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BASMATI rice is treasured around the world for
its blessed characteristics of long slender grains that elongate twice of their
original size with fluffy texture upon cooking, delicious taste, superior aroma
(due to predominantly presence of a chemical, 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline) and unique
flavor. The distinctive qualities are due to a complex combination of factors
including its inherent genetic characteristics, the environmental conditions
specific to the soil, climate and the growing practices that farmers developed
over the centuries. Consequently, there has been limited success to cultivate
basmati rice outside the Sub continent because of varying
geographically-specific conditions. Fortunately, the “Kalar Tract”-the area
between two rivers- Chenab and Sutluj is known as the native area of the
basmati rice.
Over the last several years, basmati rice acreage and its production has continuously
been declining. For instance, during 2008-09, the basmati crop was cultivated
on 4.19 million acres (mac). In the following year-2009-10, area was declined
to 3.80 mac and again, in the following year 2010-11, the area was reduced to
3.48 mac. Last year, 2015-16, basmati was only cultivated on 3.11 mac-almost
26% decline over the area during 2008-09. This decline shows a lack of farmers’
interest and can be attributed to several factors. The growers have to bear a
negative return due to low basmati paddy yield; high cost of production and low
prices. The Federal government did not fulfill its promise for compensation
package of Rs. 5,000 per acre, and the farmers have been left alone to suffer
the brunt, both of a reduction in yields and price.
Where would this decline stop? With basmati on
a decline, would Pakistan be able to sustain its rice export? Most probably it
would not.“Super basmati rice variety”, being the most sought after variety in
the Basmati Group, was released about two decades back in 1996 and is still
popular among the farmers, consumers, and traders or exporters. Although, two
more basmati varieties namely “Basmati 2000” and “basmati 515” were released
during 2001 and 2011, respectively but, both the varieties could not beat or completely
replace the “Super Basmati” variety in the field. The average paddy yield at
farm level is much lower than its potential yield. The key issues are low plant
density, labour shortage, water scarcity, and pests and diseases. Conventional
method of manually rice transplanting, unbalanced use of fertilizers,
Continuous practicing of cereal-cereal cropping system, use of old harvesters
designed for wheat, and lack of storage facilities further add up to the
problems.
Thus, high cost of basmati production combined with low paddy prices has
compelled the growers to shift to other short-duration, high-yielding
non-basmati varieties such as Pusa 1121 (Indian variety), and 386. Both the
varieties were banned and their cultivation was illegal, few years back.
Recently, Pusa 1121 (formerly known as “Kainaat) and 386 have been approved by
the Punjab Agriculture Department with the names of PS-II and 386. Both the
varieties provide an opportunity for either growing a third crop (such as green
peas) or sufficient turnaround period for land preparation and timely sowing of
wheat crop. PS-II variety, due to extra-long kernel, is popularly used as
parboil rice. On the other hands, maturity of the basmati varieties coincides
with optimum wheat sowing period, hence causing delayed wheat sowing and
declined wheat yield. It means farmers have to suffer multiple consequences, if
they opt to grow basmati rice varieties.
Furthermore, the basmati varieties are highly susceptible to all insect pests
and diseases. For the last six years, the RRI, Kala Shah Kaku in collaboration
with other national institutions has been working to develop the BLB (Bacterial
Leaf Blight) resistant basmati varieties but no success reported yet.The
Provincial research institutions are required to revisit their priorities and
focus on basmati varietal improvement and cost-effective technologies on water,
labour, fertilizer and pesticides uses. The innovative resource-conserving
technologies such as direct seeding of rice and alternative wetting & drying
need to be scaled up. Another area requiring intervention is to bring
improvement in the harvesting system of basmati rice crop. Use of old
wheat-combines, without proper adjustment, results into admixture of green
trash and broken grains and losses of grains up to 5-10%. Mechanical harvesting
of rice crop at high moisture level, untimely and poor drying and processing of
paddy cause development of mycotoxins in the rice grains.
