After 24 years of research and millions of dollars spent, GMO Golden Rice is still a failure and a pipedream. As the GMO industry seeks to expand its grip over the global food system, it has targeted developing countries and the problems they face in crop production. Drought and pest damage are two issues that Monsanto and its cohorts see as opportunities for unleashing their patented, genetically modified (GM) crops.
Nutrient deficiency is another problem in developing countries that GMO corporations insist should be addressed with their products. One high-profile example is vitamin A deficiency, which especially affects the Global South, increasing risks of infection, disease and other ailments such as blindness.Golden Rice was supposed to be the GMO industry’s great solution.
Biotech proponents have tried to blame their failure on activists however,a new study has found that GMO activists are not to blame for scientific challenges slowing the introduction of this genetically engineered rice that is claimed to be Vitamin A enhanced. Scientists can’t get the rice to perform in the real world. Just think about how many children could have been saved from vitamin A deficiency if those many millions of dollars had been spent, instead, on providing them with the Vitamin A rich foods that nature has given us.
[pullquote]how many children could have been saved from vitamin A deficiency if those many millions of dollars had been spent, instead, on providing them with the Vitamin A rich foods that nature has given us.[/pullquote]
First conceived in the 1980s and a focus of research since 1992, Golden Rice has been a lightning rod in the battle over genetically modified crops.
GMO advocates have long touted the innovation as a practical way to provide poor farmers in remote areas with a subsistence crop capable of adding much-needed Vitamin A to local diets. A problem in many poor countries,Vitamin A deficiencies leave millions at high risk for infection, diseases and other maladies, such as blindness.It is still unknown if the beta carotene in Golden Rice can even be converted to Vitamin A in the bodies of badly undernourished children. There also has been little research on how well the beta carotene in Golden Rice will hold up when stored for long periods between harvest seasons, or when cooked using traditional methods common in remote rural locations.
Some anti-GMO groups view Golden Rice as an over-hyped Trojan Horse that biotechnology corporations and their allies hope will pave the way for the global approval of other more profitable GMO crops.
Washington University anthropologist Glenn Stone,has studied rice cultivation and research in the Philippines since 2013.
“The rice simply has not been successful in test plots of the rice breeding institutes in the Philippines, where the leading research is being done,” Stone said. “It has not even been submitted for approval to the regulatory agency, the Philippine Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).”
“A few months ago, the Philippine Supreme Court did issue a temporary suspension of GMO crop trials,” Stone said. “Depending on how long it lasts, the suspension could definitely impact GMO crop development. But it’s hard to blame the lack of success with Golden Rice on this recent action.”
Europe has banned GMO foods .Africa should do the same.We will solve our own hunger problems. monsanto and bill gates should read the book ‘Dead Aid’ .
You are absolutely right ex-moma
The Sun orbits around the Earth, not the other way around. Galileo was wrong, just ask the Pope! And the Earth is flat too!
Wake up people, knowledge is power! Prejudice and ignorance has never helped people develop, just the opposite! It has condemned them to poverty and suffering.
What do you think chickens and maize are? The only difference here is the way we have modified their DNA.
@sheet – Where is your proof of the earth being flat. I know about the latest thing going around that the earth is flat. I mean the bedford canal experiment, the seemingly flat horizon on the sea and the curvature of the earth should be observed evry 6miles or so. By the way, it is not galileo who provided us with the heliocentric view of the solar system. it was capernicus, well atleast according to what is taught in schools.
Sheet, knowledge IS NOT power! It is the WISE application of knowledge that IS POWER!!! Just ask the Pope, too. He will tell you exactly why the chickens and maize, with modified DNA, have caused such health havoc in the world.
They will not give this to their people in developed countries but choose to use it in developing countries. This is to show you how they value their lives and no one else. They will use all the fancy terms or claim it saves lives, has nutritional supplements, cheap to grow etc. so why don’t they have it in their countries?Many citizens in developed countries are against this and in some stores GMO products are banned and if they are allowed by law it should state the product is GMO on the back of the product. Don’t let them come and abuse Africans!
Americans have been eating GMO maize and soybeans for over 20 years with no proven ill effects
The fact that Europe does not want GMO crops proves nobody has a monopoly on ignorance! And that their farmers have conducted a very good campaign of disinformation to stop American imports.
It is just too bad that people in developing countries have swallowed this propaganda hook, line and sinker! As they say, when elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.
I love this.
Disgusted observer, the fact that your Americans have been eating GMO maize and soyabeans for that long, in no way makes these foods fit for human consumption. By the way, your Americans are NOT a standard by which the whole world should measure itself! Have you asked yourself why obesity, to mention only one health scourge, is the order of the day in the US? Americans are no longer a standard bearer, in any which way!!!!
@Disgusted observer I remember in my ethics course this was one of our finals and a debate in class. It was very interesting how both sides presented their cases. I clearly remember the late President Mwanawasa was mentioned on how he did not want his people eating GMO’s and the reasons. There is a lot associated with this including health risks and how some GMO’s can take their own course by mutating. In Canada they are not welcome and the government has restrictions in labels and they have to be clearly and visible and not hidden.
@Disgusted observer here is something to look at. Hope it does not disgust you further.
wwwslideshare.net/P6P/m3u187a
wwwslideshare.net/P6P/l3t186a