The Allow Golden Rice Now! Campaign announces forums and public demonstrations against Greenpeace in nine European cities

Berlin (ots/PRNewswire) -

Scientists in Europe are stepping up their efforts to bring Golden
Rice into production, with its promise to alleviate one of the
world's scourges, vitamin A deficiency. They have organized a
nine-city European tour led by Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder and
former leader of Greenpeace. "Vitamin A deficiency is the largest
killer of children in the world today", says Dr. Moore. "Those who
claim Golden Rice could be harmful provide no evidence, and have
blocked it for eight years, during which millions of preventable
deaths have occurred".

Golden Rice has enough vitamin A that 40 grams a day is enough to
prevent the blindness and death that claims two million people a
year, according to the WHO. But because it is a GMO there is
opposition to it from Greenpeace and other activist organizations.
Research and development trials have been sabotaged, unproven claims
of toxicity have been alleged and researcher credibility attacked.

The Allow Golden Rice Now Society contends it should be exempted
from the zero-tolerance policies of Greenpeace towards genetic
modification. Golden Rice is a humanitarian cause, controlled by
scientists, producing viable seeds, meaning no corporate control. The
Golden Rice Humanitarian Board will distribute the rice at the same
cost as normal rice to small farmers. Within a few years of
production it is expected to make a major reduction in the 250
million pre-school age children who the World Health Organization
says are vitamin A deficient.

The Golden Rice Now! campaign begins with a keynote presentation
by Dr. Moore at the Humboldt University Forum for Food and
Agriculture in Berlin on January 15, followed by a protest at the
Greenpeace Hamburg office on January 17. It will then conduct forums
and public demonstrations at Greenpeace offices in Amsterdam,
Brussels, Rome and London. A full schedule is available at the
campaign website http://www.allowgoldenricenow.org.

"The only difference with Golden Rice is that it has beta carotene
in its grain. Beta carotene is essential for our bodies to make
vitamin A. The only possible health effects from this are beneficial,
and we demand that Greenpeace and its allies make a humanitarian
exception to their zero-tolerance position on genetic modification,"
says Dr. Moore.

info@allowgoldenricenow.org
Media inquiries: Patrick Moore (01)778-383-9053
German-speaking: Uwe Schrader +49-176-631-73-684

ots Originaltext: Allow Golden Rice Now Society
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