Vaccines Grown in GE Rice??!!

[Guest guest]

> News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> Dear Health Freedom Fighters,

>

> There are four types of genetically engineered crops:

> 1) Herbicide-resistant - such as Round Up Ready Soybeans

> 2) Built-in pesticide - such as the Bt Corn (StarLink for example)

> 3) Nutrient fortified - such as Golden Rice with extra vitamin A

> 4) Built-in vaccination - to deliver drugs through the food

>

> The biotech industry has been promoting their products through a classic

> " bait and switch " sales technique. They have been talking about feeding

> starving children in third world countries with their vitamin A fortified

> Golden Rice and crops with built-in vaccinations. That is the " bait. "

>

> The " switch " is that products such as the Golden Rice and the vaccine

> containing crops are not yet fully developed. Instead the biotech

> companies are selling us herbicide-resistant soybeans and corn with

> built-in pesticides. These genetically engineered foods are unlabeled,

> untested, and are sold to an unknowing public. There is growing evidence

> that these biotech crops could be harmful to both the environment and

> human health.

>

> Anyone who would dare to attack the " miracle of biotech foods " has been

> painted by the biotech industry as being against feeding starving

> children. Nothing could be further from the truth.

>

> It the past few days, British and Canadian news sources have reported that

> the Golden Rice is not all it has been promoted to be -- the vitamin A

> level is actually quite low. This is a significant disclosure since the

> biotech industry has spend millions of dollars promoting the wonders of

> Golden Rice.

>

> So far it does not seem that any of the United States media have reported

> this story about the misrepresentation of the facts by the biotech

> industry.

>

> It turns out that someone eating an average portion of the Golden Rice

> would only get about 8% of the required daily intake of vitamin A. So

> someone would need to eat about 8 to 10 pounds of this genetically

> engineered rice a day to get the required amount of vitamin A.

>

> Even the Rockefeller Foundation, a big promoter of Golden Rice, was

> reported as saying that the public relations campaign based on Golden Rice

> has " gone too far. "

>

> Greenpeace Canada has filed a complaint with Advertising Standards Canada

> demanding that misleading biotech industry advertisements be withdrawn

> from broadcast.

>

> Greenpeace has also created a document on the " Reality vs. Myths on Golden

> Rice. " You can access the Adobe Acrobat version of this at:

> http://www.greenpeacecanada.org/e/news/rice.pdf

>

> Posted below is a Special Report titled " GM rice promoters 'have gone too

> far' " from the British newspaper The Guardian. Also posted is the

> Greenpeace Canada press release.

>

> Craig Winters

> Executive Director

> The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

>

> The Campaign

> PO Box 55699

> Seattle, WA 98155

> Tel: 425-771-4049

> Fax: 603-825-5841

> E-mail: mailto:label@...

> Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

>

> Mission Statement: " To create a national grassroots consumer campaign for

> the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass legislation

> that will require the labeling of genetically engineered foods in the

> United States. "

>

> ***************************************************************

>

> GM rice promoters 'have gone too far'

>

> Special report: GM debate

>

> Brown, environment correspondent

> Saturday February 10, 2001

> The Guardian

>

> Claims by the biotech industry and some US politicians that genetically

> engineered " golden rice " would save the sight of 500,000 children a year

> are exaggerated, according to the Rockefeller Foundation, which is funding

> the rice's development.

>

> The project, which has been used worldwide by supporters of genetically

> modified crops as a justification for the technology, appears likely to

> generate only a fraction of the additional vitamin A intake it once

> promised. Vitamin A helps prevent eye disease.

>

> If consumers were on a diet of 300g (11oz) of the GM rice a day - the

> average consumption of an Asian adult - it would provide only 8% of the

> required daily intake of the vitamin, according to independent scientists.

>

> An adult would, in effect, have to eat 9kg of cooked rice (the equivalent

> of 3.75kg of uncooked rice) a day to satisfy the required intake and a

> pregnant woman would need twice that amount.

