Greenpeace perpetuates poverty and malnutrition

CFP ^ | May 29, 2005 | Paul Driessen

[MikeEdwards]

Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore has said the environmental movement’s "campaign against biotechnology clearly exposes its intellectual and moral bankruptcy." It shows little regard for truth or the harm its ideologies inflict on poor people.

As if to underscore how right Dr. Moore is, Greenpeace activist Farida Akthen recently blasted the Bangladesh agricultural ministry for approving research on one of the most promising of all biotech miracles: golden rice. By adding a daffodil gene to ordinary rice, researchers gave it a golden color and enriched it with beta-carotene, which people can convert to vitamin A. Simply by eating a few ounces of golden rice a day, malnourished children can ward off a vitamin deficiency that causes half a million kids to go blind every year and leaves hundreds of millions (including many thousands in Bangladesh) susceptible to disease, intellectual impairment and death.

But Ms. Akthen, who also heads up another radical Bangladeshi group known as UBINIG, claims this technological marvel somehow impairs people’s health.

Genetically engineered (GE) food can infect people "with diseases unknown even to physicians," she recently misinformed journalists in Dhaka. "Tomatoes, potatoes, rice, wheat and barley were engineered in a way that their panthogenesis-related proteins prepare anti-fungal compounds that create allergies in a consumer’s body," she continued.

These bizarre claims might have a place in a Stephen King fright novel or Comedy Central skit. But they help prolong the suffering and death of millions who could be helped by agricultural advances that hold great promise for improving environmental conditions, agricultural production and nutrition in Bangladesh and other poor countries. . . . .

[G Larry]

Yep! Read:

"Eco-Imperialism" 'Green Power, Black Death'
by Paul Driessen

[jdsteel]

The tragedy is that this is not "new" news. The fight against GE crops is at the base of it misinformation to try to keep U.S. bioengineered products & seed out of international markets. If you go just a little below the surface, you'll find our "good friends" the French have been one of the main forces in the anti-GE movement for years. Surprise, surprise.

[jdsteel]

The tragedy is that this is not "new" news. The fight against GE crops is at the base of it misinformation to try to keep U.S. bioengineered products & seed out of international markets. If you go just a little below the surface, you'll find our "good friends" the French have been one of the main forces in the anti-GE movement for years. Surprise, surprise.