Rice and the Greenpeace counterrevolutionaries

摘要

NEW YORK AND LONDON--Plant genetics researchers atound the world might be forgiven for expecting that news of development of insect resistance in a commercially important rice variety (see Wunn et al. p. 171) would be broadly welcomed, especially by the 40% of the world population for whom rice is an essential food. Insects can destroy ahuge proportion of a rice crop or reduce yields enormously. Paradoxically, howevet, the initial response has been quite the opposite with consumer, farmer, and environmental groups criticizing a collaboration among researchers in Europe and the U. S. , and colleagues in the Philippines--and, indeed, attacking the whole enterprise of plant development through genetic engineering--in a lengthy written protest.