A campaign is set to be launched on March 16 in the country to allow golden rice for tackling Vitamin A deficiency in children.
This is part of the Allow Golden Rice Campaign Now, headed by co-founder of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore. The campaign for the golden rice was launched in the Philippines on March 6.
Oppositions ahead
But the campaign is set to be opposed by a group of 20 non-governmental organisations across the world under the banner of “Stop Golden Rice Alliance”.
The Alliance alleges that the campaign for launching the Vitamin A-enriched golden rice is a covert attempt to win wider approval for genetically modified food. “It (golden rice) will not solve the problems of malnutrition,” the alliance said in a statement.
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According to the Alliance, Vitamin A deficiency, like other problems of malnutrition and hunger, is not caused by the lack of the vitamin in food, but by people’s inability to achieve a balanced diet.
But Moore, in a statement in Dhaka on Wednesday, said: “Golden rice is the obvious cure, but because it was created with genetic science, Greenpeace and the anti-GMO movement fervently oppose it. No country has approved it for cultivation.
“If golden rice was a cure for a disease like malaria, cancer, or ebola it would have been approved years ago,” said Moore, who quit Greenpeace in 1986 saying the organisation did not care about people and it was more worried about politics than science.
Read full, original article: Row over campaign to launch golden rice
