| Solae, a US-based soy ingredient company, last week | | | | committed to let the findings of this study |
| announced that it has commissioned a study to | | | | peer-reviewed and published in a respectable scientific |
| establish if soy products can be used to improve the | | | | journal. The argument that junk science will be used |
| health of HIV/AIDS sufferers in South Africa. | | | | to develop this drink is, therefore, null and void. |
| In collaboration with the World Initiative for Soy in | | | | Predictably, opponents of genetically modified foods |
| Human Health (WISHH), and the University of | | | | will be out in droves to condemn Solae for trying "to |
| Stellenbosch in South Africa, Solae aims to make soy | | | | force-feed Africans with genetically modified |
| protein-enhanced drinks for HIV/AIDS sufferers. | | | | Organisms (GMOs)." |
| This, inarguably, is an interesting venture, but the | | | | If such were to happen, anti-biotech activists will be |
| million-dollar question is, "Will politics derail it? | | | | the most absurd lot in the world. They will be laying |
| I pose this question because the soy Solae will use | | | | bare their hypocrisy and ignorance about genetic |
| to develop these drinks will be genetically modified. | | | | engineering. |
| About 90 per cent of soy grown in the U.S. is | | | | Anti-biotech activists have been shouting from the |
| genetically modified. | | | | rooftops that pharmaceutical companies lower the |
| South Africa, on the other hand, is steadily becoming | | | | prices of anti-retroviral drugs, themselves products of |
| a hub of genetically modified crops. According to the | | | | genetic engineering (GE). |
| latest report by the International Service for the | | | | If genetic engineering is such an unsafe and |
| Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), the | | | | unacceptable technology, why are anti-GE activists |
| bulk of soy currently being grown in South Africa is | | | | not condemning biotech companies that manufacture |
| genetically engineered. | | | | anti-retroviral drugs? |
| Already, there are whispers out there that this is just | | | | The envisaged soy protein-enhanced drink to manage |
| another conspiracy between the biotech industry and | | | | HIV/AIDS should be supported by all. It will be cheap |
| the academia to exploit the vulnerability of HIV/AIDS | | | | and readily available to many HIV/AIDS sufferers |
| sufferers in Africa to market genetically modified | | | | who can't afford anti-retroviral drugs since Solae |
| products. This is gross distortion of facts. | | | | plans to make it available in supermarkets and other |
| Solae and other collaborating partners have | | | | retail outlets. |