HOMEF Advocates For Food Justice, Restoration And Sustainability.
Tracy Ohovwore, Benin City
Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) organised a one-day food sensitisation workshop themed “Food Justice and Restoration” on Friday, February 28, 2025, at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin. The exercise condemned Africa’s alarming food insecurity rate, especially in Nigeria.
According to HOMEF, rather than explicitly confronting the country’s saddening rise of hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity, the government and stakeholders are deploying Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to solve food insecurity.
NewsNowNG reports that HOMEF’s research for 2023 reveals that Abuja tops the list of GM food with 16 products, followed by Lagos with 12 products, while 11 products were captured in Port Harcourt on the chart.
Benin City and Warri followed on the chart with 9 and 8 products respectively while Yenagoa, Uyo and Enugu had 4, 3 and 1 products in their respective markets during the research.
The exercise aimed at raising awareness of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and their adverse effects on the country’s health, environment, and economic sectors.
Speaking at the event, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), expressed the need for food justice and restoration in Nigeria.
He explained that Nigeria is blessed with good soil and enough natural resources, thereby revealing that Nigeria does not need GMOs. He reiterated that “everyone has the right to healthy food” and that it is essential that food is made safe for consumption.
He says, “We believe that the deployment of GMOs contravenes food justice because we believe, it takes away our rights of choice. These have both intended and unintended consequences.
“Food justice necessitates the dismantling of systems of colonisation, slavery and discrimination which have deeply impacted access to food and food systems through land grabbing lose of indigenous knowledge, force labour and so much focus on cash crops for export.
“Food justice advocates for a transition in agriculture which is good cultivation, working in line with nature. This assures more equitable access to food producing resources such as as land, credit, market, better wages and working conditions for all food producers across the value chain as well as policies which will recognize and defend the rights of local food producers who feed and nourish our nation.” He noted.
The Director of Environmental Assessment and Climate, Edo State Ministry of Environment and Sustainability, Kenneth Woghiren, commended HOMEF for taking a bold step to raise awareness of the pressing issue of GMOs and urged all participants to take active responsibility in promoting awareness of GMOs and their unhealthy effects on health, the environment, and the economy.
He also reiterated the ministry’s commitment to managing the state’s land resources and tackling the issue of GMO crops, which have taken over staple food items in the country.
The program attracted the presence of the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Prof Chris Omokaro, Esteemed Heads of Department (HODs) of the institution, lecturers, students, farmers, community leaders, and representatives from the Ministry of Environment & Sustainability and the Ministry of Agriculture, Edo state.
