JohnSmith
Guest
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 Posted:
Sat Jul 02, 2005 8:03 am Post subject:
Golden Rice |
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Millions of lives could be saved and economic development could be
helped along if Greenpeace ended its senseless campaigns against the
insecticide DDT and biotechnology, says the Competitive Enterprise
Institute's Steven J. Milloy.
Although the Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT use in the
United States in 1972, the ban and its tenuous rationale was never
intended to be applied outside the country.
Environmental groups, including Greenpeace, nevertheless exported the
ban, making control of malaria-bearing mosquitoes in poor countries
essentially impossible.
Every year, the ban helps cause hundreds of millions of cases of malaria
and tens of millions of resulting deaths in Africa and other parts of
the developing world.
Greenpeace also campaigns against the use of agricultural biotechnology,
including "Golden Rice," which could help with the severe Vitamin A
deficiency that afflicts hundreds of millions in Africa and Asia and
blinds 500,000 children each year.
Scientists developed Golden Rice using the gene that makes daffodils
yellow. The gene makes the rice rich in beta-carotene, a precursor to
vitamin A.
But as pointed out by Greenpeace co-founder and former President Patrick
Moore, now a vociferous critic of the activist group: "Greenpeace
activists threaten to rip the biotech rice out of the fields if farmers
dare to plant it. They have done everything they can to discredit the
scientists and the technology."
Source: Steven J. Milloy, "Rock Stars' Activism Could Be Put to Better
Use," Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 24, 2005.
For text: http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,04632.cfm
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Glenn
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Jul 02, 2005 4:02 pm Post subject:
Re: Golden Rice |
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On Sat, 02 Jul 2005 01:39:14 -0500, JohnSmith wrote:
| Quote: | Millions of lives could be saved and economic development could be
helped along if Greenpeace ended its senseless campaigns against the
insecticide DDT and biotechnology, says the Competitive Enterprise
Institute's Steven J. Milloy.
What is this, the annual rite of passage for republican shills? The only |
reason for using DDT (beyond limited use where where in can be carefully
monitored) is the makers have excess capacity. The solution isn't to use
it, but to ban its production so there will be an incentive to increase
production and to reduce the price of the competitive products. An
environmental product that can be only used with public health supervision
can't be given unrestricted distribution.
--
Glenn |
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