Another Victory for Fear And Ignorance Over the World's Poorest.

[NNadir]

There is a world wide collection of antiscience activists that markets itself as being "green" and fostering "peace," thus calling itself, in a classic case of Orwellian Doublespeak, "Greenpeace."

I think of them personally as Soot Warriors. "Peace," to my mind, should include some reference to human decency.

The main sciences they hate in this ignorance society are nuclear science and molecular biology, a branch of which is genomics.

Their ignorance kills people - climate change and air pollution are deadly - and in the case of children, in the case of fostering anti- molecular biology, helps to blind children.

In support of the contention that their fear and ignorance, and obviously poor educations, I note that a collection of very prominent scientists - Nobel Laureates, 110 in all - have called on this organization of idiots to stop hurting poor people:

110 Nobel Laureates to Greenpeace: Change Your Stance on GMOs

This letter was organized by Richard Roberts, himself a Nobel Laureate; I've heard him speak on the topic of this ignorance society.

It is to no avail; as in many places, not the least of which is the United States, ignorance triumphs over reason regularly.

From the news sections of the current issue of Science:

What a Philippine court ruling means for transgenic Golden Rice

Once hailed as a dietary breakthrough Plant engineered to counter a debilitating vitamin A deficiency in developing countries has faced fierce opposition

3 MAY 2024 By Dennis Normile

Golden Rice seemed to be on the cusp of fulfilling its promise. Decades ago, researchers created the genetically modified (GM) rice variety to combat vitamin A deficiency, a scourge of the developing world that can cause blindness and even lead to death. But for more than 20 years activists opposed to GM crops kept Golden Rice confined to laboratories and test plots.

But in 2021, the government of the Philippines granted a permit allowing the commercial planting of Malusog Rice, a Golden Rice variety tailored for local conditions and tastes. Farmers began to grow limited amounts of the grain in 2022. Officials hoped to have the variety comprise 10% of the nation’s rice harvest within 8 years, enough to meet the needs of all vitamin A deficient households.

On 17 April, however, a Philippine Court of Appeals revoked the permit, bringing that plan to a halt. Ruling on a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace and other groups, the court concluded that in the absence of a scientific consensus on the safety of Golden Rice it should not be commercially cultivated. The nation’s constitution, the judges found, required the government to follow the so-called precautionary principle of waiting to approve new crops and activities until scientists reach a consensus that they are safe for humans and the environment...

Obviously training in science is not the purview of Philippine judges, anymore than it is the purview of the members of the religious cultish hacks now dominating the US Supreme Court.

The court also found that the government has not established mechanisms to monitor the safety of growing and consuming Golden Rice. So, the decision also blocks new field testing in greenhouses or open fields, crimping research until an approved monitoring scheme is in place.

“The court decision is a catastrophe for Golden Rice in the Philippines and elsewhere,” says Ingo Potrykus, a plant biotechnologist who co-led the development of the amber colored rice while at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

History will record the membership of "Greenpeace" for what they are, uneducated antiscience thugs.

Let's be clear, there are, and will be children blinded by this antiscience setback.

Gene insertion, for the record, has been a feature of nature for billions of years, but apparently, gene insertion for the benefit of humanity is controversial among cults like Greenpeace for whom no amount of information can change their chanting and dogma.

Have a nice weekend.

[Backseat Driver]

1. Golden rice sounds like a GMO "winner" to me

but I don't run Phillipine agriculture and don't espouse any Greenpeace drama, but glyphosate-ready grains and when used as a spray-on ripening and desssicant - not so much and would rather not consume GMO (glyphosate) nor other pesticides on other grains and veggies that threaten the lives of "good" pollinators such as bees in our food chain. Then again, I'm a tenant that tries to have a 40 forty inches organic garden every year, but DH still works FT and we're getting tired and terrified of high costs of housing and foods as we get older and older...

That said, DH found a dead birdie, likely a sparrow or finch, on our front sidewalk yesterday; no wounds or broken bones on inspection, but already partly consumed by insects. It wasn't there in the AM, so no telling how it died. He gloved and suited up to dispose of said little bird then disinfected the sidewalk as the H1N1 seems to be spreading again courtesy of dairy cows, and we love our domestic and wild ducks (mean/nasty migratory Canadian geese not so much). Note: only pasturized milk from the grocery in our household but lots of wild migratory birds--awaiting at least a few hummingbirds at our feeders. In addition, I'm so tired of hearing about food recalls - wasteful processing by humans and greedflation inflicted on consumers, I'm sure).