Expert: Blaming Greenpeace for blocking Golden Rice is “sleazy sleight of hand”

With the recent Philippines court decision blocking the further planting of GM Golden Rice in the country, pro-GMO advocates have renewed their attacks on Greenpeace, which, with the farmer-scientist network MASIPAG and others, brought the lawsuit. 

The Observer’s science editor Robin McKie has published an article accusing Greenpeace of causing “a catastrophe” by its role in the court case. GM Golden Rice is engineered to contain the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene and is targeted at poor people, especially children, suffering from vitamin A deficiency (VAD). 

The Observer also chimed in with an editorial headlined, “When modified rice could save thousands of lives, it is wrong to oppose it”, and subtitled, “The green movement’s attempts to block the cultivation of a grain enhanced with vitamin A is misguided”.

However, experts on Golden Rice have roundly debunked the claims, with one pointing out that blaming Greenpeace for blocking the GM crop is “a sleazy sleight of hand to hide the fact that after 30 years of development, Golden Rice is still not ready”. Glenn Davis Stone, Research Professor of Environmental Science at Sweet...