Over 100,000 Kids Have Died Due to Greenpeace Blocking Genetically Enhanced Rice, New Calculation Shows
Greenpeace and its activist allies have blocked the adoption of Golden Rice, genetically engineered to produce the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene, for more than two decades. The result is accordingly new calculations By founder of DC Abundance and research director of the Golden Gate Artificial Intelligence Institute Abi Olvera“The delay resulted in the deaths of approximately 106,000 children and the blindness of 210,000 to 425,000 children.”
Greenpeace’s cautious calculations of the deaths and disabilities caused by its scientifically ridiculous opposition to Golden Rice focus on 11 countries where rice consumption forms a significant part of their people’s diet.
As Olvera reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated “Each year, 250,000-500,000 children with vitamin A deficiency become blind, and half of them die within 12 months of losing their sight.” Vitamin A deficiency contributes to increased morbidity and mortality from common childhood infections. As the World Health Organization notes, “Even a mild, subclinical deficiency can be a problem because it can increase the risk of respiratory and diarrheal infections in children, reduce growth rates, slow bone development, and reduce the likelihood of survival from serious illness.” And it is the leading preventable cause of childhood blindness in the world.
I debunk the activist group Greenpeace’s unscientific opposition to Golden Rice since 2000. requested: “Greenpeace opposes golden rice because it carries all kinds of risks [genetically modified] In my 2013 article titled “Scientists Call Out Greenpeace for Killing and Blinding Children,” greeted bubbly editorial Science HE alleged“If there is a definitive cause for the anger, it is the concerted campaign against Golden Rice by individuals as well as Greenpeace and other non-governmental organisations.”
In 2016, I reported: open letter The 100 Nobel Prize winners called for “Greenpeace to cease and desist its campaign against Golden Rice in particular and the improvement of crops and food in general through biotechnology.” The award winners claimed that Greenpeace had committed a “crime against humanity”. And as recently as 2024, I warned that Greenpeace’s crusade against Golden Rice would continue to blind and kill children, while reporting that the anti-tech activist group had persuaded a Philippine court to prevent local farmers from planting the grain.
Greenpeace and its anti-tech allies have been blocking this life-saving crop for more than 25 years. Although time has passed, Greenpeace’s blockade may be coming to an end. As it becomes more normal for poor countries to grow their own genetically modified crops, Olvera optimistically concludes, “the harder it becomes to keep blocking what has to come first.”
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