…16 years and a lot of money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation later, and some progress has been made towards reducing global rates of vitamin A deficiency, but none of it thanks to golden rice. Proponents will say this is because an anti-science, anti-GMO community has stifled forward momentum by spreading unwarranted fear over the safety of genetically engineered food…
But there’s little evidence to suggest that anti-GMO sentiments have stalled the implementation of golden rice…
The fundamental problem with golden rice is not that people are afraid of GMOs, but that golden rice has yet to prove as economically viable as local varieties in the communities that would benefit from it…
…The project would surely have been abandoned for more straightforward vitamin A interventions long ago, if not for the fact that lots of people with lots of money and power have skin in the game…
Research and development of golden rice should continue… But let’s stop pretending that it’s a silver bullet that would change the lives of millions overnight if only anti-science quacks would get out of the way.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Can We Call Bill Gates’s Golden Rice Experiment a Failure Yet?