Subj:         Greenpeace on golden Rice PR
Date:   01-02-09 17:02:33 EST
From:   [log in to unmask] (Jim Diamond)
Sender: [log in to unmask] (Biotech Forum)
Reply-to:   [log in to unmask] (Biotech Forum)
To: [log in to unmask]

Greenpeace demands false biotech advertising be removed from TV
Posted: 02/09/2001 by  [log in to unmask]
===========================
9 February 2001 (Toronto)  Greenpeace is filing a complaint with Advertising
Standards Canada demanding that misleading biotech industry advertisements be
withdrawn from broadcast.  The Council for Biotech Information's ads say that
"Golden rice could help prevent blindness and infection in millions of
children" but recent scientific evidence shows that this is not the case.

A Greenpeace report, released today, shows that the genetically engineered
(GE) rice provides so little vitamin A that an adult would have to eat 10
pounds (dry weight) of rice a day to meet recommended allowances.  A two year
old child would need to eat seven pounds  per day.

"It is shameful that the biotech industry is using starving children to
promote a dubious product," said Michael Khoo of Greenpeace.  "This isn't
about solving childhood blindness, it's about solving biotech's public
relations problem."

In a recent letter to Greenpeace, the president of the Rockefeller
Foundation, which initially funded development of the GE rice, expressed his
concern that the biotech industry's promotion of vitamin A rice has "gone too
far" and is misleading the public and media.  He adds that "we do not
consider golden rice the solution to the  Vitamin A deficiency problem."

(original release shortened; posted by Jim Diamond)
COMMENT: In case you've missed the allegations, many others including Vandana
Shiva have claimed that the amount of beta carotene in the "golden rice" is
insufficient to have practical effects.  The fact that a balanced diet is
needed even to absorb beta carotene and convert it into Vitamin A has also
been made.  Although Vitamin A deficiency is a very serious problem, there
are low tech solutions readily available, and they would provide even further
benefits (since balanced diets have benefits beyond just vitamin A
replacement).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT
to [log in to unmask]