Following a week of meetings with European scientists, humanitarians, and the German media, Dr Patrick Moore led a protest march against Greenpeace in Hamburg, Germany. He accuses Greenpeace of lying to the public and obstructing the most hopeful cure for vitamin A deficiency, which claims the lives of two million children each year (UNICEF). He was joined by Professor Ingo Potrykus, the co-inventor of Golden Rice, who has worked for the last twenty-five years to bring the rice into farm production.
Greenpeace states publicly that Golden Rice "is completely untested and its effects on human health are absolutely unknown" (Zimmerman). In fact research has been conducted with human adults, children and in field trials.
The German media has given wide coverage to the Golden Rice Now campaign, with the three top national television stations broadcasting from the protest. All of the major newspapers have covered the campaign. In Germany, as in most of Europe, there is an intense debate over the use of genetic modification in agriculture. Greenpeace Hamburg is also at the heart of the anti-Golden Rice campaign, having led their effort to discredit Dr.Guangwen Tang's nutrition research which proves that Golden Rice delivers Vitamin A to children as effectively as vitamin A pills.
"They claim there is not enough science, and then they encourage the destruction of the field trials", says Dr. Moore."Golden Rice has now been delayed from helping children again. We demand that Greenpeace state that they are against any further interference with the research on Golden Rice."
The Golden Rice Now campaign continues over the next two weeks with public events and protests scheduled for Amsterdam, Brussels, Rome and London.