That is
why Pakistan’s rice consignments are rejected or fetched lower prices than
those offered to our competitors such as India. The question now arises, what
benefit growers receive when the crop is high? The answer is nothing. The
Arthies/middlemen start a waiting game for picking up the produce and force the
farmers to sell at the price dictated by the market.It is necessary that the
government takes crucial steps to regulate the market instead of letting it
being manipulated by few players under the visage of free market forces. In
2008, the federal government tried to impose a Minimum Export Price (MEP), but
within four months it had bowed to pressure from the exporters and abolished
the MEP. The REAP-an official body of the Rice Exporters, blames to the
government for continuously neglecting the basmati crop and demand that RRI,
Kala Shah Kaku should work on basmati varietal improvement (as its major
mandate), increasing the input-utilization efficiencies, and improving paddy
yield and quality. But, on its part, REAP has not played its pivotal role in
averting the present scenario confronting to basmati production and market
system.
Public-private partnership in rice R&D is also required. We have sufficient
level of know-how available within our research institutions which can be
commercialized, provided a framework to reward innovation exists. The private
sector may set up a special fund for capacity building of the young scientists,
sending them abroad for short and long-term trainings, granting the best
scientist awards, and fixing a certain quota for induction of the retired rice
scientists in the rice industry. The Agricultural Extension Department has to
play its role for providing technical guidance to the farmers, using modern and
innovative tools such as farmers’ field schools, demo plots, and village-level
trainings.—The author is a Principal Scientific Officer (PSO) and Ex-National
Coordinator for Rice at Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad
I have
been craving briyani the past month - partly because the well-loved Bismillah
Biryani shop in Dunlop Street and one-north was recognised with the Bib
Gourmand award in the Michelin Singapore Guide. The
craving increased after I read a recent article by the BBC on the evolution of
briyani, from its likely origins in Persia (modern-day Iran) to the different
varieties in countries such as India and Bangladesh. Then I
stumble on Peshawar Briyani House, a week-old stall in Taman Jurong Food
Centre, which serves a Pakistani variant of the moreish rice dish.
The stall is co-owned by Mr Ahmed Khan, 36, who is taking his Pakistan-born
wife's briyani out of their home kitchen. Her family comes from Peshawar, a
city in northern Pakistan that the stall is named after.
PESHAWAR BRIYANI HOUSE
•3
Yung Sheng Road, Taman Jurong Food Centre, 02-114; open: 10am to 2pm (Tuesday
to Thursday), 10am to 4pm (Friday), 10am to 2pm (weekend), closed on Monday
Rating: 4/5 stars
There are at least three other stalls in the
hawker centre that serve briyani, but the Pakistani version stands out because
the basmati rice has a spicier kick and comes with raita (yogurt sauce) instead
of achar.
Choose from two types of briyani on the menu -
chicken ($5) or mutton ($6). The chicken briyani has a heap of saffron-hued
rice that is perfumed by seven spices including cloves, garam masala and chilli
powder, and flecked with coriander, tomato skin and onions.
The main difference lies in the chicken.
Instead of being clogged with curry, it is
infused with briyani spices from being cooked in the rice and served separately
from the curry.
Though not too juicy, the tender meat is a foil
for the aromatic rice to shine through.
To douse the heat, I gingerly alternate each
spoonful of rice with raita, which has diced onions, cucumber and cumin. The
sour tanginess of the yogurt sauce is a good palate cleanser.
The rice is also cooked with meltingly soft
mutton, like in a dum briyani. Each spoonful is a robust eruption of spices.
A hidden gem is the prawn briyani ($7), which
is seldom served in hawker stalls. It is available on Fridays and public
holidays and is not on the menu.The spice level of the rice is toned down to
highlight the sweetness of the three succulent sea prawns.I usually zero in on
the addictive papadum crackers first on my plate of briyani, but with such
beautifully cooked rice and meat, I almost forget to pop them into my mouth.
An effective way to address population-wide
nutrient deficiency is to fortify wheat.— Photo: Reuters
Mahatma
Gandhi was always advocating us to eat hand pound rice and hand ground wheat
rather than eating polished rice. Yet we continue using machine-polished
cereals because they can be stored longer. But machine-polishing removes the
bran (surrounding the seed) containing the pericarp and the ‘aleurone layer’
which have small amounts of essential nutrients such as some vitamins, iron,
zinc and other inorganic components.This leads to “hidden hunger.” You may eat
stomach full every day and yet miss out on micro-nutrients, which are essential
for growth. UN agencies estimate that hidden hunger affects one in every three
children across the world, leading to deficiency in physical growth and
development of the brain. Children missing out on vitamin A suffer from vision
problems. Missing out on iron leads to blood disorders while deficiency in zinc
retards growth, causes diarrhoea, hair loss, lack of appetite and other health
issues.
