GM Watch
  • Main Menu
    • Home
    • News
      • Newsletter subscription
      • News Reviews
      • News Languages
        • Notícias em Português
        • Nieuws in het Nederlands
        • Nachrichten in Deutsch
      • Archive
    • Articles
      • GM Myth Makers
      • GM Reports
      • GM Quotes
      • GM Myths
      • Non-GM successes
      • GM Firms
        • Monsanto: a history
        • Monsanto: resources
        • Bayer: a history
        • Bayer: resources
    • Videos
      • Latest Videos
      • Must see videos
      • Agriculture videos
      • Labeling videos
      • Animals videos
      • Corporations videos
      • Corporate takeover videos
      • Contamination videos
      • Latin America videos
      • India videos
      • Asia videos
      • Food safety videos
      • Songs videos
      • Protests videos
      • Biofuel myths videos
      • Index of GM crops and foods
      • Index of speakers
      • Health Effects
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donations
News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides    
  • News
    • Newsletter subscription
    • News Reviews
    • News Languages
      • Notícias em Português
      • Nieuws in het Nederlands
      • Nachrichten in Deutsch
    • Archive
      • 2022 articles
  • Articles
    • GM Myth Makers
    • GM Reports
    • GM Quotes
    • GM Myths
    • Non-GM successes
    • GM Firms
      • Monsanto: a history
      • Monsanto: resources
      • Bayer: a history
      • Bayer: resources
  • Donations
  • Videos
    • Index of speakers
    • Glyphosate Videos
    • Latest Videos
    • Must see videos
    • Health Effects
    • Agriculture videos
    • Labeling videos
    • Animals videos
    • Corporations videos
    • Corporate takeover videos
    • Contamination videos
    • Latin America videos
    • India videos
    • Asia videos
    • Food safety videos
    • Songs videos
    • Protests videos
    • Biofuel myths videos
    • Index of GM crops and foods
  • Contact
  • About
SUBSCRIBE TO REVIEWS

GMWatch Facebook cornfield banner

INTRODUCTION TO GM

GMO Myths and Facts front page.jpg

SCIENCE SUPPORTS REGULATION OF GENE EDITING

Plant tissue cultures

GENE EDITING: UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES AND RISKS

Damaged DNA on fire

GENE EDITING MYTHS AND REALITY

A guide through the smokescreen

Gene Editing Myths and Reality

ON-TARGET EFFECTS OF GENE EDITING

Damaged DNA

News Menu

  • Latest News
  • News Reviews
  • Archive
  • Languages

News Archive

  • 2023 articles
  • 2022 articles
  • 2021 articles
  • 2020 articles
  • 2019 articles
  • 2018 articles
  • 2017 articles
  • 2016 articles
  • 2015 articles
  • 2014 articles
  • 2013 articles
  • 2012 articles
  • 2011 articles
  • 2010 articles
  • 2009 articles
  • 2008 articles
  • 2007 articles
  • 2006 articles
  • 2005 articles
  • 2004 articles
  • 2003 articles
  • 2002 articles
  • 2001 articles
  • 2000 articles

Please support GMWatch

Donations

You can donate via Paypal or credit/debit card.

Some of you have opted to give a regular donation. This is greatly appreciated as it helps place us on a more stable financial basis. Thank you for your support!

Golden Rice promotional exposed as GMO industry invention

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Published: 30 November -0001
Twitter

Owen Paterson emotive poem about golden rice

Owen Paterson tweets emotive poem about vitamin A deficiency that turns out to have been written by a GMO industry employee based in the UK

GMO Golden Rice has suffered multiple research and development problems and has not been shown to work in reducing vitamin A deficiency in malnourished people. It hasn’t even been shown to be safe to eat in animal studies.

But that didn’t stop the discredited former UK environment secretary and GMO promoter Owen Paterson tweeting an emotive poem written in the first person about a child going blind from vitamin A deficiency because of opposition to Golden Rice.

Paterson tweeted an image of the poem next to a picture of himself giving a speech at Syngenta’s UK research headquarters at Jealott’s Hill. Paterson’s tweet reads, “Congratulations to @SyngentaCropsUK scientists who are developing new technologies to feed the world.”

paterson at syngenta and poem

What he didn’t disclose was the background of the person who wrote the poem.

If you click on the image on Twitter so it enlarges, you can see the poem’s author: Roobina Baloch (image also below).

Roobina Baloch poem

At first we assumed this was somebody who had been directly affected by vitamin A deficiency in the Philippines or another country with problems of malnourishment. 

But it turns out that Baloch is actually a Senior Technical Expert at Syngenta Crop Protection in the UK.

Roobina Baloch linkedin profile

Syngenta is the GMO and agrochemicals giant that still retains commercial rights over GMO Golden Rice, despite the product’s positioning by GMO proponents as a purely public humanitarian initiative.

Baloch’s previous job was with Dow AgroSciences, also in the UK. She was employed there as far back as 1987, and she was doing a doctorate in Wales between 1981 and 1984. 

Judging by her research publications, her expertise is in agrochemicals and plant development. Her work for Syngenta focuses on product safety and consumer risk assessment.

So Baloch is not a person living in a country affected by vitamin A deficiency. She isn’t even an expert in health or nutrition. Baloch might better be described as a career representative of GMO and agrochemical companies who has long been based in the UK.

Now the only remaining question is: Has Owen Paterson had an irony bypass? Does he realize that to publicize an unproven GM crop using a piece of emotional blackmail generated by a representative of a GMO and agrochemicals giant might be seen as – well, just a little bit cynical and manipulative?

Menu

Home

Subscriptions

News Archive

News Reviews

Videos

Articles

GM Myth Makers

GM Reports

GM Myths

GM Quotes

Non-GM Successes

Contacts

Contact Us

About

Facebook

Twitter

Donations

Content 1999 - 2023 GMWatch.
Web Development By SCS Web Design