#Engineered Golden Rice May be planted Soon In Philippinesnearly 15 years after its invention farmers in the Philippines could start growing golden rice within a year the BBC reports. But much depends on what national regulators will say after Filipino scientists submit their rice samples for approval in a few weeks. Golden rice which is modified genetically to produce Vitamin a has had a tortuous journey from lab to field. Soon after its invention media reports billed it as a savior for kids in developing countries suffering from Vitamin a deficiency the number-one cause of preventable blindness in children worldwide. At the same time however genetic engineering opponents such as Greenpeace launched campaigns against the technology. Consistent opposition against genetically modified crops has delayed every step of golden rice's development as Science magazine reported in 2008. Golden rice continues to see opposition in the Philippines. Opponents worry that the rice will cross-pollinate with non-modified plants which they say has unknown consequences. The BBC report cites worries that the modified rice will threaten the nation's food security but it's unclear if that means cross-pollination may cause non-modified rice to die or what.)Opponents also say there are better ways of relieving Vitamin a deficiency such as encouraging farmers to grow and eat other vegetables. The Philippine government's campaigns to fortify flour instant noodles and other staples have reduced already dramatically Vitamin a deficiency in the country. Philippine governmental authorities will evaluate the rice's food safety feed safety environmental safety safety to humans safety to animals all these are considered Antonio Alfonso the lead scientist for the Philippine Rice Research Institute told the BBC. The Philippine Rice Research Institute is a branch of the International Rice Research Institute which studies golden rice. The government has no official position on the high-tech grain the BBC reports. BBC Why aren't there tests inside controlled environments to see what effects there are of cross pollination? I feel its a valid concern of opponents to genetically modified food. Better yet why not require genetically modified food be modified to be incapable of reproducing. Because then nobody would grow it. Having to buy new seed from the manufacturer every year? No thanks...Monsanto does exactly that and it is a huge cause of farmer bancruptcy in the third world and one of the main reasons Monsanto is considered to be among the most unscrupulous corporations in the world. GMO is a very scary idea. We have no idea what may become to the long term effects to humans or plant and animal life. I didn't watch Fox news today but pretty sure they'd be worried about this environmental disaster. One thing: golden rice doesn't produce Vitamin a it produces beta carotene (think carrots or Guernsey milk) which yields Vitamin a when it is consumed. And yes cross-pollination with other plants has unknown consequences. You get different strains of plants. In the fruit and vegetable industry that's a good thing. Plant scientists experiment with crossing plants all the time to encourage strains that will yield fruit with more desirable characteristics. A lot of the food we eat today comes from plants that were pollinated cross or were hybrids at one time. Genetically modifying plants is exactly the same thing but with more precision and more carefully selectable outcomes. To date there has been no reliable study to indicate any notable harm to humans from GMO crops. Can we all please agree that there's nothing to worry about now? By the way thank you Popsci for illustrating Greenpeace's misanthropic agenda once again. 190 million children and 19 million pregnant women in 122 countries were estimated to be affected by Vitamin a deficiency in 2005. It is responsible for over a million deaths about half a million cases of irreversible blindness and millions of cases of xerophthalmia annually. If it's good for humans and will save lives you can almost always count on Greenpeace to be against it. A lot of the food we eat today comes from plants that were pollinated cross or were hybrids at one time. Genetically modifying plants is exactly the same thingit's NOT exactly the same thing. At all. Cross-pollination and hybridization occurs naturally...genetic modification happens in the lab only.@@shutterpod...genetic modification happens in the lab only really guess you never heard of domestication corn hybrids or evolution? do you think the corn we grow today is a form found wild? just as laurenra7 states this is more precise and speeds up the process ethical use of this technology is the real issue cheersdrchuck seriously...Crops generally aren't identical to the wild varieties they descend from. We have adapted wild varieties over great stretches of time to be what they currently are and WE have adapted with them. We have crossed never a fish or bacteria with a plant through natural means though. If you can't see the difference...if the market doesn't see the difference...50 years from now they will point to this era and say This is when it started. The collapse of the North american biosphere. would it be too much to presume for me to see the hand of Monsanto in this; they are stalemated over in Europe and wants to gain a foothold and using the country for its genetic experiments regardless of the consequences to the indigenous living organisms nearby. has