I have to say, patents are my only real concerns regarding GMOs.

Most of the other concerns can be tested/ruled out, but patents could absolutely fuck up entire continents and literally enslave millions of small farmers.

It's 100% within the realm of possibilities that Monsanto puts a gene drive in their crops so suddenly every plant in a 20km radius produces "patented" seeds.

Honestly, I'm a large proponent of conversation and environmentalism. Hell, I sit on a land trust board, and have a very strong technical background in checks notes environmental science.

The thing I keep rolling my eyes at with Greenpeace is their seemingly complete lack of regard for science, like you point out. How can anyone take these guys seriously when most of what they do are stunts.

I doubt anyone would listen even if they did have the technical expertise they need, because support for environmental issues is paltry to begin with. However, it would give them a leg to stand on.

They've actually been doing this sort of thing for a while now. They decided rather than pro-environmentalism, they'd rather just be anti-science in general. It's the same with them protesting any use of nuclear anywhere for any reason.

Introgresion of the beta carotene-giving T-DNA locus into local varieties would take a decade before we can obtain a cultivar that resembles local varieties, and this is only if said local varieties are highly homozygous. If they are not, what you are suggesting is simply not possible with 2024 technology and I don't see it becoming possible soon. Such a delay would mean large numbers of children dying and many more suffering. The Monsanto boogeyman's profit desires are not relevant, unless you'd like to give them some credit for making the damn thing, and I'm not even sure they were involved? A company called Syngenta made Golden Rice 2, maybe you're referring to that?

that would threaten Monsanto’s patents

Its the other cancer peddling shitheel this time. Syngenta owns the patent, making it completely justified for Greenpeace to prevent them from gaining control of the food supply, even if they have to use BS arguments about food safety to do so.

Who's talking about Monsanto?

That's not their argument though. Their argument is that despite the benevolent sub-$10k payment free licence, at the end of the day it's still a product that the independent farmers are beholden to. That, plus rice is windpollinating. So it's very easy for it to cross pollinate adjecent fields and potentially outperform heirloom species against the farmers' will.

This was the same reaction I had when the Covid vaccines were rolling out. "They haven't been proven to be 100% safe and effective!" OK. Sure, but you know what is guaranteed to be bad for you? Covid. There are two choices here, and there's a clear mitigation of harm with one option over the other.

It's shocking that we'd rather see children die of treatable vitamin deficiencies than the off-chance that the food 'might be unsafe'.

Breathing has a 100% death rate.

Both GMOs and nuclear can be used to mitigate climate change too... :(

I guess AI is next.

We can hope.

The GMO gene in Golden Rice is patented. It's just licensed for use for free in developing countries on small hold farms. A monoculture of golden rice would be less diverse than the current wide range of heritage rice varieties, and there could be over reliance on it which could case issues if there was a blight. Theres some concern that spread of the genes could catch unaware farmers with legal issues, but it's harder for rice genes to spread than most other crops, as they're usually self-pollinating. The risks dont seem to outweigh the benefits in this case, but it is more complex than it appears on the surface level. Greenpeace doesn't seem to be able to use scientific research to back its claims here, and is instead just staying true to it's anti-GMO message.

The idea is to extinguish the other variants, get into a monoculture, and in the future have them completely at Monsanto's will. This product is patented. There's no need for patented grains here. They can be helped through many other means and produces.

What American biotech crops? Golden rice was developed by a group of university researchers in Switzerland and have been distributing the rice for free via NGOs.

This isn't about scarcity, it's about addressing Vitamin A deficiency.

Their concern is not solely based on the gene modification. The impact of introducing a new crop is bigger than that. The golden rice is patented and that often comes with a ton of regulations the local farmers have no control over.

While I wish for there to be a good way to solve the food problem AND find a good use for gene modification, I don't think that this particular instance is it....