Over 100 Noble laureates slam Greenpeace for opposing GMOs

In a letter, more than 100 Noble laureates have slammed Greenpeace for opposing biotechnological innovations in agriculture and urged the environment NGO to end its opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) technology. In the letter, scientists have claimed that organisations opposed to modern plant breeding, with Greenpeace at their lead, have misrepresented GMOs’ risks, benefits, and impacts, and supported the criminal destruction of approved field trials and research projects.

The letter, addressed to Greenpeace, the United Nations and governments around the world, was seeking support for genetically modified rice variety which is developed to tackle vitamin A deficiency in the developing and under-developed world, especially Asia and Africa. 

“The United Nations Food & Agriculture Program has noted that global production of food, feed and fibre will need approximately to double by 2050 to meet the demands of a growing global population. We urge Greenpeace and its supporters to re-examine the experience of farmers and consumers worldwide with crops and foods improved through biotechnology, recognise the findings of authoritative scientific bodies and regulatory agencies, and abandon their campaign against ‘GMOs’ in general and Golden Rice in particular,” said the letter.

ALSO READ: India can eradicate vitamin A deficiency with Golden Rice

Scientific and regulatory agencies around the world have repeatedly and consistently found crops and foods improved through biotechnology to be as safe as, if not safer than those derived from any other method of production. “There has never been a single confirmed case of a negative health outcome for humans or animals from their consumption. Their environmental impacts have been shown repeatedly to be less damaging to the environment, and a boon to global biodiversity,” the letter claimed. 

Greenpeace has spearheaded opposition to Golden Rice, which has the potential to reduce or eliminate much of the death and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency (VAD), which has the greatest impact on the poorest people in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The World Health Organization estimates that 250 million people, suffer from VAD, including 40 percent of the children under five in the developing world. Based on UNICEF statistics, a total of one to two million preventable deaths occur annually as a result of VAD, because it compromises the immune system, putting babies and children at great risk. VAD itself is the leading cause of childhood blindness globally affecting 250,000 - 500,000 children each year. Half die within 12 months of losing their eyesight. 

The letter urged Greenpeace to cease and desist in its campaign against Golden Rice specifically, and crops and foods improved through biotechnology in general.

It also called upon governments of the world to reject Greenpeace’s campaign against Golden Rice specifically, and crops and foods improved through biotechnology in general; and to do everything in their power to oppose Greenpeace's actions and accelerate the access of farmers to all the tools of modern biology, especially seeds improved through biotechnology. 

“Opposition based on emotion and dogma contradicted by data must be stopped,” the letter concluded.