tried not anyone yet to connect the colony collapse disorder a k a. the dying bees. i mean the phenomenon has been observed since the 1800's but never been on this magnitude of disappearances observed in the past decade. it was not just the pesticides. it may perhaps be a simple case of the bees starving because the genetic material of the food they collect--the nectar--may have already been contaminated heavily from contact with GMO material that has escaped from dedicated-GMO farms. bee larvae do feed on honey and some form of contamination ofthe food supply may be preventing proper development from larvae to adult in bees leading to population loss. just a possibility worth going into. Initiatives like this are sold on a number of platforms. Those who stand to make money by engineering the grain producing the medicines that will be needed to undo the damage it will do or cash in on the political upheaval that will come when for example patent interests allow the companies to deny the right to grow the rice already have their raft of reasons. For those not materially ulteriorly involved tend to have a number of what could be classed as insidious unspoken perceptions to blame for their support. One of these unspoken perceptions that so many without a vested interest are won over by is âÂ#Âoeanyone who isn't an American is a moron. And the less white they are the more stupid. âÂ# The article says that Vitamin a deficiency can be cured by growing say yellow vegetables but so many think that people overseas just aren't bright enough to realize that. Likewise the gullible and malleable are led by the precept âÂ#Âoehistory began yesterday. The peoples out in the Far east don't have societies thousands of years older than the United states. They didn't manage to be healthy strong and productive for all that time. âÂ# And there is the old stand by âÂ#Âoeif the'news 'or'science'journals say it is must be true! âÂ# Note that the article declares Vitamin a deficiency âÂ#Âoethe number-one cause of preventable blindness in children worldwideã¢Â# . But that doesn't mean the populations out there are suffering Vitamin a deficiency! The scam of the unspoken connection. âÂ#Âoei'm not voting for Joe Smith. I don't like guys who commit infidelity. âÂ# Note that that doesn't state that Joe Smith was unfaithful but the gullible will âÂ#Âoedraw the conclusionã¢Â#Â! The same with the âÂ#Âoesafetyã¢Â# of vaccines. Pro vaccine forces claim âÂ#Âoevaccines have saved many livesã¢Â#Â. Vaccines in the past and ethically made vaccines today can save many lives but that doesn't mean all of them are ethical or are safe! Just because Vitamin a deficiency is so dangerous doesn't mean it's widespread or even existent! After all how many populations anywhere have populations as widely blind as the statements on unanswered Vitamin a deficiency is intended to suggest? Also Vitamin a like all nutrients is a powerful poison if present in too high amounts! To have golden rice as prominent a part of diets in the East as suggested can lead to literal Vitamin a poisoning. Just got a sudden craving for a hot steaming bowl of rice with soya sauce..@@shutterpod...serioiusly genetic modifications happen each time an animal or plant reproduces. Domesticated animals and cultivated crops are genetically different from the wild varieties they were derived from and this did not originally occur in the lab negative cheers.@@drmoronic...if you think a chemically/electrically lab-created life-form is analogous to any'similar'variety made through breeding...you'd earn the name I just gave you. How do you get a strawberry or any other plant to breed with a fish? http://www. councilforresponsiblegenetics. org/Viewpage. aspx? pageid=118q. Isn't genetic engineering merely a minor extension of traditional breeding practices? A. No. While farmers have used crossbreeding techniques to cultivate crop and animal species with desired characteristics genetic engineering represents a radical departure from this practice. Crossbreeding can only occur within closely-related life forms. Genetic engineering allows scientists to cross the species barrier mixing genetic material among of animals plants and microorganism. The offspring of genetic engineering would never be found in nature. For example fish genes have been placed in tomatoes human genes in tobacco bacteria in corn and viruses in squash and fruit. Your statement was wrong and now you argue about a totally different matter to show how superior you are...keep it simple stupid your statement genetic modification happens in the lab only is wrong. If you'll notice in my original statement I contrasted natural breeding to direct genetic modification/manipulation...The statement wasn't wrong it simply wasn't to your liking. Piss off. bull you are just a bully A lot of the food we eat today comes from plants that were pollinated cross or were hybrids at one time. Genetically modifying plants is exactly the same thingyou contradict yourself over and over. You seem to have a malfunction in your reading-comprehension circuits...I'm a bully? Who's advocating crossing fish with vegetables and equating that it's no different than crossing white corn with yellow corn??Profit-mongering chemical corporations and profit-hungry farmers already have too much control over the industrial food-supply. They really don't need your help but I'm sure they appreciate it o

< Back - Next >

Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011