Bring Golden Rice to the US/the West?

[Lay Vegan]

Recently, a pro-vitamin A biofortified food dubbed Golden Rice was approved in a food safety evaluation by the US FDA. This appears to be a step toward scientific progress over fear-mongering regarding GMO technology. http://irri.org/news/media-releases/gol ... y-agencies

To understand the significance of health organizations approving this kind of technology, it’s imperative to note that vitamin A deficiency is a prevailing problem in developing countries, namely South East Asia and Africa, where Vitamin A deficiency is one of the leading causes of dietary-related deaths. It’s estimated affect 1/3rd of the worlds pre-school age population, and kills annually about 250 million children under the age of 5. Therefore, fortifying rice with large quantities of A may be a practical solution in fighting micronutrient deficiency. Rice is also cheap and readily available in poor countries, and often a staple part of the East and South Asian diet.

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/hand ... sequence=1

http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/vad/en/

Beyond helping millions of children to avoid blindness and death, it could also benefit vegetarians in western countries, since rice is considered a staple part of a typical western plant-based diet. Rice is notoriously considered an empty source of calories, and provides no beta-carotene (which the body then converts into vitamin A). While it isn’t imperative that westerners have access to golden rice (since they have access to multivitamins and A-rich foods) it would alleviate fears held by people in developing countries that GM technology is somehow not safe and eaten all, or that westerners want them to eat something that we are not willing to eat. However, the agribusiness company Syngenta, who owns exclusive commercial rights, doesn't plan to market the product here. They only plan to market in developing countries. Perhaps if one were to petition Syngenta AG requesting that they market Golden Rice in the U.S., Syngenta would consider the benefits.

If you agree, please take some time to consider signing this petition to Syngenta AG, encouraging them to market Golden Rice within the United States and other western countries. https://www.change.org/p/syngenta-ag-br ... to-the-u-s

What are your thoughts on this?

[brimstoneSalad]

Awesome, tweeted it. I'd pin this but I think sometimes that ironically makes things less visible than just being bumped by discussion.

[Lay Vegan]

Awesome, tweeted it.

Thanks! Perhaps @JacyReese / @ModVegan or someone else on the forum with a significant following would consider sharing the petition? Would be an effortless way to maximize signature potential.

I'd pin this but I think sometimes that ironically makes things less visible than just being bumped by discussion.

Seems sensible for now. Although eventually we’ll need to pin it to prevent the thread from being buried in greater discussion.

Also, at some point in the future, I’ll transfer snippets of discussion held in this thread to the wiki. As of now there exists no articles on GM technology or Golden Rice.