“We strongly object that the image
of the poor and hungry from our countries
is being used by giant multinational
corporations to push a technology that is
neither safe, environmentally friendly nor
economically beneficial to us. We do not
believe that such companies or gene
technologies will help our farmers to
produce the food that is needed in the 21st
century. On the contrary, we think it will
destroy the diversity, the local knowledge
and the sustainable agricultural systems
that our farmers have developed for
millennia, and that it will thus undermine
our capacity to feed ourselves.”
Statement signed by 24 delegates from
18 African countries to the United Nations
Food and Agricultural Organization.
“If anyone tells you that GM is
going to feed the world, tell them that it
is not. To feed the world takes political
and financial will – it's not about
production and distribution.”
Steve Smith, head of Novartis
Seeds.
“The public relations uses of Golden
Rice have gone too far. The industry's
advertisements and the media in general
seem to forget that it is a research
product that needs considerable further
development before it will be available to
farmers and consumers.”
Gordon Conway, President of the
Rockefeller Foundation, the chief funder of
the Golden Rice project.
In light of the deluge of controversy,
consumer rejection and increasing
opposition to GM crops, biotech companies
needed to gain public support. “Golden
rice” seemed to be the perfect tool to
convince global leaders and the public that
GM crops were indispensable for feeding the
world and overcoming malnutrition in
developing countries.
In 1999, Swiss and German scientists
announced the development of a “golden
rice” genetically engineered to produce
betacarotene, a substance which the body
can convert to Vitamin A. The new rice was
quickly heralded as a miracle cure for
Vitamin A deficiency (VAD), a severe
condition afflicting millions of people in
developing countries, especially children
and pregnant women. At first glance, golden
rice appeared to be a godsend. But a closer
look reveals a tarnished truth.
eating mountains of
rice
Golden rice will likely do little to
ameliorate VAD because it produces so
little betacarotene – just 1.6 micrograms
per gram of rice (µg/g) at present, with a
goal of 2.0 µg/g. Even if scientists reach
this goal, a woman would need to eat 16
pounds (7.25 kilograms) of cooked rice
every day in order to obtain sufficient
Vitamin A, if golden rice were her only
source of the nutrient. A child would need
12 pounds (5.44 kilograms). From a more
practical perspective, three half-pound
(.22 kilogram) servings of cooked golden
rice per day would provide only 10 percent
of her daily Vitamin A requirement, and
less than 6 percent if she were
breastfeeding. Yet even these modest
contributions are uncertain. In order to
absorb beta-carotene, the human body
requires adequate amounts of zinc, protein
and fats, elements often lacking in the
diets of poor people. Those with diarrhea –
common in developing countries – are also
unable to obtain Vitamin A from golden
rice.
“A single nutrient approach towards
a nutrition-related public health problem
is usually […] neither feasible nor
desirable.”
John R. Lupien, Director, Food and
Nutrition Division, Food and Agricultural
Organization, United Nations.
Nutrition experts thus confirm what
common sense tells us – a balanced, diverse
diet supplying a full range of foods and
nutrients is the only sound way to promote
health and prevent VAD and other
nutritional deficiencies. A preschool
child's daily requirement of Vitamin A can
be met with just two tablespoons of yellow
sweet potatoes, half a cup of dark green
leafy vegetables, or two-thirds of a
medium-sized mango. And unlike golden rice,
these vegetables supply other
micronutrients as well and are available in
many developing countries where people are
affected by VAD.
gm food unfit to feed the
world
“
Seeking a technological food fix
for world hunger may be […] the most
commercially malevolent wild goose
chase of the new century.”
Dr Richard Horton, Editor of the
scientific magazine The Lancet,
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3122923.stm
.
“Biotechnology and GM crops are
taking us down a dangerous road,
creating the classic conditions for
hunger, poverty and even famine.
Ownership and control concentrated in
too few hands and a food supply based
on too few varieties of crops planted
widely are the worst option for food
security.”
Statement by the international relief
organization Christian Aid.
“There are still hungry people in
Ethiopia, but they are hungry because
they have no money, no longer because
there is no food to buy. […] We
strongly resent the abuse of our
poverty to sway the interests of the
European public.”
Ethiopian Tewolde Berhan Gebre
Egziabher, who runs the Ethiopian
environmental protection authority.
“It is only too obvious to
concerned scientists, farmers and
citizens alike that we are about to
repeat, step by step, the mistakes of
the insecticide era, even before it is
behind us. I would even argue that
these new miracle technologies are
mostly not necessary, let alone
desirable, to solve the world's food
security problem.”
Hans R. Herren, Director General, The
International Center of Insect
Physiology and Ecology, Kenya; winner
of the 1995 World Food Prize. |
source:
www.foe.org/camps/comm/safefood/gefood/factsheets/ricefacts.html
more information:
genetic resources action international
(grain):
www.grain.org
Greenpeace:
www.greenpeace.org
