11/07/2017 / By JD Heyes
Supporters of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have long claimed that Golden Rice is key in alleviating vitamin A deficiency, but it turns out that’s not at all the case.
According to a new report by Indian researchers, the genes necessary to produce Golden Rice cause unintended side effects, Independent Science News reported recently.
When scientists introduced the genetically-engineered DNA “their high-yielding and agronomically superior Indian rice variety became pale and stunted, flowering was delayed and the roots grew abnormally,” the site reported.
Also, crop yields were so dramatically scaled back that they were not even suitable for cultivation, scientists noted.
While rice is a great nutritional source, it does lack vitamin A and in some parts of the world, there are dramatic deficiencies in vitamin A. That’s important because these regions depend heavily on rice for their diets.
Big Ag and GMO pushers like Syngenta and Monsanto claim that vitamin A can be enhanced through the introduction of GMOs. And for years, that scientific dogma has been accepted as fact.
But it isn’t true, and continuing research is proving that. In 2016, Washington University in St. Louis noted that the promise of GMO-laden Golden Rice was not living up to the hype. He also said that researchers did not blame “GMO opponents” for that, either.
“Golden Rice is still not ready for the market, but we find little support for the common claim that environmental activists are responsible for stalling its introduction. GMO opponents have not been the problem,” said lead author Glenn Stone, professor of anthropology and environmental studies in Arts & Sciences.
That was substantiated by a March 2017 report in the journal Agriculture and Human Values by Stone and co-author Dominic Glover, a rice researcher at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Their research also found that GMO opponents have nothing to do with the fact that Golden Rice isn’t the vitamin A panacea that it has long been touted to be. (Related: Golden Rice fairy tale nothing more than biotech industry GMO propaganda.)
“The rice simply has not been successful in test plots of the rice breeding institutes in the Philippines, where the leading research is being done,” Stone said. “It has not even been submitted for approval to the regulatory agency, the Philippine Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).”
Stone was referencing Golden Rice cultivation research that was being done in the Asian country. “A few months ago, the Philippine Supreme Court did issue a temporary suspension of GMO crop trials,” Stone added. “Depending on how long it lasts, the suspension could definitely impact GMO crop development. But it’s hard to blame the lack of success with Golden Rice on this recent action.”
In September 2013, Natural News founder/editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reported on the failed effort to genetically ‘transform’ Golden Rice into a major GMO success. Recounting all of the Big Ag hype surrounding the altered crop, Adams noted:
There’s a problem with all this, of course: the golden rice hoopla is pure hokum. Quackery. Charlatanism. There is no evidence whatsoever that golden rice can treat, prevent or cure any medical condition. And since when did pro-GMO people ever care about nutrition in the first place? Aren’t they in agreement with the FDA that there is no vitamin, no mineral and no herb that has any ability whatsoever to prevent, treat or cure any disease?
That was then. Since Adams’ report, absolutely no additional research has proven that GMO-altered Golden Rice is anything but a wild pipe dream offered up by genetically modified food pushers who are the enemies of wholesome, clean — and much healthier — organic foods.
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Tagged Under:
Big AG, biotech, crop failures, false hope, GMOs, Golden Rice, lies
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