More ways to get vitamin A into people are needed. Human ingenuity being what it is, very clever people discovered how to put the genes beta-carotene, a vitamin A precursor, into rice. Viola. Golden rice, a potential partial solution to vitamin A deficiency, especially where rice is a diet staple.

Golden Rice looked good to go in the Philippines until April of this year when the Court of Appeals in the Philippines issued a cease-and-desist order on the commercial propagation of two genetically modified crops, golden rice and Bt eggplant, citing a lack of “full scientific certainty” regarding their health and environmental impact.

And who filed a petition to halt the Golden Rice? Greenpeace.

Greenpeace! Heros from my youth. Eco-warriors who put their lives on the line, steering their Zodiac boats into the paths of whaling ships to save the whales. An organization with cred. Lots of cred. Unfortunately, since misleading claims from credible sources can be more damaging than blatant falsehoods.

As another aside, as best I can determine, whales have a diet high in vitamin A and are themselves an excellent source of the vitamin for Eskimos. Imagine what would have happened if whales needed golden rice to survive or the only solution to vitamin A deficiency in humans had been to eat the whales. Golden rice seems so much more civilized.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here