More than 100 Nobel Prize winners are asking Greenpeace to end its opposition to genetically modified organisms. A letter by the Nobel laureates asks Greenpeace to cease its efforts to block introduction of a genetically engineered strain of rice. Supporters say the rice strain could reduce Vitamin-A deficiencies causing blindness and death in children in the developing world. Richard Roberts, chief scientific officer of New England Biolabs, helped organize the letter campaign. Roberts stated the current stance on GMOs by Greenpeace is “damaging, and is anti-science.” Greenpeace International’s website says the release of GMOs into the natural world is a form of “genetic pollution.”
Nobel laureate Randy Schekman, a cell biologist at the University of California-Berkeley, told the Washington Post, “I find it surprising groups that are very supportive of science when it comes to global climate change…can be so dismissive of the general views of scientists when it comes to something as important as the world’s agricultural future.”
Source: NAFB News Service