 "India can eradicate vitamin A deficiency with Golden Rice")
Golden Rice, which can deliver vitamin A, can provide an answer to vitamin A deficiency - a major cause of child mortality – in India, according to a team of ‘Allow Golden Rice Now’ campaign. The campaign team, which is on a world tour to create awareness about the benefits of Golden Rice, was recently in Mumbai to interact with the general public, scientists, industrialists, media and farmers.
According to Allow Golden Rice Now team, vitamin A deficiency in India affects more than 35 million children. Worldwide, about 2 million children die every year from diseases related to vitamin A deficiency, and between 250,000 and 500,000 go blind. Vitamin A deficiency is the biggest killer of children in the world today.
As rice is among the most consumed staple foods in the world, the team is confident that if vitamin A is introduced in the diet of Indians, the country will be free of vitamin A deficiency and stop many lives which are lost due to diseases caused by vitamin A deficiency.
Dr Patrick Moore, cofounder of Greenpeace and now leader of the Allow Golden Rice Now Campaign, said, “Vitamin A deficiency is a major cause of child mortality. Vitamin A deficiency in India effects many more diseases and Golden Rice can be a cure for it but as it created with genetic science, Greenpeace and the anti-GMO movement fervently oppose it. No country has approved it for cultivation. If Golden Rice was a cure for a disease like malaria, cancer, or ebola, it would have been approved years ago. It is time the international community intervened in this humanitarian tragedy.”
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The Golden Rice Tour began with a field trip to the International Rice Research Institute near Manila, the lead agency internationally for the development of Golden Rice. According to the Allow Golden Rice Campaign, the basic objective of the tour is to promote the positive message of Golden Rice which has been met with heavy resistance from anti-capitalist activists, 20 of which have joined forces to oppose Indian leg of the tour.
Dr Moore said, “Golden Rice has been proven to deliver vitamin A to both adults and children so there is certainty that it could save millions of lives. Can you imagine the grief of millions of poor parents who watch helplessly while their young children perish before their eyes?”
Rajju Shroff, chairman, Crop Care Federation of India, said, “It is high time that all of us come together including the government and regulatory bodies, adopt the new technology which is safe as well as save us and kids from malnutrition diseases. We need to give a tough fight to the scare mongering anti-development NGOs and get Golden Rice introduced in India.”