Golden Rice trial vandalized
Some background information is pertinent at this point regarding the Rockefeller Foundation (from Wiki):
My view:
It is interesting to see the gradual spread of genetically modified crops to emerging markets in the developing world.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of these modified crops are less beneficial than their sponsors suggest.
A prime example is the so call terminator genes toyed with by the Monsanto corporation that were so obviously dangerous that even the Rockefeller foundation spoke out against them.
While the foundation appears to be benevolent, when one considers where they are concentrating their efforts, and whom they seem focused on, there seems to be a disconnect between their philanthropic claims and actions.
Why would anyone sponsor a vegetable (eggplant) to produce toxins to ward off pests? Toxins that kill insects are invariably also harmful to the human consumer as any plant pathologist would confirm.
Why would the Rockefeller foundation team up with Bill & Melinda Gates to conduct research in Africa? We know that the Gates promote vaccines as a population control mechanism as Mr. Gates has said this publicly at a TED conference.
Why the interest in Africa in particular, given the historical funding of Nazi research into anthropology and eugenics?
In my view, there is a link that is less than benevolent with much of the genetic modification of crops and the poor countries in Africa and Asia. It is clear from the choice of warm climate crops, rice and maize, that "reducing hunger" is primarily linked to reducing population.
Are the farmers in the Philippines justified in their concern over GMO crops? I would say they are probably under reacting considering the damage these crops could do to the genetics of conventional crops through pollen contamination.
The time to know where ones food comes from and what is in it has never been more urgent.
A trial plot of genetically modified rice has been destroyed by local farmers in the Philippines."Golden Rice" has been developed by scientists to combat vitamin A deficiency, which affects millions of children in the developing world.The crop was just weeks away from being submitted to the authorities for a safety evaluation.But a group of around 400 protestors attacked the field trial in the Bicol region and uprooted all the GM plants.The project to develop Golden Rice was started 20 years ago in 1993 by German researchers with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.
"This is not a major setback, because it is just one trial of a series and just one of several sites. We remain completely committed to continuing our Golden Rice research to help improve people's nutrition," said Dr Tolentino.
The development of GM technology is highly contentious in the Philippines. Earlier this year, the Court of Appeals rejected another crop, an eggplant that had been modified to produce toxins to a pest. The court ruled that the crop violated the constitutional rights of Filipinos to health and a balanced ecology.
Some background information is pertinent at this point regarding the Rockefeller Foundation (from Wiki):
The Rockefeller Foundation is a philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City.[3] The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller ("Senior"), along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr. ("Junior"), and Senior's principal business and philanthropic advisor, Frederick Taylor Gates, in New York State May 14, 1913, when its charter was formally accepted by the New York State Legislature.[4] Its central historical mission is "to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world."[2]
Later it funded over $100 million of plant biotechnology research and trained over four hundred scientists from Asia, Africa and Latin America. It also invested in the production of transgenic crops, including rice and maize. In 1999, the then president Gordon Conway addressed the Monsanto Company board of directors, warning of the possible social and environmental dangers of this biotechnology, and requesting them to disavow the use of so-called terminator genes;[30] the company later complied.
In the 1990s, the foundation shifted its agriculture work and emphasis to Africa; in 2006 it joined with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in a $150 million effort to fight hunger in the continent through improved agricultural productivity. In an interview marking the 100 year anniversary of the Rockefeller Foundation, Judith Rodin explained to This Is Africa that Rockefeller has been involved in Africa since their beginning in three main areas - health, agriculture and education, though agriculture has been and continues to be their largest investment in Africa.[31]
The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America after the Carnegie Corporation, the foundation's impact on philanthropy in general has been profound. It has supported United Nationsprograms throughout its history, such as the recent First Global Forum On Human Development, organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1999.[34]
The early institutions it set up have served as models for current organizations: the UN's World Health Organization, set up in 1948, is modeled on the International Health Division; the U.S. Government's National Science Foundation (1950) on its approach in support of research, scholarships and institutional development; and the National Institute of Health (1950) imitated its longstanding medical programs.[35]
The Rockefeller Foundation, funded Nazi racial studies even after it was clear what this research was being used to rationalize the demonizing of Jews and other groups. Up until 1939 the Rockefeller Foundation was funding research used to support Nazi racial science studies at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics (KWIA.) Reports submitted to Rockefeller did not hide what these studies were being used to justify, but Rockefeller continued the funding and refrained from criticizing this research so closely derived from Nazi ideology. The Rockefeller Foundation did not alert "the world to the nature of German science and the racist folly" that German anthropology promulgated and Rockefeller funded for years after the passage of the 1935 Nuremberg racial laws.[36]
My view:
It is interesting to see the gradual spread of genetically modified crops to emerging markets in the developing world.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of these modified crops are less beneficial than their sponsors suggest.
A prime example is the so call terminator genes toyed with by the Monsanto corporation that were so obviously dangerous that even the Rockefeller foundation spoke out against them.
While the foundation appears to be benevolent, when one considers where they are concentrating their efforts, and whom they seem focused on, there seems to be a disconnect between their philanthropic claims and actions.
Why would anyone sponsor a vegetable (eggplant) to produce toxins to ward off pests? Toxins that kill insects are invariably also harmful to the human consumer as any plant pathologist would confirm.
Why would the Rockefeller foundation team up with Bill & Melinda Gates to conduct research in Africa? We know that the Gates promote vaccines as a population control mechanism as Mr. Gates has said this publicly at a TED conference.
Why the interest in Africa in particular, given the historical funding of Nazi research into anthropology and eugenics?
In my view, there is a link that is less than benevolent with much of the genetic modification of crops and the poor countries in Africa and Asia. It is clear from the choice of warm climate crops, rice and maize, that "reducing hunger" is primarily linked to reducing population.
Are the farmers in the Philippines justified in their concern over GMO crops? I would say they are probably under reacting considering the damage these crops could do to the genetics of conventional crops through pollen contamination.
The time to know where ones food comes from and what is in it has never been more urgent.
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