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Golden rice refusal kills millions
Western Farm Press ^ | May 6, 2014 | Don Curlee

Posted on 06/10/2014 6:11:40 AM PDT by artichokegrower

A University of California report has exposed the injustice that prohibits a genetically engineered additive to rice. Without it the death of millions of children has occurred, notably in Africa and India.

The researcher opinion lays the blame for the international prohibition of producing golden rice through genetic engineering to powerful forces that hide behind environmentalism. California, of course, is one of the world’s major rice producers, ready to supply the vitamin enriched product, especially for export.

(Excerpt) Read more at westernfarmpress.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: africa; california; gmo; goldenrice; greenpeace; india; rice
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To: Black Agnes
Somehow, Zimbabwe managed to feed its entire population and have enough to export (and be called the ‘bread basket of Africa’) before the introduction of GMO crops. How was that possible?

They had farmers that knew what they were doing and owned the land? That redistribution worked out well.

41 posted on 06/10/2014 9:48:07 AM PDT by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
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To: listenhillary

Precisely my point.

The introduction of GMO Seeds won’t ‘fix’ what’s wrong with Africa and its unreliable food supply issues.

It will just introduce another supply line that’s fraught with potential for catastrophic disruption.


42 posted on 06/10/2014 9:56:15 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Oak Grove
This is not about starving children, it is about greedy, liberal American businessmen.

An American company creates a method for delivering vitamin A to children through a food product they eat every day -- that currently doesn't provide them with any Vitamin A -- and you call them greedy? This product will save millions of people, mostly children, from blindness and death due to vitamin A deficiency, yet you stand with outfits like Greenpeace who would rather see children die painful deaths than admit they were wrong about the science?

There is a very special place in hell for the Greenpeace culture of death. Only a total moron would support what they are doing.

43 posted on 06/10/2014 11:38:01 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: jdege
A is a fat-soluble vitamin. It doesn’t process or absorb in the absence of fat, and the beta carotene conversion also depends on the presence of fat.

The absorption and utilization of provitamin A will be impacted by by many factors. The most important consideration is the vitamin A status of the person.

The fat content of rice is low, but it still remains a key source of dietary fats in places where the diet is dependent or rice. The fat content in the rice will be enough to facilitate intestinal beta-carotene uptake. Golden Rice will be a good source of vitamin A for these people if the food Luddites will give it a chance.

44 posted on 06/10/2014 12:21:20 PM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Mase

Because the yams in the traditional African diets aren’t doing the trick.

Because so much of Africa is arable rice growing land.

Why rice? Why not sorghum or teff. Those are grown in much of Africa.


45 posted on 06/10/2014 12:28:44 PM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Mase

How have we come to a place where we’re so scared of “chemicals” and “science” that we cannot recognize the good stuff from the bad. I blame government regulation. If you had to pay more attention to your food, you wouldn’t be so stupid.

We’ve traded food liberty for food security and lost our marbles in the process.


46 posted on 06/10/2014 3:23:39 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: artichokegrower

Who are the real racists? Little black and brown children can just die.

We’d hate to harm them with vitamin A enriched rice. DDT is too harmful to nothing, so we let children die of malaria. Why don’t we have these kinds of debates in America?


47 posted on 06/10/2014 3:25:35 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: 1010RD
Agreed. We've become fat and happy, and the prolific amount of regulation has absolutely created unnecessary fear in the sheeple. And yes, sadly, this thread is proof that we've lost our marbles in the process. The crap I read on these threads is a testament to the fact that a large portion of our population is nuts.

I'm glad you brought up DDT as there are a lot of parallels to the GMO issue. Some moonbat was screaming about countries being allowed to reject GMO food if they want to and allow their citizens, mostly children, to die. The same was said about DDT, and to help the countries suffering from malaria make the desired decision, the culture of death used foreign aid as a tool to force them to refuse DDT and allow their people, mostly children, to die. Greenpeace is no different. They are actively pushing governments to deny Golden Rice to their people, and they are pursuing the farmers and telling them lies about the product to create fear in a population that is woefully uneducated. These people, just like the Rachel Carson acolytes, are evil personified. If they ever gain the power they desire, they will make Stalin look like a piker.

Anyone supporting their cause is not only brain dead, but is destined for the worst possible outcome after their miserable existence on earth is over.

48 posted on 06/11/2014 8:36:15 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Black Agnes
Because the yams in the traditional African diets aren’t doing the trick.

There's not a lot of vitamin A in yams, so maybe GR2 is a better the option.

Why rice?

Uh, because rice is eaten and grown in more than a hundred countries, and it is the staple food for more than 3 billion people. When you look at the caloric intake of these people, rice provides 60%-70% of their total nutrition. These same people also happen to be the most affected by vitamin A deficiency. So, yeah, rice is a logical and exceptional choice. And given the resistance it has met by people who think it's better for their flagrant ignorance to prevail rather than for people to live, it's no wonder these companies aren't rushing to do the same for sorghum, teff, or any other product.

You should be asking that question to a mirror.

