ali. a pleasure to have you with. this genetically modified plant is at the center of a controversy

a controversy about how we deal with one of the most powerful technologies mankind has ever created. a technology that is polarizing society. the protagonists include a now retired professor at e.t.h. who believes his golden rice will save children throughout the entire world. by swayze agricultural chemical corporation and first wanted to commercialize the miracle rice then changed its mind. and a country where tests are being carried out that would be prohibited in other places. and. researchers who manipulate crops are demanding more freedom the freedom to conduct their research

free of political constraints they feel the moratorium that has been imposed on genetic technology for years unfairly hinders them in their efforts but public distrust of genetic manipulation has been immense for many years. artificially modifying the genetic structure of plants and animals scares people also because researchers are hesitant to reveal their secrets and explain exactly what it is they are doing. on a day. in this tense and polarized atmosphere professor engel put troikas. and engineering science technology mathematics and management university has created in a green. us a strain of genetically engineered rice that contains pro vitamin a the

rice is intended to benefit undernourished people not feed the profit of the agricultural industry. the whole food i hold but mothers in families where vitamin a deficiency is a problem have understood that eating this rice will be good for them because if we expect to finally start delivering this golden rice to farmers in the philippines by the end of this year and it is. symbolic and this is the poster boy for the. genetically incident in the city and this is something. if that. is the golden rice a blessing or a curse we went to the philippines in search of the answer. the country is home to ninety million rice eaters here rice is not just a basic food state it's part of the culture. this is where people are being asked

to abandon their a custom ways and switch to the new golden yellow type of rice. we traveled to the philippines to find out how this idea is being implemented we were told the authorities would decide within the year whether to approve the rice. at the international rice research institute preparations are well underway the yri wants to bring the new strain of rice to market. our quest began in the capital city of manila a metropolis with a population of twelve million. do the people of the philippines want this kind of product have all the respect identified or are people afraid of unforeseen side effects that might occur when store shelves are filled with a genetically modified version of their most important basic food stuffs. were stuck in our hotel for weeks we've been in touch with the authorities but now

that we're here they don't want to see us why not are they afraid we'll ask unpleasant questions. the erie also stops communicating with us while we're still in switzerland we had arranged to film the next harvest of the golden rice but one month before the appointed time our request was rejected they hear e won't tell us why where perplexed. the inventor of this miracle rice ingle put trying to use as lived and worked in switzerland for many years he is dedicated to the idea of harnessing unpopular genetic technology and using it to help people so that this new ever since i first started working i've tried to ensure that my work benefits the world's poorest people who do lose and. it becomes not a scientist i'm an engineer engineer it is my desire to solve practical problems i

use science as a way to solve real world problem is. they are at the heart of his efforts malnourished or undernourished children and pregnant women acute vitamin a deficiency usually results in blindness or even death the world health organization estimates that two hundred million children around the world suffer from a lack of vitamin a. since the one nine hundred eighty s. ingle put try case has concentrated his efforts exclusively on rice the staple food of the poor for thirteen years his research produced no visible success. then he teamed up with peter bya a cellular biologist from fribourg together they finally achieved the unthinkable in favor one evening in february of one nine hundred ninety nine peter buyer called me in my laboratory and it was long after dark i was still there and he called me

and said turn on your computer i'm going to send a picture you will like and of course we were thrilled after all this time to see it not only white light also a few yellow grains of rice because that told us we had finally really done it all tongue because in the arms to us it is your soft. the world's media praised trike is and his colleagues for their breakthrough. they were also on heard by the scientific community. they were even given an audience with the pope. but the golden rice engineers were still a long way from achieving their real goal. we set out to find people in the philippines who are suffering from vitamin a deficiency. yes a village on the outskirts of the citie of manilla. tens of thousands of people

live off what they can find in the trash. if they find anything that can be reused they try to resell it for a few pesos but that's hardly enough to buy healthy food. we accompany the community dr m i read dyson on her rounds through the village life is tough here she said many had just one or at the most two meals per day or a phone. dr dyson examines the children for all kinds of problems at regular intervals respiratory diseases and infections are rampant she said you know as well as digestion problems i think the much i'm up with that look i took. a little bird and what about vitamin a deficiency. to think it will make i've

been here you can play at this part about three years now and so far i have not seen any vitamin a deficiency in this yes. this is probably because of that are they. giving off white i mean is supplements in a most children a mopey schoolchildren and it's a regular program other read from department of health. the government distributes vitamin e. and health centers like this one children between the ages of six months and five years receive two doses per year free of charge. the program is very successful. according to national statistics forty percent of the population was not getting enough vitamin a as recently as ten years ago. so. i've years ago that figured had decreased to fifteen percent. it is not clear how many still suffer from vitamin a

deficiency today. the pro vitamin a rice would be less expensive for the government the inventors of the project are sure of it but first the golden rice must make the transition from the laboratory to the rice paddies the researchers set out on a quest for money and power and found both in the world's largest agricultural chemistry corporation. in basel. singh and is soon going to responded to an offer we made. as we proposed giving the company the commercial rights to our product. lines and if in the. the company would support our humanitarian project via it is just. who it is for it so that it's but a sensitive issue remained where is the borderline between commercial and humanitarian use. our goal was to allow all poor farmers to take part free of

