Giant locust swarms
in Africa and the
Middle East
are eating crops
at a stunning rate.
Swarms can travel
up to 100 miles per day
as they search for food.
The locusts are affecting
a combined population
of about 2 billion people.
UN officials
say the crisis
is going to
get worse
over the next
couple of months.
Spraying insecticide
on them from the air
produces limited results.
The UN is trying to raise
a lot more money
to get more planes
into the air, because
if nothing is done
the number of locusts
“could grow up to
500 times by June”
( when drier weather begins ).
The U.N. wants
$76 million
immediately.
U.S. Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo,
while visiting Ethiopia,
said the U.S.
would donate $8 million
to the effort last week.
Not very generous !
That follows
an earlier
$800,000
donation.
The fast-breeding
desert locust
first invaded
Kenya, Somalia
and Ethiopia,
and more recently
Djibouti, Eritrea,
Oman, Yemen,
Tanzania and
Uganda.
They won’t stop
on their own.
According to the
Food Agriculture
Organization (FAO),
“this is the worst
situation in 25 years."
They’ve already
covered a million
hectares in Kenya,
with no signs
of slowing down.
Twenty-five million
people have been
left hungry, by
Oxfam’s estimate.
EU-funded
environmental groups
descended on the
Kenyan parliament,
demanding that the
Kenyan government
outlaw the pesticides
used to fight locusts,
the only effective tool.
"The pesticide
fenitrothion
is very effective.
It kills locusts
within
forty minutes
to six hours
of spraying,”
says Salad Tutana,
the Chair of
Northern Kenya
Locust Control
Coordination team.
Mr. Salad says
they are
experiencing
a shortage
of fenitrothion,
but that fresh
supplies of the
pesticide have
recently arrived
from Japan.
More planes
are needed
for spraying.
Currently, there are
only five planes
being used to spray
the available
insecticides.
Kenya has set aside
$2.5 million to
combat locusts
through spraying,
but this not enough,
as the situation
continues to worsen.
The U.N. FAO
agreed to contribute
$76 million to
the spraying effort,
but thus far only
$15 million has made
its way to the region.
“We have
resigned ourselves
o crude methods,
like shouting,
burning tires, and
blowing whistles,
to chase away
the insects,”
Says Muthuri Murungi,
a resident of Meru town
in Eastern Kenya.
Environmental
Non-Government
Organizations (NGO's),
led by Route to Foods,
are now pushing
a proposal in Kenya
to ban more than
200 pesticides
— including those
used against
desert locusts
and the
Fall Army Worm.
Route to Foods
was created
in Africa
in 2016 using
taxpayer funds
from the German
Green Party’s
Heinrich Boll
Foundation.
This organization
is advancing
all the ideas
fashionable
in Europe,
such as
organic food
mandates
and opposition
to modern crop
technologies
in the name of
“agroecology.”
These Europeans
want Africa
to give up the idea
of ever becoming
an advanced
world economy,
or ever even reaching
true food security.
They are racists !
The “agro-ecology” fad
is denying Africans
the modern technologies
used in countries
like the United States
and Brazil.
Another NGO,
the Kenyan Organic
Agricultural Network
(KOAN), sprouted from
European seed capital.
KOAN is promoting
bans of the pesticides
Kenya needs to address
food crises, but
conveniently excludes
organic farmers’
favorite pesticide,
copper sulfate,
which is highly toxic.
Copper, in its
various compounds,
is considered “natural”,
but accumulates
in the soil and is
a known carcinogen.
The EU
would have banned
the substances
long ago,
long ago,
except that
organic growers,
who dump them
on their fields
in large quantities,
couldn’t survive
without them.
Banning safer,
more efficient
modern pesticides,
like locust-fighting
fenitrothion, but
allowing copper,
is a way for
organic interests
to wipe out
the competition.
Meanwhile,
African farmers
are being
wiped out
by locusts !
Fact-free claims
by activist NGOs
are pushing political
agendas that are racist,
because they will
cut food production,
and hinder locust
destruction
Natural,
organic farming,
without pesticides,
( or GMOs ),
is being
promoted
for the
primarily black
African continent,
that can't afford
to import food.
This needs to be stopped.