49 posted on 06/11/2014 8:58:36 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Mase

How do we reverse the thinking that regulations, heavy ones designed to keep competitors out or harm innovation, aren’t the key to keeping people safe?


50 posted on 06/11/2014 9:07:33 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: Mase

Rice cannot be grown in most of Africa. It will have to be imported.

Who will pay for it. These are impoverished people. They will not be able to grow their own. Even if someone drop shipped them the seeds to do so.

It’s simply too dry to grow rice there.

Ask Ethiopia what happens when you come to depend on foreign grains at the expense of growing your own. It only takes ONE disruption in that supply line and millions of people starve to death. Remember the photos from the late 1980’s?

Why not genetically engineer the gene into something that CAN and DOES grow in AFrica? Like Sorghum.

That that wasn’t done should give you pause.

Rice is not, in fact, a staple in much of Africa. I’ve lived there. It’s certainly not a historic crop there like Maize or Sorghum.

And yams have a bunch of beta carotene. Do not need to be imported by spending ready cash. And can be grown locally 12 months out of the year.

If you’re going to be ‘giving’ them the vitamin A or its precursors why not ‘give’ them cod liver oil capsules. That way they get both the vitamin A that doesn’t require any metabolic transmutation into an active form, AND you give them the dietary fat to metabolize it properly.

As far as fat content in rice, let’s see you give them brown rice. Poor people almost universally refuse to eat that. And it doesn’t store very long, particularly in hot humid countries, without cooling. Unless you’re into having them eat rancid foods.


51 posted on 06/11/2014 9:12:56 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Black Agnes
Which, given that the people pushing the GMO agenda are also radical population control wackjobs, may be their desired outcome.

This statement goes way beyond willful ignorance, and it defies all logic. The companies offering GMO as a solution are a result of the efforts of Norman Borlaug and his team of Green Revolutionaries. You might recall him. While Rachel Carson and her lying chemicalphobes were setting the stage for the deaths of tens of millions, mostly children, Borlaug was bioengineering crops to save a billion people from starvation. You appear to be confused about who the good guys are in this saga. Let me explain it to you like I do my third grader:

Paul Ehrlich - a bad man and an elitist idiot.
Rachel Carson - liar, collectivist, and mass murderer
Greenpeace - liars, Marxists, and mass murderers
Norman Borlaug - champion of using technology to feed people and a hero
Monsanto - followers of Borlaug offering solutions to feed the rapidly expanding global population.

The only wackjobs here are the ones who don't know how to distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys.

52 posted on 06/11/2014 9:17:32 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Mase

Bill Gates. Radical population control wackjob. Read some of his writings sometimes. And read what his ‘foundation’ is funding. Most of it relates to birth control. Outspoken supporter of coercive birth control and population reduction.

He’s pushing the GMO meme. Heavily.

Warren Buffet. Nuff said. Read what he funds. And what his wackjob leftnutjob late wife said about overpopulation. Especially that in the African and South American continents. He is a big giant supporter of GMO crops. Also of coercive population control.

Soros. Nuff said. Giant supporter of GMO crops. Ginormous supporter of coercive population control.

You can explain the RAchael carson stuff to the Africans if you like. I have. They view it as simply more ‘rich white people who don’t want us to have kids’. And they’d be right. They view these GMO crops as more of the same there.

Borlaug’s crops, by and large, won’t grow in Africa. He did a lot of work with wheat. It’s too warm in much of africa for wheat to head up a decent crop. Too bad Rockefeller funded Borlaug didn’t care enough about Africans to actually work with crops that grow there.

We are still friends with plenty of Africans. They are universally suspicious of western ‘tech’ at this point. Especially vaccines and GMO crops. The same people who rant and rave about too many Africans are pushing both.

You have ideologues like the ones I listed who rave and rant about too many people, especially too many Africans. And then these same people’s NGO groups and foundations show up with lots of money and ‘tech’. If you can’t understand why this makes the average African suspicious you’re not as bright as you think you are. Definitely not as bright as the average central African.

You can either believe that Gates thinks there are too many Africans, or that he wants them to be totally healthy by feeding as many of them as possible. Even Africans see the hypocrisy there. They’re not stupid. Corrupt? Sure. Warlike? You bet, don’t insult their kin. Stupid? not on a bet.


53 posted on 06/11/2014 9:26:20 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Mase

http://therightscoop.com/video-al-gore-africas-population-a-problem-that-must-be-addressed/

Al Gore: “Africa’s Population A Problem That “Must Be Addressed”

Maybe you think they don’t have internet connections in Africa?

I actually got an email about this particular item from one of our family friends in Africa.

She. Was. Horrified.

Can you imagine a rich Chinese politician saying the same thing about YOUR family size as it relates to your own continent?

If you want Africans to accept western tech regarding food and vaccines, you will HAVE to shut the Al Gore’s of the world (and the Bill Gates and Warren Buffet’s) up. Right now, they are quite justifiably suspicious of all rich white geeks and their ‘gifts’...


54 posted on 06/11/2014 9:37:38 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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