[img_assist|nid=143|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=43]The goal of combating VAD is not to provide medical treatment, it is to avoid VAD and another VMDs. By combating VAD with home gardens, sustainable systems are created that provide food security and diversity from the grassroots level - in a way that empowers women and protects agro-biodiversity.

Greenpeace: "Golden Rice is a technical failure standing in way of real solutions for vitamin A deficiency"

"Five years after the hype on the so called "Golden Rice" started, Greenpeace claims that this project is a technical failure, not suited to overcome malnutrition and worse, is drawing funding and attention away from the real solutions to combat vitamin A deficiency (VAD). Greenpeace expects that industry scientists will shortly release new propaganda on Golden Rice, misleading the public again on real solutions for VAD."

Golden rice was first presented in 2000 as a rice variety that was genetically engineered in a laboratory to produce pro-vitamin A (beta-carotene). The aim was that this genetically engineered (GE) rice would solve the problems of vitamin A deficiency, which can result in blindness and even death and occurs predominantly in developing countries.

Close reading of the Golden Rice publications reveals that these publications were hiding technical problems. The original publication on Golden Rice did not fully, nor accurately, describe the type of pro-vitamin A present in Golden Rice. In fact, the reported amount of beta-carotene present was significantly over-estimated. The main problem is that current science doesn't understands how the GE rice makes the beta-carotene in the plant."

Links:

• Greenpeace press release (17 March 2005)
• Greenpeace reports (pdf), March 2005:
  • Greenpeace: Not all that glitters is gold. The false hope of "Golden Rice"

  • Antje Lorch: Vitamin A deficiency: diverse causes, diverse solutions
  • Michael Frei and Klaus Becker: On rice, biodiversity and nutrients
• Golden Rice (2001)