US embassy cable - 05PRETORIA4696

UNCLAS PRETORIA 004696 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PD - TROOKARD; AF/S - MTABLER-STONE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, SF 
SUBJECT: RESULTS REPORT: EXPERTS REFUTE MEDIA SCEPTIC'S 
CLAIMS ON BIOTECHNOLOGY; MPP GOALS: EP-ECONOMIC 
PROSPERITY AND SECURITY 
 
 
1.  Activity: Four experts attending a USAID 
biotechnology conference answered local reporters' 
questions on genetically modified (GM) food at an Embassy- 
organized media roundtable on November 17. An article the 
following day in a leading South African daily indicated 
the roundtable succeeded in challenging the often one- 
sided, negative reporting on biotechnology found in much 
of the local media. 
 
2.  Four journalists participated in the roundtable, 
including a reporter for The Star newspaper (daily 
circulation nearly 175,000) whose previous articles on 
the subject provided an uncritical platform for activists 
opposed to the use of GM food. During the roundtable, the 
Star reporter raised several questions challenging the 
use of GM organisms as unsafe for consumers and 
uneconomic for farmers, but the panelists convincingly 
refuted the premise behind each question. Her article the 
following day, while hardly unbiased, nonetheless 
represented the first time this reporter had given 
significant voice to supporters of GM food. Embassy 
Pretoria views this as a development that underlines the 
importance of proactively engaging critics of U.S. policy 
- in this case of reporters who are skeptical that 
agricultural biotechnology is an important tool in the 
fight against hunger in Africa. 
 
3. Other journalists who attended represented the state- 
run radio broadcast corporation, South Africa's main 
Afrikaans-language daily and an English-language weekly 
for farmers. We expect feature reports from those 
journalists in the coming days/weeks. 
 
4. Results: Encouraging. Although the roundtable 
generated only one immediate article, the event provided 
an important forum for South African journalists who 
report on GM food to interview some of Africa's most 
prominent and eloquent supporters of biotechnology. What 
they learned at the roundtable should infuse their 
reporting in the future, and they will be able to turn to 
these expert panelists as sources when they write on the 
subject in the future. Already, one journalist who had 
been unremittingly critical of GM food has for the first 
time given voice to Africans who support U.S. efforts to 
invest in agricultural biotechnology to fight hunger. 
 
TEITELBAUM