Food & Famine In Africa: Two African Libertarian Perspectives

Franklin Cudjoe: "Re: Health Alert!: Will Parliament Succumb To US Pressure?"

Mr. Cudjoe responds to another person's op-ed on a Ghanaian news website about genetically modified foods. The libertarian head of IMANI: Center for Policy & Education (Ghana) argues that centralized state rule, marked by corruption and sustained by foreign aid dictates, is what keeps many Africans poor and hungry: "While I admit the subject of GM is very touchy, at least, so it has been made by anti-development activists, it is important to go further and investigate whether any known fatalities have resulted from the consumption of genetically modified products. It is very instructive to know that the one thing that could give us drought-resistant and highly productive seeds is biotechnology. Experience shows that genetically modified (GM) crops could increase yields by 25% and cost less than Green Revolution techniques. But GM produce faces bans from rich countries, especially the EU, using unscientific 'biosafety' protocols under the guise of environmental protection. This kind of hysteria made Zambia, Angola and Zimbabwe reject famine aid because U.S. or South African maize could not be certified GM-free."

He continues his commentary: "Niger is little-blessed by nature, but it has also spent its postcolonial era trying various forms of failed government, with Marxism reigning longest. A quarter of the population -- 2.5 million people -- faces starvation. Yet more temperate southern and eastern African countries are on the edge of famine, too, with 10 million affected in southern Africa alone. Again, we find the same economic profile: Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho all lack economic freedom and property rights; all have economies mismanaged by the state; all depend on aid. All these countries have a history of utopian schemes that failed to produce everlasting manna. State farms, marketing boards, land redistribution, price controls and huge regional tariffs left few incentives or opportunities for subsistence farmers to expand. Despite torrents of aid, these cruel social experiments could not turn sands verdant or prevent the granaries of southern and eastern Africa from rotting. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi believes that allowing Ethiopians to own their land would make them sell out to multinationals. He seems to have overlooked a basic market principle: It demands a willing seller and a willing buyer at an agreed price. If that price is worth selling for, the farmer might have some money to reinvest elsewhere; if that price is worth buying for, the purchaser must have plans to make the land profitable. If there is no sale, owners might have an incentive to invest in their own land and future, having, at last, the collateral of the land on which to get a loan. After decades of socialism, Ethiopia's agricultural sector -- the mainstay of the economy -- is less productive per capita than 20 years ago when Band Aid tried to defeat famine. Although 60% of the country is arable, only 10% has been cultivated. Ethiopia is entirely dependent on donations; but instead of grasping reality, Mr. Zenawi, a member of Tony Blair's 'Commission for Africa,' is forcing resettlement on 2.2 million people."

James Shikwati: "Africa's Famine: Case Of Drought Or Malware?"

The libertarian head of the Inter-Region Economic Network (Kenya) argues that when one talks about famine in Africa, one must evaluate the hostile and intrusive programs operating on the foreign aid front which undermine traditional African foods and keep Africans as beggars: "Over 50 years of food aid targeting Africa and the resultant increased famine episodes point at a possibility of a food 'malware' – a malicious system that changes people’s dietary habits in favor for imported foods. The same malware has penetrated agricultural schools that prepare graduates to promote the new foods as opposed to upgrading local varieties. The worst bit is on the political leadership – their minds have been corrupted so much with the quest for kickbacks to such an extent that they do not invest in local solutions. Foreign solutions come loaded with a possibility of a quick '10%;' and in the absence of a working 'anti-virus' it logs its intentions on to the African nations’ operating system forcing the continent to be perpetual beggars."

More: "To reduce famine incidents on the continent, Africans must develop a system of detecting the 'malicious background operating system' from donors that has not only denied them a chance to promote their local cuisines but has also exposed their land up for grabbing. It is time we invested in our indigenous crops, turned our rural populations into celebrated food suppliers through incentives and invested in technology to free our continent from perennial famine. Contrary to common beliefs, money is not the solution to Africa’s famine problem; food aid is not the solution either … getting rid of the 'malware' is!"