A programme in India, started in the 1970s by
Dr. Ramalingaswami of ICMR, administering large amounts (megadose) of Vitamin A
every six months to children, has been found serving in helping them come out
of “night blindness.” This is because a derivative of Vitamin A is essential in
the retina of the eye in harvesting light and converting it into electrical
signals which aid the process of vision.Dr. Maharaj Kishan Bhan, earlier Secretary
of the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India in New Delhi, has
come out with a salt mixture containing some of the micronutrients including
zinc and iron, to be given to children suffering from diarrhoea and
dehydration. The results are strikingly positive; with micronutrient
supplementation, particularly zinc, in young children with acute diarrhoea was
found to be useful. Why is zinc so important to the body? This is because over
300 enzymes in our body use zinc as an essential component in their action.
Zinc supports our immune system, in synthesising (and degrading) DNA, in wound
healing and several other activities. And the amount of zinc we need is not
very much. In a human body of, say, 70 kg, there is but 2 to 3 grams of zinc. But
if the level falls down to below normal, growth is retarded, diarrhoea sets in,
eye and skin lesions appear, and appetite is lost. Thus, addition of zinc in
the daily diet becomes essential.
While downing tablets containing vitamins and
some of these minerals is fine, this is no solution to billions of children,
largely in the developing world. But what if, rather than supplementing these
micro-nutrients separately, they become part and parcel of the rice, wheat and
other cereals we eat daily? Are there rice or wheat plants which are inherently
rich in some of these micronutrients? Can they be grown, cross-bred or
hybridised with other conventional rice or wheat plants? This has been the
dream of agricultural scientists across the country, and the group led by Dr
Vemuri Ravindra Babu of the Institute of Rice Research (at Hyderabad has
succeeded in doing so. A particular variety, termed DRR Dhan 45 (also termed
IET 23832) is a zinc- rich rice plant developed by this group. It contains as
much as 22.18 parts per million of zinc (the highest so far in released rice
varieties) It is also moderately resistant to pests that kill rice plant by
causing the leaf blast disease.
The recent Nobel laureates’ letter
accusing Greenpeace of a “crime against humanity” for opposing genetically
modified (GMO) golden rice reveals a deep division not only between civil
societies and some science circles but also within the science community – a
division in the visions for our common future and which path to take for our
joint development. A division we see growing and escalating, write Angelika
Hilbeck and Hans Herren. A strong
indication of this division is that among the Nobel laureate signatories, there
seems to be hardly anybody with a solid scientific track record in agriculture,
food production, development, or the socio-ecological and political causes of
poverty and hunger. Others with notable competence – at least in the economic and
social domains of development, poverty, and hunger – are not among the
signatories. Signs of escalation also include the emotional, accusing language
in the letter and the ample use of scientifically unsubstantiated claims. What
is missing in the letter and among the supporters and developers of GMOs is the
recognition and scientific analysis of some tough facts.
Fact no. 1: Still no functioning vitamin A rice
despite unlimited resources
No
functioning vitamin A rice has been produced in over 20 years of research. This
is despite full support at every level: financial, institutional, political,
and corporate. By ‘functioning’, we mean farmer’s rice varieties that reliably
and stably express sufficient amounts of beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A, the
precursor of Vitamin A) over many generations of seed saving. These seeds must
continuously express beta-carotene at a level that has been documented to be
efficiently convertible to Vitamin A in mammals and, most importantly, can
(statistically) significantly relieve the symptoms of Vitamin A deficiency in
hungry people. None of this is scientifically trivial but that’s what has been
promised.
Rice farming
The
first golden rice, GR1, was unsuccessful and is long gone. Golden
rice 2 (GR2) is a patented pro-vitamin
A GM rice developed from scratch by
the multinational biotech firm Syngenta and still in the
field trial stage at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at least
one decade after its creation.The vast majority of scientists in the world will
never see such comprehensively generous support for their research – yet they
still deliver, and must deliver if they ever want to renew funding for their
research. This is more than can be said for the golden rice project.
Fact no. 2: Lack of recognition of real reasons
for failure to deliver
A quick evidencecheck
is sufficient to reveal the simple reason why golden rice is not in farmer’s
fields: it is still not ready because it is not performing agronomically.
Furthermore, it is far from being medically documented to relieve symptoms of
Vitamin A deficiency. Neither Greenpeace nor the destruction of a test plot in
the Philippines by local activists can be held responsible for this lack of
scientific achievement.
