Biotechnology will improve African farming, say Vatican’s food experts

( Sept.29, 2009): African farmers should be able to use new biotechnology, including genetically modified organisms, to help lift their continent out of poverty, Vatican officials and agricultural experts said. Focusing on agricultural development is the key to improving the lives of Africans and their economy, and all tools must be considered to further that goal, according to speakers at a recent symposium in Rome on the topic "For a Green Revolution in Africa." The participants agreed that one of those tools could be genetically modified products, the use of which is widespread in the United States but controversial in Africa.
Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, former secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said that underdevelopment and hunger in Africa are due in large part to "outdated and inadequate agricultural methods." Therefore, he said, new technologies "that can stimulate and sustain African farmers" must be made available, including "seeds that have been improved by techniques that intervene in their genetic makeup."
The Symposium sponsored by the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University was held just before the Synod of Bishops for Africa, which is set to begin at the Vatican Oct. 4.