Golden Rice Falls at First Hurdle

white_golden_riceYet again GMO promoters have been caught lying about GM golden rice.
 
A new report has just been published by authors at the University of California which is being hyped in the media as exposing the “injustice” of denying GM golden rice to the poor, causing “the death of millions of children”.
 
The article says the University of California researchers blame “powerful forces that hide behind environmentalism” for an “international prohibition” on “producing golden rice”. The implication is that golden rice has long been available for use and that it is only GM opponents who stand in the way of its use.
 
But this “prohibition” is entirely imaginary. GM golden rice has not been submitted to regulators anywhere in the world, as it isn’t ready yet!
 
GMWatch has long pointed out that it isn’t anti-GM activists in the West, but basic research and development problems that mean GM golden rice still isn’t ready, even after swallowing millions in development funds and two decades’ worth of work.
 
And now it seems there is going to be a further delay in releasing GM golden rice.
 
The most recent news from the IRRI, which is overseeing the golden rice project, shows that golden rice doesn’t even pass muster in terms of the yields and agronomic performance necessary for farmers to adopt it. IRRI noted (see article below), “average yield [of GM golden rice] was unfortunately lower than that from comparable local varieties already preferred by farmers.”
 
And that’s just the first hurdle. The IRRI has also previously made clear that it still isn’t known whether golden rice is safe or even works: “It has not yet been determined whether daily consumption of Golden Rice does improve the vitamin A status of people who are vitamin A deficient and could therefore reduce related conditions such as night blindness.”
 
It is more than reprehensible that a product that doesn’t yet work in the field, hasn’t been proven safe, and may not even help people with malnutrition, is being promoted as a miracle cure that could already be saving millions. All this false promotion does is distract attention from the proven alternatives that are already effectively combating vitamin A deficiency in a country like the Philippines – the main target of the golden rice promoters.
 
It’s tempting to suggest that the University of California report may even be an attempt at damage control, to blind the world’s media to the ongoing fiasco that is GM golden rice.

Original article by Jonathan Matthews and Claire Robinson on GM Watch

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Source Article from http://fracturedparadigm.com/2014/09/05/golden-rice-falls-at-first-hurdle/

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