Genetically modified
‘super banana’ to be tested on Americans
Published time: June 16, 2014 17:56
-
Edited time: June 16, 2014 21:54
AFP
Photo / Seyllou Diallo
A vitamin-enhanced ‘super-banana’ developed by
scientists is to be tested on humans. The trials are to take place in the US
over a six-week period. Researchers aim to start growing the fruit in Uganda by
2020.
The bananas are ‘super’ because they have been
genetically engineered to have increased levels of vitamin A – a deficiency of
which can be fatal.
Hundreds of thousands die annually worldwide from
vitamin A deficiencies, while many others go blind, the project's leader told
AFP.
“The consequences of vitamin A deficiency are dire with 650,000-700,000
children worldwide dying...each year and at least another 300,000 going
blind,” Professor James Dale stated.
“Good science can make a massive difference here by enriching staple
crops such as Ugandan bananas with pro-vitamin A and providing poor and
subsistence-farming populations with nutritionally rewarding
food,” Dale said.
The project was created by Queensland University of
Technology (QUT) in Australia and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.
“We know our science will work,” Dale said. “We made all the constructs, the genes that went into
bananas, and put them into bananas here at QUT.”
Dale added that the genetically modified banana flesh
is more orange than a usual banana, but otherwise looks the same.
The highland or East African cooking banana is a
dietary staple in East Africa, according to the researchers. However, it has low
levels of micronutrients, particularly vitamin A and iron.
If the project is given the go-ahead for Uganda after
the US trials, micronutrient enriched/modified crops could also be given the
green light for Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
“In West Africa farmers grow plantain bananas and the same technology
could easily be transferred to that variety as well,” Dale stated.
GMOs and Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation
The claim that genetically-modified organisms (GMOs)
pose no risk to human and environmental health is far from settled, despite industry assertions.
In October, 93 international scientists said there was a lack of
empirical and scientific evidence to support what they said were false claims
made by the biotech industry about a so-called “consensus” on GMO safety
[SIC]. They said more independent research is needed, as existing studies which
say that GMOs are safe are overwhelmingly funded and supported by biotech
companies.
The Gates Foundation [supporters
of worldwide depopulation agenda] has a history of supporting GMO research and technology – at least
since
2010, when the non-profit invested in a low amount of
shares in biotechnology giant Monsanto. Gates has amped up support for GMOs so
that “poor countries that have the toughest time feeding their people have a
process,” adding that “there should be an open-mindedness, and if they
can specifically prove [GMO] safety and benefits, foods should be approved, just
like they are in middle-income countries.” Such support has resulted in
criticism and suspicion of the foundation's agenda.
As for the worry that GMO seeds are increasingly
consolidated in the hands of major agribusiness powers, Gates
said in February 2013 – after his foundation reportedly
sold the approximately $23 million in Monsanto shares it owned – that there are
"legitimate issues, but solvable issues" with GMO technology and wider
use. He added that one solution may be offering crops already patented but
requiring no royalty dues.
Gates has supported the use of GMO crops in the
developing world, as well as “large-scale farm land investments by foreign
states in the developing world,” AFP
wrote in 2012. Months ago, Gates stressed his support for
GMO farming in Africa.
“Middle-income countries are the biggest users of GMOs...Small farmers
have gotten soy beans and cotton and things like that. But we’re trying to get
African agriculture up to high productivity – it’s about a third of rich-world
productivity right now – and we need the full range of scientific innovation,
with really good safety checking, to work on behalf of the
poor,” Gates told
Quartz in January.
GMO crops are now grown in 28 countries, or on 12
percent of the world's arable land, with the acreage doubling every five years.
However, in the European Union, only two GMO varieties have so far been licensed
for commercial harvesting (compared to 96 in the US).
In the US, an overwhelming majority of Americans say they support the labeling of GMO
products – an effort that has gained traction in some states and interest in
nearly all others.
Opponents of labeling – including powerful food
industry and biotechnology players – are currently mobilizing their resources on the national level to stem the tide
of sentiment against GMO proliferation. These groups have worked with supportive
members of Congress to introduce federal legislation that would block states from passing mandatory GMO labeling measures
like
Vermont's, despite the “right
to know” movement’s rising popularity.
GMOs have been in the food supply since the 1990s, and
are included in roughly 70 to 80 percent of products available to American
consumers, according to food manufacturers. The most widely used GMO crops in
the US are corn, soybeans, and canola.
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