Cientistas ganhadores do Prêmio Nobel pedem que Greenpeace pare de atacar os transgênicos

Nada menos que 110 vencedores do Prêmio Nobel se uniram para pedir o fim da intolerância contra a biotecnologia. Em evento realizado nesta quinta-feira (30.06.2016) em Washington (EUA), eles assinaram e publicaram documento criticando posições extremistas e pedindo que grupos como o Greenpeace pare de atacar o uso de organismos geneticamente modificados (OGM), especialmente o “arroz dourado”.

No manifesto intitulado “Support Precision Agriculture” os signatários pedem que os ativistas anti-transgênicos ‘reexaminem a experiência de agricultores e consumidores em todo o mundo com lavouras e alimentos modificados por meio da biotecnologia, reconheçam os pareceres da comunidade científica e das agências reguladoras e abandonem a campanha contra os OGM em geral, principalmente contra o arroz dourado’.

“Nós somos pesquisadores, entendemos a lógica da ciência. É fácil perceber que o Greenpeace faz algo danoso e anticientífico ao assustar as pessoas”, afirmou em entrevista ao Jornal Washington Post Richard Roberts, um dos organizadores do movimento, que é diretor científico da New England Biolabs.

O manifesto, que é endereçado também à Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) e aos governos de todo o mundo, reforça que a comunidade científica e agências reguladoras têm reconhecido repetidamente que os alimentos melhorados pela biotecnologia são tão seguros quanto os desenvolvidos por meios convencionais.

Diretora executiva do Conselho de Informações sobre Biotecnologia (CIB) e Ph.D em Ciências Biológicas, Adriana Brondani apoiou a iniciativa: ‘Ao longo de 20 anos de adoção e consumo global de transgênicos, período em que esses produtos foram rigorosamente testados, jamais houve registro de qualquer prejuízo que esses alimentos tenham causado à saúde humana, animal ou ao meio ambiente’”.

Fonte: Agrolink, 01/07/2016 (Autor: Leonardo Gottems)

Veja o texto do manifesto:

To the Leaders of Greenpeace, the United Nations and Governments around the world

The United Nations Food & Agriculture Program has noted that global production of food, feed and fiber will need approximately to double by 2050 to meet the demands of a growing global population. Organizations opposed to modern plant breeding, with Greenpeace at their lead, have repeatedly denied these facts and opposed biotechnological innovations in agriculture. They have misrepresented their risks, benefits, and impacts, and supported the criminal destruction of approved field trials and research projects.

We urge Greenpeace and its supporters to re-examine the experience of farmers and consumers worldwide with crops and foods improved through biotechnology, recognize the findings of authoritative scientific bodies and regulatory agencies, and abandon their campaign against “GMOs” in general and Golden Rice in particular.

Scientific and regulatory agencies around the world have repeatedly and consistently found crops and foods improved through biotechnology to be as safe as, if not safer than those derived from any other method of production. There has never been a single confirmed case of a negative health outcome for humans or animals from their consumption. Their environmental impacts have been shown repeatedly to be less damaging to the environment, and a boon to global biodiversity.

Greenpeace has spearheaded opposition to Golden Rice, which has the potential to reduce or eliminate much of the death and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency (VAD), which has the greatest impact on the poorest people in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The World Health Organization estimates that 250 million people, suffer from VAD, including 40 percent of the children under five in the developing world. Based on UNICEF statistics, a total of one to two million preventable deaths occur annually as a result of VAD, because it compromises the immune system, putting babies and children at great risk. VAD itself is the leading cause of childhood blindness globally affecting 250,000 – 500,000 children each year. Half die within 12 months of losing their eyesight.

WE CALL UPON GREENPEACE to cease and desist in its campaign against Golden Rice specifically, and crops and foods improved through biotechnology in general;

WE CALL UPON GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD to reject Greenpeace’s campaign against Golden Rice specifically, and crops and foods improved through biotechnology in general; and to do everything in their power to oppose Greenpeace’s actions and accelerate the access of farmers to all the tools of modern biology, especially seeds improved through biotechnology. Opposition based on emotion and dogma contradicted by data must be stopped.

How many poor people in the world must die before we consider this a “crime against humanity”?

Sincerely,

Fonte: http://supportprecisionagriculture.org/view-signatures_rjr.html