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By Root 1210 0

kids a year . . . but protesters believe such genetically modified foods are bad for us and our planet. Here’s why.” The story noted that it was “no wonder the biotech industry sees Golden Rice as a powerful ally in its struggle to win public acceptance. No wonder its critics see it as a cynical ploy.”22 Cynics might indeed raise eyebrows at the advertisement shown in figure 14, a component of the biotechnology industry’s public relations campaign in 2001. The advertisement features a photograph of a child of indeterminate ethnicity eating a “vitamin-enriched” breakfast cereal presumably made from Golden Rice. It says, “Thanks to biotechnology, researchers are developing a new kind of rice with beta-carotene. . . . In the future it could help prevent serious illnesses, such as blindness or anemia, for many people in developing parts of the world.”

Dr. Potrykus—frustrated by the encumbrances of industry patent rights on the one hand and objections by antibiotechnology advocates on the other—emphasizes the humanitarian benefits of his research. He told the Tufts University conference that the 40,000 people dying from malnutrition every day need the technology just to survive. Malnutrition, he said,

pose[s] immense medical problems for developing countries. Traditional interventions are helpful, but require additional and complementary actions. . . . Applied in “humanitarian projects” they could substantially and sustainably improve the health and life of the poor. Whether the poor will benefit, does neither depend upon scientific, patent right, or economic problems, nor upon socioeconomic, consumer health, or environmental risks. It depends mainly upon the political “success” of radical anti-GMO organizations. Those who try to prevent careful exploitation in humanitarian projects must be taken responsible for their damage.23

By “those,” Dr. Potrykus meant Greenpeace: “Is there any problem left that could interfere with the exploitation of ‘Golden Rice’ to the benefit of the poor and disadvantaged in developing countries? It is unfortunate that the answer is yes: Greenpeace . . . and associated GMO opponents regard ‘Golden Rice’ as a ‘Trojan Horse.’. . . By their singular logic, the success of ‘Golden Rice’ has to be prevented under all circumstances, irrespective of the damage to those for whose interest Greenpeace pretends to act.”24 Dr. Potrykus is correct in his assessment of the motivations of Greenpeace. From that organization’s standpoint, Golden Rice obscures fundamental issues of societal values—in this case, poverty and control over resources—and is a techno-fix imposed by corporations and scientists without consulting recipients about whether they want it or not. Greenpeace says that the true purpose of Golden Rice is to convince people to accept genetically modified foods.

FIGURE 14. This biotechnology industry advertisement appeared late in 2001 inside the front cover of Food Safety, a publication of the National Restaurant Association’s Educational Foundation. The text suggests that Golden Rice could help prevent nutritional deficiencies among people in the developing world, presumably by replacing the current vitamin-enriched breakfast cereals.

If Greenpeace frustrates scientists and biotechnology industry officials, it is in part because its tactics are so effective. For one thing, Greenpeace fights science with science. In February 2001, the group challenged the fundamental premise (and promise) of Golden Rice. Greenpeace calculated that adults would have to eat at least 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of Golden Rice to meet daily vitamin A recommendations. Greenpeace called Golden Rice nothing but “fool’s gold” and said, “It is shameful that the biotech industry is using starving children to promote a dubious product. . . . This isn’t about solving childhood blindness, it’s about solving biotech’s public relations problem.”25

Greenpeace did its homework. It took at face value the scientists’ own estimate that a daily intake of 300 grams (nearly 11 ounces) of Golden Rice should provide the equivalent of 100