Friday October 12, 2007
The American
By Patrick Moore - (co-fundador e membro durante 15 anos do Greenpeace, agora ex-membro).
October 12, 2007
By embracing genetically modified ‘golden rice,’ says Greenpeace co-founder PATRICK MOORE, the world can help millions of people in developing countries.
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Unlike other rice plants, golden rice produces beta-carotene in its seeds, through genetics that Potrykus and his team imported from corn. Beta-carotene is the precursor of vitamin A, which is crucial for vision and disease resistance. Yet Greenpeace insists that the unknown future consequences for human health and the environment make golden rice too risky. (Never mind the half million children who go blind every year as a result of VAD.)
There have been numerous scientific studies conducted on the potential effects of growing and using golden rice. They indicate that golden rice can indeed contribute, in a cost-effective manner, to the alleviation of VAD, thereby easing children’s suffering and, in many cases, saving their lives.
My old Greenpeace compatriots counter these findings not with their own science, but rather with Hollywood-style fictions about “killer weeds” and “Frankenfoods.” Their campaign suggests a complete lack of respect for science and logic. It is clear that the real benefits of genetic enhancement far outweigh the hypothetical and sometimes contrived risks claimed by its detractors.
What possible risk could there be from a corn gene in a rice paddy? Even in the unlikely event that vitamin A spread into other plants, I can’t see how that would be harmful. On the other hand, the consequences of not planting and harvesting large quantities of golden rice are already obvious: a few million more children will go blind, and millions more will suffer. Yet Greenpeace activists threaten to rip the rice out of the fields if farmers dare to plant it. They have done everything they can to discredit the scientists and the technology.
Overall, we need to do more to break through the misinformation and hysteria surrounding golden rice—not to mention other genetically modified foods—and provide a more balanced picture to the general public. The programs of genetic research and development now under way in labs and field stations around the world focus on both society and the environment. Their purpose is to improve nutrition, reduce the use of synthetic chemicals, increase the productivity of our farmlands and forests, and improve human health. Those who have adopted a zero-tolerance attitude toward genetic modification threaten to deny these many benefits.
) e cebolas pra putos ricas...bem, muuuuuuito ricas em açucar, tanto que se forem fritas ou cozidas, ficam caramelizadas, o pessoal todo aplaude...lol so mostra a ignorância do povo português....não, porque estas cebolinhas nascem todas assimmm.... 
