A surprise decision by Angola to reject genetically modified food aid threatens to disrupt distributions to hundreds of thousands of people - many of them newly returned after the country's two-decade civil war - the U.N. food agency said Monday. The decision, announced by Angola's Council of Ministers on March 17, comes at a time when the World Food Program is already battling funding shortfalls for its program in the oil-rich southern African country.
The Zeropeans strike again! |
Piss on 'em. They don't like genetically modified food, they must prefer no food. Dumbasses. | U.N. officials are currently in discussions with Angolan authorities to determine the implications for a 19,000-ton shipment of U.S. corn that had been earmarked for the country. If there is no clarity by Wednesday, the United States could redirect the corn to another country, officials said.
There's lots of bum countries standing around with their hands out. Angola's not doing us a favor. | Angola, a nation of about 14 million people, was ruined by the war pitting the government against UNITA rebels. Up to a half-million Angolans fled their country before it ended in 2002. The fighting also drove some 4 million people from their homes. Some 3.8 million have now returned to their rural homes, but about 1.5 million remain on the dole charity cases dependent on food aid, according to WFP figures.
But at least their starving people won't be tainted by GM food. | Despite pressing needs, Angola is struggling to compete for funds with other bum aid-dependent countries. Donors have privately questioned the government's commitment to resolving humanitarian problems in a country where one in every four dollars in oil earnings is unaccounted for, according to anti-corruption activists.
Only one in four? Somebody's head in the Oil Ministry is going to roll. | Details of the ban, which does not apply to milled grain, remain unclear, and the decision has not yet been officially implemented. But it could have major implications for Angola, which receives up to 77 percent of its food aid from the United States. American biotech companies have been at the forefront of promoting genetically modified food, or GMOs, which can be made to resist insects or disease. African countries such as Zambia and Zimbabwe have also rejected biotech food aid.
Bob-land's also starving. Wotta bunch of sooper geniuses. |
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