It’s time to fight back against those who advocate THEIR values, and do US harm.
[Via Big Think]
By 2002, Golden Rice was technically ready to go. Animal testing had found no health risks. Syngenta, which had figured out how to insert the Vitamin A-producing gene from carrots into rice, had handed all financial interests over to a non-profit organization, so there would be no resistance to the life-saving technology from GMO opponents who resist genetic modification because big biotech companies profit from it. Except for the regulatory approval process, Golden Rice was ready to start saving millions of lives and preventing tens of millions of cases of blindness in people around the world who suffer from Vitamin A deficiency.
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The GMO that have been developed to help the Big Ag companies, usually with little consideration for customers (ie Roundup resistant GMO sold by the companies that make Roundup), are one tool.
And the GMO that have been developed to provide people with requited nutritional needs (such as Golden Rice) are another.
The former needs to be pushed back hard against. Not so much the latter. As shown here, we can quantitate the effective loss of life and livelihood due to the conflation of Golden Rice with Roundup Ready crops.
One mainly makes money for Monsanto. The other saves human lives. Such a shame that the inability of some to distinguish the two tools will continue to cost the lives on many people.
With statistics one can ‘quantify’ anything one wants to. The nutrient ‘information’ provided by a argi-business to make money does not necessarily relate to real world applications. Improving agricultural methodologies in developing countries would provide a greater benefit than any GMO money making scheme. Improving diets in developed countries would have a similar benefit. The fact that one has a gun and can shoot oneself in the foot does not mean it is the smartest thing to do. GMO is only a money making scheme and not a benefit to society in any way, they even have was not to pay any taxes on the money the make.
You may have good reason to be so anti-corporation with respect to some GMO. But that ideology seems to not have a place for a novel food that provides Vitamin A at levels equal to supplements and better than other natural sources. The lack of necessary vitamin A kills over 500,000 children a year. Improving agricultural routines will not provide higher levels of vitamin A.