Fact no. 3: Questionable conceptual
underpinning
Leaving
aside its scientific aspects, the very concept of golden rice – and all other
similar conceptual approaches as solutions to malnourishment – remain doomed
from the start as similar approaches have failed repeatedly. The problem lies
in the underlying reductionist (disembedded) approach. Combating hunger and
malnutrition one vitamin and mineral at a time is a failed ideology, no matter
which vitamin or mineral one starts with and which kind of delivery system one
chooses. Malnourished people do not suffer from single-vitamin-deficiencies
added up. They suffer from hunger, as in ‘lack of food’. This is compounded by
poverty and a myriad of contributing factors working simultaneously together.
That means they lack regular access to real foods containing the necessary
variety of ALL essential nutrients, which, in conjunction, make up a healthy
diet. These
contributing factors differ according to culture, place and time. There exists
a huge amount of research and analyses to read for anybody who cares about the
real causes of hunger and the real solutions (we list some old and new
references at the end – or just check out the United Nations World Food
Programme website.
For the golden rice project, we recommend for starters, the recent analysis by Stone and Glover
who locate its failure in its ‘disembeddedness’ and ‘placelessness’. Consequently,
hunger and malnutrition with its complex, ‘place-based’ causes cannot be
battled by a uniform, de-contextualized and placeless one-vitamin-at-a-time
approach which is what GMO golden rice has to offer. This
reductionistic approach to hunger is matched by similar reductionism in the
genetic engineering world where organisms are viewed as the sum of their genes
and proteins. Genes are added one at a time as blueprint construction
instructions for lego-like products and many more projects of this kind are
underway, e.g. vitamin A banana and cassava, or iron-fortified cassava, or
whatever lies within their technical reach. Stone and Glover describe this as “a
preoccupation with the molecular scale” that “favors
a form of reductionist thinking that conceives of traits of interest as being
governed primarily by genetics rather than through interactions with the
environment or management” (Stone and
Glover 2016). Supplying
vitamin A or any other nutrient in isolation only works for a transitional
period of time, curing a symptom at best, while work progresses on the
underlying place-based causes of hunger – lack of access to food, money,
education and secure living conditions. Under those circumstances, as in parts
of the Philippines, cheap vitamin A pills do the job much better, in a more
targeted, controlled, and effective way than any patented GM crop could ever
do.
Fact no. 4: A missing roll-out plan
But even
if the golden rice researchers do eventually manage to get some GM pro-Vitamin
A rice varieties to perform agronomically, there seems to be no roll-out plan
to ensure that it gets to those who need it. Those reasons have nothing to do
with regulations and everything to do with logistics, institutions and finances. Will the
golden rice developers truck their harvest into the urban slums and remote
rural areas of Asia or Africa, or at least the Philippines, every day? Will
they bring with them also the fat that malnourished people need to eat along
with the rice to ensure they absorb the beta-carotene and convert it to vitamin
A? And if they can do that, why aren’t they bringing existing foods into those
areas already? Why wait until a patented GM food is ready for delivery? There
is no shortage of vitamin-rich foods on this planet and beta-carotene is one of
the commonest molecules in nature. Frequently,
vitamin A-rich food exists in abundance and rots in storage or under trees not
that far away from the places where people suffer from malnutrition. An
alternative already in the field is, for example, a non-GMO orange sweet
potato, a root crop compatible with improved crop rotations whose developers
have been awarded the 2016 World Food Prize. Without a massive and expensive
roll-out plan, golden rice will not even leave the field station of the
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which is overseeing the golden
rice project.
Epic endeavour
If their
plan is to cross the pro-vitamin A trait into the rice varieties that farmers
grow in hunger-stricken areas, they face an uphill logistic, financial,
scientific and institutional battle. How will they get the transgenic trait
reliably expressed in all of these varieties at the necessary concentrations
over many generations of rice plantings and seed recycling? Who will pay for
this epic endeavour? If they
decide instead to only put the pro-vitamin A trait into a handful of, say, IRRI
rice varieties (which we believe is the most likely plan – if there is a plan
in the first place), many will fail because they will not perform in different
local conditions and they typically require fertilizers and pesticides. If the
plan is to switch farmers to growing a handful of patented biofortified
varieties all over Asia and Africa, how will this be implemented? Who will
deliver the seeds and accompanying chemicals to farmers – year after year,
everywhere where it’s needed, for free? And is this a sustainable solution? And what
will happen to the thousands of existing ecologically and culturally well
adapted varieties? The genetic diversity of crops and animals is our
life-support system. Furthermore,
have they asked the rice producers and consumers of Asia and Africa if they
want many of their rice varieties to be yellow forever – even in times when the
food shortages and nutrition deficiencies are over?
