
by Western governments than assistance. "The feeling is strong that 
this is deliberate. I attended a meeting where farmers from the USA 
were present. I told them a story I'd read about how rice production in 
Liberia was depressed because of cheap imports from the USA. The 
American farmers said this was a deliberate policy by the US State 
Department to make countries dependent on them for food.

    "I began to investigate and discovered that, while the EU has 
abandoned its policy of providing food aid, initially sending money so 
that food can be bought locally, the US still insists it will only give 
food in kind. This makes me feel those farmers were right."

    Berhan insists on the necessity of further trials for GM crops, and 
believes extreme caution should be used in their growth and trade. His 
application for a visa to attend talks in Canada on GM labelling was 
turned down earlier this year, suggesting that his influence is feared. 
"We were finalising the labelling of grain commodities," he says. "A 
compromise had been reached in 2000 for labelling to say, 'This product 
may contain GMOs,' but we wanted to toughen it up, to say, 'This 
product contains these GMOs,' and to list them."

    He also contests that GMOs give higher yield. "This is mainly hype. 
So far, there's not one GM crop that produces higher yields per acre 
than conventional crops. They offer an economical advantage to farmers 
as they can apply herbicide in large doses and not have to worry about 
weeds: that's all."

    After protests from the media and groups such as Greenpeace, the 
visa was granted. Dr Eric Darier, GM campaigner for Greenpeace Canada, 
explained why it was so important that Berhan attended. "He is truly 
one of the key 'fathers' of the biosafety protocol," Darier says. "It 
was convenient for the Canadian government [to refuse the visa], as it 
prevented a major critic and opponent of pro-GM Canadian policy from 
attending two of the three days of the workshop on liability. Canada 
has failed to ratify the biosafety protocol. In view of the fact that 
the Canadian government has done everything to undermine the efforts of 
the international community to adopt a strict, effective biosafety 
protocol, the delays in issuing the visa are evidence of Canada's bad 
faith."

    Is Berhan bitter? Far from it. "I think [the visa refusal] was 
based on a mistaken calculation. If anything, it gave the labelling 
issue higher visibility. We told the Canadian government: either you 
accept multilateral discussions, or the Office for the Commission of 
Biological Diversity [based in Montreal], must move to another 
country." The threat worked.

    Berhan's message is compelling - and he is in demand worldwide. In 
the past month alone, he has travelled to Austria, the UK, Tunisia and 
Norway. He returns to the UK in July to give a talk for the Soil 
Association, where he will ask: "Can Organic Farming Feed the World?" 
He is a huge force in trying to prove that it can.

      The Soil Association will be at the Royal Geographical Society in 
London on Tuesday 12 July (www.soilassociation.org).

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