GMO - False Promises, Smears And Golden Rice: Is This The Solution For Disease, Poverty And Malnutrition? - TruePublica
GMO – False Promises, Smears And Golden Rice: Is This The Solution For Disease, Poverty And Malnutrition?
– The pro GMO lobby relies on fraud, regulatory delinquency, opaque
practices, smear campaigns, dirty tricks, slick PR and the debasement of
science. While choosing to sideline the root causes of poverty, hunger,
malnutrition and regional food insecurity (and effective solutions), it promotes a techno quick-fix based on profitable proprietary technology.
At the same time, prominent advocates of GM attempt to deflect attention from their own self-interest in promoting this technology and their hypocritical attitudes
towards the poor by smearing their critics and offering sound bites
about ‘feeding the poor and hungry’. And then there are the wealthy
agritech corporations which flex their financial and political muscle
and effectively hijack democracy for their own ends by slanting,
science, politics, policies and regulation (these claims are discussed here, here and here).
Given this situation, it should not be about whether we are pro-GMO
or anti-GMO. It is more the case of whether we are anti-corruption and
pro-democratic.
People are demanding transparency, genuine independent testing and
genuine independent evaluations of the impacts of GM on farmers’
livelihoods, ecology, the environment and on human and animal health.
They also require fair and open debate.
Instead, what we too often get are dirty tricks, smears and PR from
supporters of GM, which demonstrate a deep ideological commitment to
corporate power and profit, rather than an openness and a willingness to
address the concerns of those who question the efficacy of GMOs and the
practices of the companies, politicians and scientists who are
promoting this technology.
It is about what is best for farmers, the public as consumers of food
and the environment, not what is best for research funding and career
paths, well-paid lobbyists, rich CEOs and wealthy shareholders.
