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18-03-05, 16:29
See links to multiple reports at end.
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Golden Rice is a technical failure standing in way of real solutions for
vitamin A deficiency
17 March 2005
NETHERLANDS/Amsterdam
http://www.greenpeace.org/india_en/news/details?item_id=793719

Five years after the hype on the so called "Golden Rice" started, Greenpeace
claims that this project is a technical failure, not suited to overcome
malnutrition and worse, is drawing funding and attention away from the real
solutions to combat vitamin A deficiency (VAD). Greenpeace expects that industry
scientists will shortly release new propaganda on Golden Rice, misleading the
public again on real solutions for VAD.

Golden rice was first presented in 2000 as a rice variety that was
genetically engineered in a laboratory to produce pro-vitamin A (beta-carotene). The
aim was that this genetically engineered (GE) rice would solve the problems of
vitamin A deficiency, which can result in blindness and even death and
occurs predominantly in developing countries.

"Industry tries to sell Golden Rice as a magic solution. Their strategy is
misleading the public, they are oversimplifying the actual problems in
combating vitamin A deficiency and try to turn down other, more effective
solutions," says Christoph Then, GE campaigner, Greenpeace International. "The Golden
Rice project simply aims to help industry to gain support for their
controversial GE-food in markets such as India and Europe".

"The GE industry is using hungry children in India as their expense account
to open up Indian markets to GE foods - an untested, potentially dangerous
and irresponsible act." says Divya Raghunandan, GE Campaigner, Greenpeace
India.

Close reading of the Golden Rice publications reveals that these
publications were hiding technical problems. The original publication on Golden Rice
did not fully, nor accurately, describe the type of pro-vitamin A present in
Golden Rice. In fact, the reported amount of beta-carotene present was
significantly over-estimated. The main problem is that current science doesn't
understand how the GE rice makes the beta-carotene in the plant.

The human food safety of the GE rice is unknown, but it is known that
cultivated rice will outcross to wild and weedy relatives, likely to cause
agronomic and environmental problems.

Since Golden Rice was presented in 2000, solutions such as increased food
diversity, medical vitamin A supplementation and home gardening, have proven to
be working solutions for VAD. Although VAD is still a serious problem, in
some countries such as Bangladesh, these solutions helped to virtually
eliminate the blindness of children induced by VAD. There are also traditional rice
varieties that not only contain beta-carotene but also several other
important nutritional compounds such as iron, high quality protein and even fatty
components that are necessary for any uptake of beta-carotene.

"GE rice could, if introduced on a large scale, exacerbate malnutrition and
undermine food security because it encourages a diet based on a single
industrial staple food rather than upon the reintroduction of the many vitamin-rich
food plants with high nutritional value that are cheap and already
available." says Professor Klaus Becker, from University of Hohenheim, Germany, one of
the contributors to the Greenpeace reports that are released today.

Greenpeace warns that Golden Rice researchers will again try to draw
attention by presenting new research on their GE rice, claiming that this Golden
Rice will have a ten times the content of beta-carotene as the first generation.
In five years of propaganda, Golden Rice has not deliverd any real solutions
to combat VAD, but distracted public awareness away from available solutions
that are likely to be cheaper, more effective and more sustainable for the
environment.

or more information:
Divya Raghunandan, GE campaigner, Greenpeace India.
+91 9845535406
Christoph Then, GE campaigner,
Greenpeace International. +49 1718 780 832
Vivek Sharma, Media Officer, Greenpeace India.
+91 9343788424

READ THE REPPORTS:
1.All That Glitters is Not Gold: The False Hope of "Golden Rice"
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/multimedia/download/1/793664/0/Greenpeace-_All
_That_Glitters_is_Not_Gold.doc

2.ON RICE, BIODIVERSITY & NUTRIENTS
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/multimedia/download/1/793650/0/Rice_Biodiversi
ty___Nutrients.pdf

3.Vitamin A deficiency: diverse causes, diverse solutions
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/multimedia/download/1/793677/0/Greenpeace_Doc_
-_vitA_solutions.doc

Q&A : GOLDEN RICE
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/multimedia/download/1/793674/0/Greenpeace_Q_&_
A_on_Golden_Rice.doc

(1) Greenpeace, Not all that glitters is gold, The false hope of 'Golden
Rice'
(2) Antje Lorch, Vitamin A deficiency: diverse
causes, diverse solutions
(3)Micheal Frei and Klaus Becker, On rice, biodiversity and nutrients