After 25 years of genetically modified foods being grown and eaten throughout the world in billions of meals, not a single verified case of harm has resulted.
This has not deterred the purveyors of evil lies from impeding the improvement of the diets of the world’s poor. It has also not stopped food producers from continuing to promote fear of GMOs by broadcasting when their products do not contain such modifications.
Unlike the climate catastrophe narrative , no scientists of any merit have joined the effort to discredit this technology that has contributed immensely to our agriculture productivity. That might be due to the fact that whatever invisible thing the anti-GMO forces are warning us against does not actually exist. If it did it would have a name and a chemical formula.
Scientists and agronomists can insert new genes, remove genes and turn genes on and off to do or not do their specific functions. A simple example is to modify grains to grow under conditions of high heat and low moisture just as a weed may survive in the desert but a normal food grain would not.
There are requirements with all these basic genetic techniques to insure their safety with protocols, that are unnecessary but phenomenally costly . It is an unarguable fact that it costs upwards of $100 million to bring a genetically modified grain to market.
Patrick Moore, in his new book FAKE INVISIBLE CATASTROPHES AND THREATS OF DOOM says : “the champions of grass-roots organic back-to-the-land philosophy have created a regime where only large agri-business companies can afford to advance the genetic improvement of our food and fiber crops using bio-technology.” An unintended consequence of the anti-GMO groups who truly hate the multi-national agriculture companies.
There simply are no credible scientists or science-based societies who have declared genetically modified foods to be less safe than conventionally grown food. In fact, the reverse is true because of the rigorous testing our government requires of them. It is here where the cruelty of the anti-GMO groups comes into play.
The most important nutrient widely lacking in the poorest nations of the world is Vitamin A. The reason is that in these countries rice is the primary staple of the diet especially for the poor. Unlike nearly all our green plants and other vegetables that contain beta-carotene, which is a precursor for the body to produce Vitamin A, rice does not.
About 250 million children in developing countries are deficient in Vitamin A. Between 250,000 and 500,000 children go blind as a result each year and half of them die within a year of going blind. This tragedy looked like it might soon end in 1999 when two European scientists, Dr. Ingo Potrykus, a Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and Dr. Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg produced a rice plant that contained beta-carotene in the actual grains of rice. The beta-carotene is orange in color but in plant’s leaves that color is overpowered by the green of chlorophyl. In grains of rice it turned them a golden color and thus it became known as Golden Rice.
The July 3, 2000 edition of Time magazine the cover featured Ingo Potrykus with the caption “This Rice Could Save A Million Kids A Year”. The subhead below his picture stated:
“But protestors believe such genetically modified foods are bad for us and our planet..”. It did not say “scientists”, just “protestors”. And the protestors have won as the use of Golden Rice has been blocked for two decades.
By 2012 many humanitarian groups had come out in support of the rice. In 2013 the International Rice Research insitute in the Philippines was conducting field tests on the rice. It is well known that Greenpeace sent in young protestors to destroy the field trials in August of 2013. Immediately, Patrick Moore, his wife Eileen, and late brother Michael formed the ALLOW GOLDEN RICE NOW CAMPAIGN which has worked tirelessly around the world to right this wrong, frequently demonstrating at Greenpeace offices.
Golden Rice has now been approved in the Philippines and hopefully other countries will follow. Let me sum it up. The anti-GMO groups are the personification of EVIL. The Green left Patrick Moore says “that calls for socialism and redistribution of wealth, they are fighting against a cure for the very poorest people in the world; when one cup of Golden Rice per day could save millions of them from blindness and death”.
It is very likely that many of our readers unwittingly share a concern about genetically modified foods. It is time for us to abandon that unwarranted fear and help educate our friends and neighbors about the safety and wonders of advanced technology in the creation of a healthy diet for the world.
See also: www.allowgoldenrice now.org
Portions of the this article have been excerpted from the 2021 book FAKE INVISIBLE CATASTROPHES AND THREATS OF DOOM with permission of the author Patrick Moore. The book is highly recommended for up to date analysis of the most fraudulent environmental claims of our day.