Genetically Modified Rice Has Been Approved In The United States
About twenty years there was a lot of talk about golden rice and its potential to save many hungering people. Years passed and… nothing. Because almost nobody actually grows golden rice nobody can eat it.
Golden Rice grain compared to white rice grain in screenhouse of Golden Rice plants
By International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
But that may soon change. The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been recently judged golden rice to be safe and approved it for consumption in the U.S. Thus it seems that after almost three decades the world could start changing and genetically modified organisms could be on the rise.
When it comes to golden rice, it is rice that had its genes changed so that the plant can produce beta-carotene – the precursor to vitamin A. This may help 250 000 – 500 000 children that suffer from the lack of this vitamin and are at the same time extremely reliant on rice. Children who suffer from vitamin A deficiency may fall victims to childhood blindness and vitamin A deficiency is actually the worlds leading cause of childhood blindness.
Some of the interesting facts about golden rice include the fact that its development has been financed by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or that even the pope has given his blessing to golden rice. But the problem is that almost 40 % of Americans are still convinced that genetically modified food is dangerous to your health. And the situation in Europe isn’t much better. But now since the United States have become the fourth country in the world that approved golden rice, there is a good chance that others will follow suit.
Sources:
- https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23831802-500-gm-golden-rice-gets-approval-from-food-regulators-in-the-us/
- http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/12/01/public-opinion-about-genetically-modified-foods-and-trust-in-scientists-connected-with-these-foods/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_A_deficiency
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I will post maybe an unpopular opinion on the matter and I think you might agree with me.
GMO's are safe and I support their utilization allow me to continue, GMO's are not a new thing we are doing to Frankenstein our crops as you said it in the article they are helping our population so we can get more out of our crops like rice with Vitamin A genetics.
What I fear is that people are too scared and most of all ill-informed about the subject and are, contrary to their best interest, against these kinds of crops that can benefit a lot of people. If GMO's are not eradicating hunger right now is because of these people who oppose GMOs because they do not know better.
Thank you for posting this very good news.
I can 100 % support your opinion. Seriously, GMOs are fine. The amount of testing that goes into them is somewhat ridiculous (though I don't argue for getting rid of the testing either).
I'm would even argue that not only genetically modified plants but genetically modified bacteria, viruses and many other organisms are one of the tools humanity will NEED to get right if we want to further our development.
And with time, even genetic modification of ourselves will need to happen. Though there I actually see a potential for a huge moral conundrum of who should have access to these. But at the same time, our technological progress has hugely outpaced our biological progress. And that IS an issue that will need to be looked at in time. Not yet, but soonish (within a few centuries at most).
Yes, I really think ethics are essential in this regard, I think it can be highly regulated but never stopped because if we outright banned this kind of practices and research than people is going to do it anyways but behind closed doors without any of us beneficiating.
We have to look long and hard about the ethics and the choice of who is going to be genetically modified and for what reason, at the end of the day I think we will evolve using genetically engineered into superhumans.
Thank you for your well thought and eloquent response.
I'm honestly shocked and disgusted by this. Imagine how many lives could have been saved if this was approved decades ago? All for their suspicion of scary corporations and new technology.
yeah, and IMO the worst part is the fact that 40% of people still think GMOs are bad.
The Luddites will always be here it seems. I wonder what they're gonna look like in 3018.
probably it will be AIs complaining that new better AIs are taking their jobs
I love it. There needs to be skit made about this if there isn't already.
while I do videos on my gaming blogs(news, reviews, and commentaries) sadly skits are still outside my ability :) But be sure to go for it if you do have the ability to do that! :)
Maybe some time soon. I work for a radio station so we mainly do audio, but we've done a bit of video as well. I do tech blogging and podcast producing mainly. I actually did a post a few days ago about the VR headset market. If you're interested check it out and follow: https://steemit.com/technology/@lucious/status-of-the-vr-headset-market
Do you want me resteem your post to over 72,500 followers? Go here: https://steemit.com/@a-0-0