Reading the article referenced suggests to me that its far from a black and white argument. I'm not clear, for example, who controls the seedbank? Where farmers may have built up their own resource right now, if this new yellow rice is one of these sterile varieties that needs them to buy new seeds every year...
There is a lot here that is not clear
A bit of reading suggests that there are no current GM crops sold that are sterile, and that includes Golden Rice, which as a project has been around for ages. So called “terminator’ or “suicide” seeds were originally produced to pacify the likes of Greenpeace who were concerned about hybridisation, but your perspective (sole supplier of seed being the patent owner) generated such adverse publicity that they were never commercially deployed. I think the suppliers switched to producing pesticides & herbicides and then making GM crops that were resistant to the specific chemicals in their products to ensure continuity of sales.
To take fd3’s point, there are many ways of addressing Vitamin A deficiency, but adding it to a food that is a major staple in areas where VAD is commonplace seems a sensible approach. Yes, Syngenta own the patent, but that’s the way of the world. The scientists who originated the concept were never going to bring it to market without funding from a major business.
As for GM foods, I’m growing 2 in my garden, and have done for years. A sweetcorn and a tomato, both F1 hybrids. They seem to hav passed Greenpeace by - or maybe it wasn’t enough of a David and Goliath contest for them.
And x-post with PB, but from a different perspective.
As to the vitamin A content, this is in a foodstuff that makes up the majority of the diet in the area the product was to be deployed..
