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Greenpeace founder pushes hard for Golden Rice

It's not news that Patrick Moore is frustrated with the folks at Greenpeace. While he was an original founder of the group, and in speeches touts the work he did to help save the whales, and protect baby seals, he parted ways when the organization focused more on the "green" in its name rather than the "peace." And all of his focus now is on Golden Rice.

During the Agricultural Bioscience International Conference being held in Fargo this week, Moore took on the notion of anti-GMO activists; but his core cause is Golden Rice. Farmers will remember Golden Rice. News of the idea of engineering rice so that it produced beta carotene, which the human body turns to valuable Vitamin A was greeted with optimism and excitement more than a decade ago. But like one of those documentaries that asks "whatever happened to golden rice" the product sort of fell off the radar.

Not in rice-centric countries where the crop – if cultivated – could save as many as 2 million children a year, Moore says. However, Greenpeace and other like groups have taking on the Golden Rice fight as a standard bearer in their war on GMO crops and Moore is none too happy. In fact, he's created a movement – Allow Golden Rice Now - in opposition to the efforts to stop the crop. "They're linking Golden Rice with death, which scares parents into not wanting the technology developed, and they're still doing this today," Moore says. It was those efforts, and the fact that no one was actively campaigning in favor of the technology that led Moore to create the group supporting development of the crop.

Read more at Seedbuzz
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