It's sometime amusing to watch and listen anti-biotech activists moralize about food issues. They purport to be God-anointed custodians of our health. It's like we're so naïve to take care of ourselves and that we are handicapped in deciding which food is healthy for us.

Who can really entrust his/her health to activists? I pose this question out of reports that Michael Hansen, an avowed critic of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), is in South Africa drumming up support for the labeling of genetically modified food.

For starters, Mr. Hansen works for the U.S.-based Consumer Policy Institute, a division of Consumer Union, a fervent opponent of genetically modified food.

The Consumer Policy Institute, after failing to prevail upon the U.S. government to demand that all GMOs products be labeled is now shifting its spotlight on poor countries that are struggling to embrace modern agricultural biotechnology.

South Africa, which has made tremendous progress in genetic modification, is one of the countries the Consumer Policy Institute, through Mr. Hansen, is spotlighting on.

Mr. Hansen is demanding that manufacturers label GMOs products in all South African supermarkets "…so that consumers can decide for themselves whether they want to buy them or not because firms are being given free rein to carry out whatever genetic experimentation they want to without fear of any response from the public."

Africa doesn't need the likes of Mr. Hansen to preach to it about food issues. Perhaps, he and his sponsors should redirect the millions of dollars they are spending on food label campaigns to expedite the transfer of modern agricultural biotechnology from developed nations to poor countries.

Africa's food problems are unique and would not be solved through the activism of Mr. Hansen and others like him. Tangible efforts aimed at alleviating chronic food shortages are what Africa now needs. Africa needs agricultural technologies that have revolutionized the economies of rich countries. Africa wants to stop relying on rich countries for food handouts.

It is irresponsible on the part of Mr. Hansen and his ilk to claim GM food must carry labels because biotech firms behave irresponsibly in the conduct of their scientific work.

Mr. Hansen is a well-educated and informed American, and he knows pretty well that biotech companies work under stringent regulatory rules. He is alive to the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would not tolerate biotech firms that don't adhere to established rules of scientific research.

And then there is the U.S National Academies of Sciences that enforces code of conduct in clinical trials. Biotech-related research, just like any other scientific enquiry is subject to laid-down scientific ethics. Biotech companies adhere to these ethics.

GMOs have proved beneficial to farmers in countries where they are cultivated. It's Africa's turn to cultivate and trade in GMOs without inhibitions.