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Saturday, July 9, 2016

Golden Rice - letter to the editor 9/7/2016


Big Business agriculture is using the "Golden Rice" story to try to change public opinion about the genetic engineering of food crops but it's a misleading story.

It's all about Vitamin A. We need Vitamin A to be healthy and we get it from fruits and vegetables.

In parts of the world where monocrop farming takes all of the land, leaving farmers no space for growing fruit and vegetables, people become Vitamin A deficient.

The solution, says the genetic engineering industry, is to grow their "Golden Rice" which has been genetically engineered to produce the vitamin.

How convenient and how lucrative for the industry.

The real solution is for farmers to be able, once again, to grow fruit and vegetables for their families, restoring their health and avoiding the need for genetically engineered crops.

The "Golden Rice" story is told to stir emotions in favour of the GE industry.

Robert Guyton
Riverton

6 comments:

Puriri Downs said...

Golden Rice is being developed in the Philippines for the people of the Philippines. Nowhere else. That big agribusinesses say otherwise is a part of the lie.

As is the fact that Golden Rice does not, after years of development at a cost of millions of dollars, produce sufficient volumes of rice to be an economic proposition for farmers.

As is the fact that the Philippines have themselves solved the Vitamin A deficiency problem using conventional agriculture. The people of the Philippines do not need Golden Rice. Only big Ag needs Golden Rice and that need has nothing to do with people's health or food needs.

Just like the Golden Rice lie, the story that only GMO crops will feed the world, is a lie.

robertguyton said...

Thanks, Puriri Downs; that's very useful for me.

Puriri Downs said...

That's a pleasure Robert, like it was hosting you for the Tree Crops conference in April.

But here is something else also very relevant, that popped up in my newsreader this morning. Why scientists' failure to understand GM opposition is stifling debate and halting progress.

One take-out - "Discussions about GM crops need honesty about the quality of the available scientific knowledge and the degree to which claimed benefits can be realised." The author is implying that the Nobel Laureates are not being honest, an observation I agree with.

robertguyton said...

Ah,my host! What an enjoyable time that was. Yes, the Laureates aspect is very suspect - they may be telling truth, but not all of them and not the whole of it, I reckon. Thanks also, for the link, I'll study that in preparation for my next letter and any response from Dr Rolleston, though he's been uncharacteristically coy about responding to my last three letters on the subject, despite his adversarial nature.

Bioneer said...


https://source.wustl.edu/2016/06/genetically-modified-golden-rice-falls-short-lifesaving-promises/

robertguyton said...

Cheers, bio.