Greenpeace's Cruel War on Genetically Engineered Crops Grinds On

By Henry I. Miller, MS, MD and Kathleen Hefferon. They are with The American Council on Science and Health. Excerpts:

"Golden Rice varieties get their name from their color, which is imparted by the presence of beta-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A. Rice is a food staple for hundreds of millions, especially in Asia. Although it is an excellent source of calories, it lacks certain micronutrients necessary for a complete diet. In developing countries, 200 — 300 million children of preschool-age are at risk of vitamin A deficiency. That increases their susceptibility to infections such as measles and diarrheal diseases. Every year, about half a million children become blind because of VAD, and 70 percent of them die within a year of losing their sight."

"Greenpeace has ignored the broad and longstanding scientific consensus about the safety of genetically engineered crops, the result of thousands of risk-assessment experiments and extensive real-world experience. In the United States alone, more than 90 percent of all corn, soy, and sugar beets are genetically engineered, and in decades of consumption of trillions of servings of food from genetically engineered plants around the world, not a single health or environmental problem has been documented."

"feeding trials have shown the rice to be highly effective in preventing VAD [vitamin A deficiency], and toxicity is virtually impossible because the conversion of beta-carotene to vitamin A in the body is regulated and ceases when vitamin A levels in the blood rise above normal."

"In 2014, agricultural economists Justus Wesseler and David Zilberman calculated the impact of the delays in the regulatory approval of Golden Rice. They reported that the absence of Golden Rice caused the loss of about 1.4 million life-years over the previous decade in India alone.  A decade later, the toll has continued to mount."

"even when technologies introduce new risks, many confer far superior net benefits — that is, their use reduces many other, often far more serious, hazards. Examples include blood transfusions, organ transplants, and automobile airbags, all of which offer immense benefits and only minimal risk."