>

> The Rockefeller Foundation says that the public relations campaign based

> on golden rice has " gone too far " .

>

> Syngenta, the agribusiness company which owns many of the patents on the

> rice, has in the past claimed that a single month of marketing delay would

> cause 50,000 children to go blind.

>

> The main deficiency problem is found in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia,

> Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines where the lack of vitamin A in a

> rice diet causes childhood blindness and up to 1m deaths a year. Adding

> beta-carotene to rice, which the body turns into vitamin A, turns it

> yellow, hence the name golden rice.

>

> The rice's development has provided a powerful propaganda tool for the GM

> industry. The then US president Bill Clinton said last year: " If we could

> get more of this golden rice, which is a genetically modified strain of

> rice especially rich in vitamin A, out to the developing world, it could

> save 4,000 lives a day, people that are malnourished and dying. "

>

> A number of bio-tech firms, including Syngenta and Monsanto, were credited

> with licensing patents on golden rice which would allow the technology to

> " be made available free of charge for humanitarian uses in any developing

> nation " .

>

> Charlie Kronick of Greenpeace said: " It is clear that the GM industry has

> been making false claims about golden rice. It is nonsense to think anyone

> would or could eat this much rice, and there is still no proof that it can

> provide any significant vitamin benefits anyway.

>

> " Our view is that the billions of pounds that has been spent developing

> this rice and the false hopes it has raised has diverted valuable

> resources away from more sensible ways of tackling VAD deficiency.

>

> " Far from saving children's sight, 'golden rice' is preventing other more

> certain methods being developed. "

>

> In response to a report by Vandana Shiva, an Indian campaigner against GM

> foods, Rockefeller Foundation spokesman Gordon Conway said: " First it

> should be stated that we do not consider golden rice to be the solution to

> the vitamin A deficiency problem. Rather it provides an excellent

> complement to fruits, vegetables and animal products in diets, and to

> various fortified foods and vitamin supplements. "

>

> He said that for poor families lacking, for example, 10%, 20% or 50% of

> the required daily intake of vitamin A, golden rice could be useful,

> although even the best lines of rice produced by the bio-tech companies,

> reported in the journal Science, could contribute only 15% to 20% of the

> daily requirement.

>

> He added: " I agree with Dr Shiva that the public relations uses of golden

> rice have gone too far.

>

> " The industry's advertisements and the media in general seem to forget

> that it is a research product that needs considerable further development

> before it will be available to farmers and consumers. "

>

> Mr Conway added, however, that he still thought that golden rice has the

> potential to make an important contribution to reducing vitamin A

> deficiency.

>

> ***************************************************************

>

> February 9, 2001

>

> Greenpeace demands false biotech advertising be removed from TV

>

> (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 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. "

>

> Even the scientist who developed golden rice, Dr. Ingo Potrykus, has

> admitted there is not a single published study showing that the human body

> can convert the beta-carotene in GE rice to vitamin A.

>

> This is not the first time the biotech industry has been caught with false

> advertising. In 1998, Monsanto was forced to withdraw a similar European

> TV commercial after leaders of 23 African countries stated to the United

> Nations that they " Strongly object that the image of the poor and hungry

> from our countries is being used by giant multinational corporations...We

> do not believe that such companies or gene technologies will help our

> farmers to produce the food that is needed in the 21st century. " In Canada

> on October 17, 2000 development groups Oxfam and CUSO joined Greenpeace to

> declare that " Biotech will not solve world hunger "

>

> In the short term, childhood blindness resulting from Vitamin A deficiency

> could be cheaply and effectively addressed through distribution of vitamin

> supplements. In the long term, sustainable agriculture and diet

> diversification programs must be implemented to increase access to foods

> naturally rich in vitamin A. Expensive, limited access solutions like GE

> rice exacerbate the fundamental problems of hunger and malnutrition.

>

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