Family Medicine and Public Health Specialist, Dr. Kwasi Odoi Agyarko has revealed that Ghanaians were already consuming the already controversial Genetically Modified Organisms GMOs), contrary to perceptions that it is not yet available in the country.
According to him, many naïve and ‘innocent’ people were on a daily basis unknowingly consuming GMOs in various forms and he thus did not see the need continue to engage in the needless arguments on the issue as sections of the Ghanaian populace were still doing.
Mr. Agyarko was speaking to Rite news on the sidelines of the ‘dissemination of the International Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplement (iLiNS) Project’ in Accra.
Asked what his position was on the issue, Mr. Agyarko shied away from stating his stand, whether he was for it or not, adding however that Ghanaians were still engaged in the debate of GMOs out of ignorance.
Stating a few examples to buttress his point, he pointed out that the so-called ‘agric palm’ trees which had been with us for a very long time were all examples of Genetically Modified Organisms. That is not all; he added that some cocoa types such as those that mature in just three years instead of six to seven years are equally good examples of GMOs while adding that there are a number of seed producing companies all actively in the production of GMOs.
He discounted what he called ridiculous claims that the consumption of GMOs would result in people developing strange features such as long ears like that of a donkey.
To him, there can’t be anything wrong with GMOs except and that it has been modified to give a better yield. He was also confident that very soon everybody would come to understand the intricacies of the GMO debate which is destined to hush it up.
