Greenpeace out to sea on GM rice issue, bioethicist says. By Art Caplan, Ph.D.
Greenpeace, perhaps best known for its battles at sea to protect whales and the oceans, has gotten itself involved in a huge controversy over genetically modified food. The group is charging that unsuspecting children were put at risk in a “dangerous” study of genetically engineered rice in rural China. It’s a serious claim, because it is putting research seeking to put more nutrition into food at risk.
Genetically engineered rice has the potential to help solve a big nutritional problem—vitamin A deficiency. A lack of vitamin A kills 670,000 kids under 5 every year and causes 250,000 to 500,000 to go blind. “Greenpeace’s crime against humanity” – Patrick Moore « The k2p blog. Scientists, journalists challenge organic scientist Benbrook claims that GM crops increase pesticide spraying, harm the environment. Scientists defend safety of genetically modified foods.
California's Proposition 37 would require labeling on genetically… (Robyn Beck, AFP/Getty Images ) To the naked eye, the white puffs of cotton growing on shrubs, the yellow flowers on canola plants and the towering tassels on cornstalks look just like those on any other plants.
But inside their cells, where their DNA contains instructions for how these crops should grow, there are a few genes that were put there not by Mother Nature but by scientists in a lab.