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{
    "id": 243137,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/243137/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 221,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Balala",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 9,
        "legal_name": "Najib Mohamed Balala",
        "slug": "najib-balala"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand here to oppose this Motion although the hon. Member is my personal friend. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, human beings have been given a small brain which, when activated, can generate many things that are good for this world. It is a fact that research must have been done on how birds fly and this enabled the hon. Member to be a captain and fly an aircraft. It is out of technology. If we are going to ban Genetically Modified (GM) food, then we are banning technology. How come we have a Ministry of Science and Technology in this Government? We will, therefore, be forced to ban that Ministry as well. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, technology is today's life. We are taking this country forward into the 21st Century and we cannot afford to remain behind, backward or primitive. I know that the hon. Member is aware of the organic foods which are being sold very expensively, hence enabling farmers to get more value for their crops. These products come from agricultural areas, and I think it is also useful for him and for the Government to encourage the growing of organic foods in our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this country has Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) which are always faced with drought and lack of rain. We started begging in the last ten years, asking the same western world, which produces GM foods to give us handouts. We received yellow maize, which is food for horses in the United States of America (USA), and we are given the same to eat because we had no alternative. Why do we want to turn ourselves into relatives of Mr. Githae and start eating rats and cockroaches? I wonder what we should eat when there is no food. Should we eat rats and cockroaches? Should we eat fellow human beings? I say \"no\" to these questions. So, we should oppose this Motion but undertake new ways of organic agriculture. Banning technology is the most primitive thing that we, as a nation, can do. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to encourage the Minister for Agriculture to bring that Bill as soon as possible, so that we do not become beggars whenever the rains fail. As a country, our problem is that we do not plan in advance. We like working in ad hoc situations, so July 12, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2011 that we can syphon public resources for our personal gain. It is important for the Ministry to regulate use of genetically modified food. From the words of the hon. Member who has just spoken, I am convinced that a Bill will be brought to this House very soon. With those remarks, I beg to oppose."
}