24 Chinese boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 8 were used as guinea pigs by two US universities for a study on rice and GMOs. The children, from the Chinese province of Hunan, were given genetically modified rice, called Golden Rice, to understand if it could contribute to a greater nutritional intake of vitamin A.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
24 Chinese boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 8 were used as guinea pigs by some US universities and Chinese institutes for conducting a related study rice and GMOs. The children, from the Chinese province of Hunan, were given genetically modified rice, called Golden Rice, to understand if it could contribute to a greater nutritional supply of vitamin A.
The study in question was published on the pages of "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" and involves several American universities, including Taylor College in Houston and Tufts University in Boston. The involvement of children in the study was brought to light by Greenpeace International, which questions the healthiness of feeding GMO rice to children and the real need to continue to conduct research on genetically modified foods.
In the opinion of the environmental association, it is not through the use of genetic modifications that the serious problem can be resolved problem of malnutrition, but through an effective redistribution of food resources that can allow the poorest populations to feed on foods already naturally rich in Vitamin A, without resorting to technologies that lead to the creation of varieties whose harmlessness to the human organism is not yet known.
The experiment on children would have continued by the universities and institutes involved despite not having obtained the necessary permits from the Chinese authorities, which would have subsequently suspended one of the authors of the research. Shi-an Yin, belonging to National Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety of Beijing.
The study in question was published in June 2012, although Greenpeace International in 2008 was assured by the Chinese Minister of Agriculture that the Golden Rice was not never imported to China and that the experiment, which has already begun, had been suspended. This is clearly not true, given that the study was able to come to a conclusion.
Il Golden Rice is a variety of genetically modified rice which has been studied for at least 20 years and which has not found any commercial application at the moment. As with any other GMO agri-food variety, the thorniest questions concern the action of multinationals more and more holders of a real monopoly on cultivable varieties and potential health hazard of foods containing genetically modified proteins, which could cause allergies and be poorly tolerated by both humans and animals. The use of children in GMO testing raises now ethical issues which cannot be underestimated and which should be clarified as soon as possible.
Marta Albè
