What has GM got to do with cocaine? Both are an addiction and once you start using it - you are hooked for life. Ask any users of cocaine or farmer using GM seeds if he or she is better off now? The answer is no. Look at the suppliers banks accounts or balance sheets and you will see they are printing money - at the expense of the user which they (smiling all the way to the bank) call their customer.

Once a farmer buys GM seeds they are committed. These seeds do not regenerate. So, next year you must buy all the seeds again. Now comes the profit generator. These seeds only grow with chemical fertilizers - lots of them. These chemicals destroy the soil. No worry, say the fertilizer companies we can sell you even more fertilizer to correct the imbalance we have created in the soil. And so the addiction continues. The Chemical industry by the way have introduced over a 100,000 new chemicals that have found their way into our agriculture and food supply chain since 1950. So they have many alternatives.

What is really wrong with using GM seeds is this excessive use of chemicals. We could debate re-engineering nature forever, but the continued and expanded use of chemicals in our food supply is bordering on evil. There is only one winner - the multi-national chemical companies whose greed for bigger profits and shareholder value far out weight our human right to a healthy lifestyle.

How out of step are we here in South Africa with the rest of world?

Wal-Mart, the largest retail group in the world announced that they are going green. This means eliminating harmful chemicals from our food supply, excessive packaging, chemicals used in make-up and cosmetics and even chemically produced textiles. This is a huge step for a retailer that was not considered very friendly to our environment.

Wal-Mart has 6,600 'big box' stores and serves 176 million customers per week. In 2004 Wal'Mart introduced an organic cotton line. It sold out in less than 10 weeks. Consider the ramifications of Wal-Mart's impact on the cotton industry alone. In 2001 total global cotton production was 6,4 million tons. In 2006 Wal-Mart as a single buying entity will use 8-10 million tons of organic cotton.

We here in South Africa currently do not have one organic cotton producer.

So where will our producers sell their GM cotton, now that even Wal-Mart is committed to buying organic? Yes, you most probably have guessed right.
To South Africans because we pay far too much for everything, never complain and have been hoodwinked into believing that GM is our saviour

This same scenario is going to play out with all fruit and vegetables, all basic food products, even our wines. Wal-Mart will force every buyer of fresh and processed food to look at organic (chemically free) production if they want to remain competitive.

As the world's largest retailer looks globally for new suppliers. The organic industry is going to experience a boom beyond our comprehension.

So, if you are still supporting your local addicts (all those GM producers) good luck and don't say I did not warn you.

Break the chemical habit and support our emerging organic farmers and also those all around the world - they are dedicated to your good health and to the world we live in.

David Wolstenholme is the Exhibition Director of the Natural & Organic Products Exhibition that will be staged at Gallagher Estate 20-22 October 2006