Scare propaganda from the environmental movement is costing thousands of lives

Every year we get up to one half a million children in the world blind due to lack of vitamin A. Around half of these children die within a year.

Fortunately, there are effective measures against this, and one of them is Golden Rice.

This new rice variety has been genetically modified to contain beta-carotene -- the same substance found in carrots and which the body converts into vitamin A.

Golden Rice can save thousands of lives annually, but is still not on the market.

The reason? Unfounded scare propaganda and opposition from environmental movements, with Greenpeace in the lead.

Criticism from 167 Nobel laureates

The environmental movement bases its opposition to Golden Rice on a a number of unsubstantiated allegations.

According to environmental activists, Golden Rice is very dangerous and can lead to both cancer and infertility when eaten, and to ecological collapse if planted in the field.

But these claims have no basis in science. Decades of research have uncovered nothing of concern, and the rice is approved and declared safe by both Philippine authorities and their associates in several other countries.

167 Nobel laureates -- about half of all those still alive -- have in a open letter called on Greenpeace and the rest of the environmental movement to drop their opposition to Golden Rice, and stop spreading disinformation.

“How many poor people in the world have to die before we consider this a crime against humanity?” , it says in the letter.

Those are harsh words, but also out of place.

Lead was?

Another core argument of the environmental movement's GMO opposition is that we should be lead var.

We cannot know with 100 percent certainty that genetically modified rice is safe, and then it is better not to, they believe.

It makes sense to move forward slowly in situations where the downside is significant, and the upside is low.

Here, however, the situation is the opposite.

When a measure can significantly improve health and save lives, the risks are assessed as low and the disadvantages are speculative, then prohibition is an unsuitable tool. Then we should rather work in parallel to learn more.

Paradoxically, the environmental movement does not want more knowledge. As of 2022, Filipino farmers have been able to grow the rice, but last year environmental activists got the Philippine court to withdraw permission.

Before this they also ruined the scientists' field experiments through vandalism.

The environmental movement claims that Golden Rice will turn poor small farmers into slaves of global big business. It's wrong.

Golden Rice is a Non-profit humanitarian project, where anyone who wants to grow it gets free access. In fact, it explicitly states in the agreements for Golden Rice that it cannot be exploited for commercial purposes by private actors.

Another argument they draw forward is that Golden Rice is not needed because there is enough nutritious food in the world -- it just has to be distributed differently.

But we can't ban an innovation just because there are also other measures that contribute.

All measures that contribute positively should be used.

A humanitarian disaster

It's not just the international environmental movement that is working against Golden Rice.

Truls Gulowsen, Chairman of the Natural Conservation Association, has several times been out in the media and warned against the rice.

The same has it government-funded GMO network.

Greenpeace Norway expressed in social media its support for its international parent organization's “victory” in the Philippine Court of Justice last year.

It is high time for the environmental movement to come to terms with itself.

In the Philippines, around 17 percent of all children are affected by vitamin A deficiency, and Golden Rice could have entered into regular rice production at no extra cost.

For every year the ban is upheld thousands of lives will be lost.

Sacrificing children's lives on the altar of the cause of principle is not defensible. The Norwegian environmental movement must turn around, and should lead the way in a global turnaround regarding Golden Rice in particular, and GMOs in general.

The way the world looks, we need a strong environmental movement, but if it sacrifices science, life and health for dubious scare propaganda, it does more harm than good.