Thousands of children could die after court backs campaign group over GM crop in Philippines, scientists warn

Thousands of children could die after court backs campaign group over GM crop in Philippines, scientists warn

Scientists have warned that a court decision to block the growing of the genetically modified (GM) crop Golden Rice in the Philippines could have catastrophic consequences. Tens of thousands of children could die in the wake of the ruling, they argue.

The Philippines had become the first country – in 2021 – to approve the commercial cultivation of Golden Rice, which was developed to combat vitamin A deficiency, a major cause of disability and death among children in many parts of the world.

But campaigns by Greenpeace and local farmers last month persuaded the country’s court of appeal to overturn that approval and to revoke this. The groups had argued that Golden Rice had not been shown to be safe and the claim was backed by the court, a decision that was hailed as “a monumental win” by Greenpeace.

Many scientists, however, say there is no evidence that Golden Rice is in any way dangerous. More to the point, they argue that it is a lifesaver.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1725·
    5 months ago

    You don’t even realize how amazingly stupid your response/argument is, do you?

    Do you have any concept of how many times in human history, that an argument has basically boiled down to “its safe, stupid. Stop being a baby and use it!”, Only to find out years or even decades down the road that Oopsy Daisy, it wasnt as safe as was claimed?

    Tetraethyllead being an excellent example, which I bet you would have voraciously argued in favor of at the time.

    • Kairos@lemmy.todayEnglish
      233·
      5 months ago

      To be more specific, my above comment was more or less saying “see! I can make meaningless arguments too!”. Golden rice saves lives. Lots of things that save lives arent proven safe.

      • maniii@lemmy.worldEnglish
        46·
        5 months ago

        It doesn’t absolve the need to study the Golden rice for health problems. If Monsanto/Bayer made this “healthy rice” I will be even MORE skeptical of this. Corporations have been well-known for greed and mutual-human-extinction.

        I trust the rice that was humanly modified and grown over 20,000 years rather than the rice that was suddenly placed in the market by a greedy-corporation in less than a century.

    • Kairos@lemmy.todayEnglish
      103·
      5 months ago

      …and you’re doing the same thing as the idiots wanting to ban golden rice. You have to understand things in context and the context here is they are clearly targeting just golden rice not all GMOs

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      912·
      5 months ago

      Do you have any idea what genetically modified organisms actually are? We’re not talking about some chemical we’ve never heard of, we’re talking about rice (but with more vitamin a). This isn’t something that needs to be proven safe.

      I love the downvotes from people who don’t understand what GMOs even are