Unresolved patent and ownership issues
According
to the website www.goldenrice.org.,
a resource-poor farmer will be allowed to grow golden rice without license fees
as long as his/her income is less than $10,000 per year. But, in practice, who
decides which farmers are eligible? Who decides which income limit is
appropriate in what country or region, and who enforces it on what authority
and criteria? What about those farmers whose incomes exceed $10,000 per year?
Who will decide when to collect fees, from whom, and for how long? How will the
finances be arranged between Syngenta, which owns GR2, the seed multipliers and
distributors, and the government? And if all this can be settled with Syngenta
– how about the next-in-line patented, biofortified GM crops? In case of
dispute, will there be free access to lawyers for the resource-poor farmers? In their
weekly column Schaffer and Ray (2016)
reported about a meeting with an employee of the US State Department and
discussing the benefits of GM crops for farmers and consumers in the Global
South and whether or not farmers would have to pay a technology fee and purchase,
for example, the golden rice seed each year. The State Department
representative stated that the companies that own the patents would be willing
to make the golden rice (or virus-resistant cassava) available at no cost
provided that the countries adopted US patent regimes to protect other GM
crops. From a policy perspective, such a ‘humanitarian’ license agreement would
thereby present a highly profitable transaction, a means to ‘encourage’
developing countries that often do not even have patent laws of their own to
accept the US patent regime and so ensure the profits of US companies and
patent holders in perpetuity. In corporate agriculture it seems, nothing is
really for free. These
are just a few of the tough questions that have never been addressed or even
acknowledged by promoters of golden rice or any other such projects. Shooting
genes into nuclei and getting a few varieties to express a transgene is the
easy part – although even that has proved elusive so far for GR2.
Fact 5: Colonial mindset
Blaming
Greenpeace for the failure of not only golden rice but other patented products
of genetic engineering has been an irrational (or maybe calculated) obsession
of some proponents and developers since the discussion began decades ago. Yet,
it also reveals more subtle issues. Farmers and indigenous people are outraged
when gene technology proponents accuse them of being instructed or manipulated
by big Western NGOs like Greenpeace. They say that
promoters of golden rice and other techno-solutions offered by developed
countries rarely ask for or listen to their views and, thereby, reveal their
lack of respect and comprehension. This
attitude towards peasant farmers and indigenous peoples is typical of the still
prevailing colonial, Western mindset – hidden or open. It assumes that the
peasant farmers are ignorant people without the relevant knowledge entitling
them to make informed decisions based on their own values and visions for their
future. Sadly, the letter signed by Nobel laureates appears to be a
continuation of this way of thinking. It reveals an attitude of supremacy over,
and disrespect for, traditional and indigenous knowledge and peoples who want
to have a say in their lives and communities and which path to take to
‘development’
The Ministry of Commerce Rice is harvested from
a field using a small harvest machine in Tbong Khmum province earlier this
year. Heng
Chivoan
set up a new taskforce on Friday to address challenges faced by
the Kingdom’s struggling rice industry and assess demands made by members of
the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), who have decried the ineffectiveness of an
earlier taskforce set up by the ministry. Moul
Sarith, CRF secretary, said the new taskforce will comprise 13 members from the
Ministry of Commerce and 11 members from the CRF. The ad hoc working group will
seek to address six separate points brought forward by CRF President Sok
Puthyvuth during a meeting with Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak on Friday. One of
the key demands by the CRF is to obtain shared responsibility with the Minister
of Commerce to attribute Certificate of Origin status to rice exporters. “We want
the right to check and approve the certificate of origin of any rice exporter
in order to strengthen and control rice quality and prevent false product
labelling,” Sarith said. “And as we are working to promote the rice sector, we
wish to have a substantial role in the interactions that take place between the
Chinese rice association and Cambodia.” Former
minister of commerce Sun Chantol created the first taskforce last March
to study threats to the sustainability of the country’s rice industry. Its
goals at the time were to formulate urgent measures aimed at stemming the flood
of illegal rice imports and facilitating the offer of $20-$30 million in soft
loans to struggling rice millers. However,
the new taskforce will not replace the previous one, but rather address
separate issues, according to Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Soeng Sophary. “The
work of the new taskforce is to address the six points raised by the CRF and it
will only exist temporarily to resolve these new emergencies,” she said. “The
previous taskforce was created to solve the issues faced by the sector as a
whole and will continue working as normal.” Tang
Chhong Ngy, marketing manager of rice miller LBN Angkor (Kampuchea), said the
first taskforce had been highly ineffective and the second working group was
created after the same issues were raised again by the CRF. “We saw
many procedures at the national level but none that actually went into operation,”
he said
The Ministry of Commerce and the Cambodia Rice
Federation (CRF) on Friday set up a joint working group to provide immediate
relief to the Kingdom’s beleaguered rice sector, where rice millers are
currently struggling to stay afloat in a market flooded by cheap imports from
Vietnam.According to a Ministry of Commerce press release on Friday, the joint
working group will comprise experts from the ministry and CRF with a mandate to
seek “immediate solutions” and work with the Kingdom’s development partners, to
help Cambodia’s ailing rice sector.
“Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak agreed to the
formation of this joint working group and from this week, the group will begin
its important work,” said Soeng Sophary, the Commerce Ministry’s spokesperson.
The specter of insolvency looms large over the
businesses of rice millers in Cambodia as they struggle to recover from the
aftereffects of a severe drought. To make matters worse, they are also facing
stiff competition from low-grade rice flowing into the country from Vietnam.In
March, rice millers and exporters wrote to the government urging intervention
due to stiff competition in export markets as well as domestic ones. In the
letter, they said they were facing a cash crunch due to a flood of low-grade
rice from Vietnam while stressing that bankruptcy was widespread among farmers,
millers and exporters alike.
The letter said Vietnamese companies were
snapping up high-quality Cambodian paddy for export from Vietnam and flooding
the Cambodian market with low-grade rice. This, the letter said, was driving
domestic millers out of the market.The working group will discuss all issues
troubling the rice sector,” said Sok Puthy Vuth, the president of CRF.“The
issues would also include an independent monitoring of milled rice exports, the
trademark registration of Malis [fragrant] rice and the use of the word ‘Tonle
Sap’ to geographically indicate Cambodia’s milled rice,” said Mr. Vuth.
Mr. Vuth said the working group would also
follow up on the application for a $300 million loan from the Chinese
government, to build large silos to store rice for milling.The CRF has been
urging the government to build silos for storing paddy rice in order to boost
rice exports and the $300 million loan was to build 10 large silos, which could
store a total of 1.2 million tons of paddy rice to ensure both millers and
exporters had a continuous supply of the commodity.Aun Pornmoniroth, Economy
and Finance Minister, said in a meeting with CRF in late June that Cambodia
would not totally stop importing rice from neighboring countries, including
Vietnam. However, he said the government planned to reduce the export duty of
milled rice.According data from Ministry of Agriculture, Cambodia’s rice
exports fell about six percent from 283,825 tons in the first six months of
last year to about 268,190 tons in same period this year
More
than 100 Nobel-winning scientists have hit back at campaigners like Greenpeace,
claiming the new advances will help fight world hunger
Getty
Golden Rice could help fight
vitamin A deficiency and related diseases
Genetically
modified food is back under the spotlight and I
have to admit, I’ve never been against it. Nature itself changes the genes in
plants to produce “natural” GM foods. Plus, explosive increases in the world’s
population means such advances are needed to fight famine.Now 109 eminent Nobel
laureates have told us to stop GMO-bashing too.They have posted a letter online
saying: “ Greenpeace has spearheaded opposition to
Golden Rice, which has the potential to reduce or eliminate much of the death
and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency, which has the greatest impact on
the poorest people in Africa and southeast Asia.” How can
anyone fly in the face of preventing starvation? Not me. I agree
with the proponents of genetically modified foods such as Golden Rice, which
contains genes from corn and a bacterium, when they argue they’re a source of
essential nutrients.
Greenpeace has accused corporations of
over-hyping Golden Rice
Greenpeace
counter that argument by saying that corporations are over-hyping Golden Rice
to pave the way for global approval of other more profitable genetically
engineered crops. To set
the record straight, Richard J Roberts, one of two winners of the 1993 Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine, spearheaded the letter writing. He said:
“There’s been a tremendous amount of misinformation put out by Greenpeace.”
