Massive swarms
of locusts are
devouring crops,
setting the stage for
a humanitarian disaster.
The desert locust,
which the United Nations
Food and Agriculture
Organization ( FAO )
describes as ‘the most
destructive migratory pest
in the world,’ can fly
as far as 120 miles a day.
The FAO says that
locust swarms
now threaten food
security and livelihoods
in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia,
South Sudan, and Uganda
as well as the
Arabian Peninsula.
Kenya has been hit
especially hard.
Agricultural officials there
estimate that 1.2 million acres
of pasture and cropland
have already been destroyed.
The U.N. says more than
20 million people in East Africa
are facing food shortages.
The best way
to stop the locusts
is to spray insecticide
from the air.
Unfortunately, Kenya lacks
adequate supplies of the
most effective insecticide,
fenitrothion.
The radical environmental
movement seeks to ban
fenitrothion.
European Union-funded
nongovernmental
organizations in Kenya
have been petitioning
the Kenyan Parliament
to ban more than 250
registered agricultural
insecticides.
The chemicals the Greens
seek to ban are essential
for controlling locusts and
other common agricultural
pests, weeds and fungi.
Africa’s farmers face
other pests that reduce
their crop yields.
The fall armyworm,
a caterpillar native
to the Americas,
arrived in Africa
in 2016
and now affects
most of the continent.
The pest feeds on
many crops
but prefers corn,
a staple in many African
countries, and already
has reduced yields
by as much as 50%
in some countries.
In the Americas,
farmers manage
the fall armyworm
using a combination of
genetically modified
crops and insecticides.
In Africa, governments
ban most GM crops and
lack insecticide.
So African farmers
are almost defenseless.
The FAO’s
‘agro-ecology agenda’
also seeks to ban
modern pesticides!
The U.S. ambassador
to the FAO, Kip Tom,
is taking a lonely stand
against their racist
anti- pesticide agenda.