The White House on Tuesday indicated an Israeli strike that killed dozens of Palestinians in Rafah did not cross a “red line” that would lead to a change in U.S. policy....
Especially since we know there are tanks and IDF in Rafah itself as of this weekend. So even the claim that it was "only an airstrike, not a ground invasion" seems like a flat out lie.
They've been doing that for two decades. Golden rice could have saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives by now. Especially the later versions we're on now. Hopefully it doesn't violate the self-promotion rules for me to link an article I wrote a long, long time ago on Golden Rice 3.0 and its improved benefits.
I haven't kept up with the project since, I wouldn't be surprised if we're on 4.0 or beyond by now, the scientists involved have been working tirelessly for years to make the rice even better and more beneficial for the people who need it.
And anti-science idiots like Greenpeace have been fighting them every step of the way.
What American biotech crops? Golden rice was developed by a group of university researchers in Switzerland and have been distributing the rice for free via NGOs.
Oh hey. I didn't realize anyone was still pushing that long since debunked canard.
The guy in question was a lying hack, who purposefully set up his fields next to a farmer who grew the GM crop and then purposefully harvested the crops that were along the connecting edge of the field so he could replant them without having to have bought them. When he was called out on that, he lied and blamed cross-contamination, but there was no way for his subsequent harvest to be 99+% the GM crop from cross-contamination unless he had collected and planted them on purpose.
So, yeah, he was sued. Including by his neighboring farmer for theft.
They've actually been doing this sort of thing for a while now. They decided rather than pro-environmentalism, they'd rather just be anti-science in general. It's the same with them protesting any use of nuclear anywhere for any reason.
The scientists involved would love that and have been working on that. But it's not like you just cross-breed once and it works and you're good. It's really, really difficult to get the four gene complex to transfer. It takes hundreds of attempts over many years to reach success, though they still plan to do it eventually. But, for now, golden rice is available and there's no reason it can't be used in addition to other cultivars once they successfully make them.
Also, golden rice is made by a bunch of university scientists in Switzerland and they distribute the rice for free via NGOs. What does Monsanto have to do with this?
Do you have any idea of the history of litigation around cross pollination from GMO crops?
I do. In that it was made up by the organic companies to fearmonger about GM crops. The only lawsuits that happened were against people who were purposefully harvesting the GM crops of their neighbors to plant only those. Cross-contamination doesn't result in a subsequent harvest of 99+% GM crops.
What does intellectual property have to do with stealing crops from your neighbor? In fact, the guy in question was purposefully working for the organic food companies in order to try and have such a lawsuit happen.
The funny thing being that he completely lost the case.
He did harvest his neighbors crops directly. He purposefully cut and took crops through the fence bordering the property. He did all of that completely on purpose.
Greenpeace actively fearmongers with any and every conspiracy claim they can come up with on the subject. If you look at the reasoning they used in the OP article above and given to the Philippines, you'll see that they never use any detailed claims, but always vague ones. They reference "safety concerns" without specification and without any consideration of the dozens of papers published on golden rice in the past two decades.
Other methods have been used in the meantime, for decades. But they are only so effective. Vitamins, other foods, and other methods have been in process. But they each have their own limitations, both on supply to remote areas and getting local peoples to take up those methods.
The latter is the biggest issue, especially with trying to introduce alternative foods like carrots. If they aren't a part of the local cuisine, many of the individuals, who are often subsistence farmers who have limited land and only grow explicitly what they need to survive, aren't interested.
Hence why golden rice was developed, because rice is a main part of the local diet in these areas and so it is much easier to get them to adopt growing a different cultivar of something they already eat than it is to convince them to grow a completely different food.
What does that furthermore have to do with anything? The selective pressure of a trait that uses up more plant energy to focus on its nutrient production and that is only beneficial to humanity and not wild species?
They have been working on and testing this golden rice since 2000, with tons of studies done on its biochemistry, including from people eating it. In fact, several countries have already been using the rice for years What else are the scientists supposed to do to appear Greenpeace's purposefully vague demands?
It's actually interesting looking at what traits seem scary, but are actually massively negative in the wild. Like, there were a bunch of people freaking out about that modified salmon that grows three times faster (and requires 3 times the amount of food to compensate).
If that ever escaped into the wild, it would die. Period. The only way it stays alive is by being fed directly and by not having to use its energy to swim a lot. There is no advantage in the wild for growing 3 times faster. Heck, because of that, it likely wouldn't even match up with the spawning season properly.
Rice already has the beta-carotene genetic pathway. It's just missing the final enzyme gene to cause production of the precursor product.
Furthermore, people have already tried to introduce alternative crops. But people who live there aren't interested. If a crop like carrots isn't a part of their cuisine, they have little to no interest in altering the foods they eat. Especially if they're already subsistence farmers with limited crop growing areas.
To show what exactly? It's actually really hard to get desired new traits to retain themselves in cross-breeding experiments and even in regular generational breeding. That's the whole issue with F1 hybrid plants having great hybrid traits, but you can't replant them or they completely lose those traits.
Those quasi-infinite possibilities that happen when literally any plant (which already has hundreds of mutations just by being born) is planted and grown? No, we don't genetically check every child plant ever planted anywhere.
You are correct that it would be way safer if we did. Then we wouldn't get things like the fully non-GM Lenape potato that poisoned people.
But you seem to only demand such testing be done on GM crops, when those are already at lower risk because they do already have such testing done when non-GM crops don't.
White House signals Rafah strike doesn’t cross ‘red line’ (thehill.com)
The White House on Tuesday indicated an Israeli strike that killed dozens of Palestinians in Rafah did not cross a “red line” that would lead to a change in U.S. policy....
‘A catastrophe’: Greenpeace blocks planting of ‘lifesaving’ Golden Rice (www.theguardian.com)
Thousands of children could die after court backs campaign group over GM crop in Philippines, scientists warn...