Golden Rice, Red Tape

This is Henry Miller (Hoover Institution) writing in The Guardian (U.K.):

In developing countries, 200-300 million children of preschool age are at risk of vitamin A deficiency, which can be devastating and even fatal. It increases susceptibility to common childhood infections such as measles and diarrhoeal diseases and is the single most important cause of childhood blindness in developing countries. Every year, about 500,000 children become blind as a result of vitamin A deficiency, and 70% die within a year of losing their sight….

[A] solution: golden rice, which actually incorporates beta-carotene into the genetically altered rice grains….Golden rice offers the potential to make contributions to human health and welfare as monumental as the discovery and distribution of the Salk polio vaccine….

But one aspect of this shining story is tarnished. Intransigent opposition by anti-science, anti-technology activists – primarily Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and a few other groups – has spurred already risk-averse regulators to adopt an overly precautionary approach that has stalled approvals.

Full editorial here.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiWuUAFI0ps

Tina Turner:

We are the children

The last generation

We are the ones they left behind

Full text: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tinaturner/wedontneedanotherhero.html

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