Dhaka, March 14, 2015. It’s uncommon that an advocate opposing vehemently the introduction of GM crops joins its opposition group and now pleads strongly in its favor. Patrick Moore, a Canadian ecologist was a diehard Green Peace campaigner at one time, now leaves his group and join hands with the global campaign called – “Allow Golden Rice Now”. The campaign supports the introduction of genetically modified “golden rice” in countries where children suffer from vitamin ‘A’ deficiency leading to child blindness and subsequently to death.. Dr. Moore is now on a three nation tour to Bangladesh, India and the Philippines to promote the cause of fighting child mortality by preventing blindness in them. He delivered a lecture yesterday, the 13th March, ’15 before a group of biochemists and botanists at Dhaka University.
It may be mentioned here that “golden rice: was developed in a Swiss laboratory“If golden rice were a cure for cancer, malaria, or Ebola, it would have been approved 10 years ago. In that time, 20 million people, mostly children, have died. This is a crime against humanity,” said Patrick Moore, the campaign head and a Canadian ecologist, at a press briefing in Dhaka yesterday.
Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace and an ex-director of the world’s largest green group, left Greenpeace as he considered its positions on various issues unscientific.
In 2013, along with his brother Michael Moore, he founded the Allow Golden Rice Society — a non-profit organization dedicated to seeing golden rice approved for commercial agriculture.
Golden rice is a genetically modified rice variety capable of fighting child mortality and blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency. The rice is infused with vitamin A producing beta carotene taken from daffodil and later from maize.