charge and of course it was in single interest to define is a poor as narrowly as possible because they wanted to potentially make money. in addition his own we agreed upon a definition and if the rice farmer was making less than ten thousand dollars a year with the golden rice that was still considered humanitarian assistance to. improve the genetic technology the number of foreign genes in golden rice was reduced from nine to two a corn gene and a gene from a bacteria. has founded the golden rice humanitarian board which was to guide golden rice to worldwide success. adrian to block a former employee was named executive secretary he explained where the financial

backing for golden rice came from today the golden eyes project is being financed in the philippines and bangladesh by the gates foundation for the last. couple of years. it's being financed by a little bit a little residue of rockefeller foundation money. and a little bit of usa id money in asia warren buffett who also has contributed to those funds and bill gates dad who is also part of it. i think they are funding this project as part of a portfolio of potential health interventions. to try genuinely to improve the lot of the impoverished of society and improve their life expectancy and improve the quality of life illustrious names powerful from anthropos as financial sponsors adrian do block implied that the money from the super rich donors was not just a blessing but also brought risk still without it we would be nowhere so we're

extremely pleased to have it. whenever you accept funds from an organization the organization wants to involve itself in the management. that's understandable and combi refuses to handing out the checks. the gates foundation wanted to distribute the miracle rice to the philippines first we wanted to go there just in time for the harvest of the vital but unmodified basic food stuff something no other camera team had ever been allowed to film although our invitation was subsequently rescinded we decided to give it a try anyway. wealthy british style. time to write for.

market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report. that was a new alert animation scripts scare me a little bit. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news. alexander's family cry here's a. great thing that had read in

a court of law found alive there's a story made for a movie is playing out in real life. i know c.n.n. the m.s.m. b.c. fox news have taken some not slightly but the fact is i admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's close and for the truth from i think. it's because when full attention and the mainstream media work side by side the joke is actually on here. and our teen years we have a different right. ok because the news of the world just is not this funny

i'm not laughing dammit i'm not hi. i'm. you guys sort of jokes i will handle the mess that i am. if we met the local representatives of greenpeace they have been monitoring the activities regarding golden rice with a skeptical eye and are familiar with the exact locations of the golden rice fields . a group of observers operating in secret has already checked out the area you're going to be. able to get. hold of and still hear your ears to hear your thoughts we're looking for. is for good or for bait spends your sense for. the sun in the streets of.

the city. will greenpeace be able to get us there why do you bring us there so that somebody. said that debates about the safety and he said don't buy the nation eat meat much might. be experimental rice field is on the premises so phil rice the national rice research institute phill rice and erie have collaborated closely on golden rice and maybe. we are turned away at the main gate. to get it right your names and the official reason for your visit here. it won't be easy to get in an employee refers us tour bus. we ask him whether we can film the golden rice harvest is not what it can you email

me any of. these. series normal b.g. no filming please no cameras no information sounds like a well kept secret we're only allowed to see the golden rice on an advert. poster but wasn't this rice supposed to go to market within the current year again we're pre-placed. we try to catch a glimpse of the test field from the back you know. this is not this field by the feel that it's. ok down there you can see trials i. hear this from you which it which never. stopped. it says close as we can get. the experimental field is fenced in but that's all we can tell you from our vantage point. why is the public being

kept in the dark about what's happening there this is used by the industry as a poster boy for a duck sept or genetically engineered crops and our food system and and just accepted this at this without quests on you know without school within the without the public knowing about it like it's not even look at even see the tryouts to get even a start then so be it so. we will be the one taking that risk when golden rice comes out so we have to know what that is six are really the risks are and whether we have really the capacity or not. and that will be the basis for decision whether to approve or in. opposition to the golden rice is increasing in the philippines also in parliament. money back in minoan we met up with rafael marianna a member of the philippine house of representatives and he is critical of genetic

modification. he made a combative impression. now. more than fibro binged province s. . when he finally peace and but on guys that passed their respective ordinance s. binding the entry commission field testing and commercialization of. pride containing genetically modified organisms including god and ice in their respective . or jurisdiction and it's the number is still increasing we don't one. of the mystic. blooded the golden age and consequently be controlled by a few transnational corporations. and i know what they want to keep it for free. i don't believe that. for

every three. primary motive is profit. not for social justice. but. inequalities the project has a lot of opposition no doubt about it. not really no because. this rises just like only rice except the place be the carroty and in the. you know what why would you not want to give beat accounting to somebody who needed it to stay alive or continue to be able to see. for an ideology because you don't like globalization because you don't like capitalism which seem to be the underlying trends because you're all you have a romantic attachment to small the farming go and be a small the fama in

a developing country try being poor for a year and see then what you think. we went to a typical marketplace to find what the local residents think of the miracle rice. as is often the case with a new product there was a lot of skepticism still we were interested to see people's spontaneous reactions when they suddenly encountered yellow rice in place of the usual white or red grains we brought along a small can of golden rice to show to vendors and consumers what do you think about . the first. thing. i did. with you assembly i don't think so. now

that i think of. it but i played it so i know he said it would break because that fire is yellow on night. that people. get really. hot and. the catholic church is very important to the people of the philippines ninety percent of whom are key. affleck's. the church is a very powerful force in the country the. load. in an interview we learned of the catholic church has come out against genetically manipulated products like golden rice. about to get

a saying through these complaints that the think that by. and saw the problem of poverty is. completely it all in us. so we in the. very strong position against g.m.o. and even. the nice were. very recent that we think that. the genetic anymore the fate products are. released to have we should not sacrifice the health of the the people and even though they'd vironment for the sake of short term propping up the corporations the miracle race from switzerland is up against a great deal of opposition and mistrust. you get the feeling you really want to help these people but they don't want your help. you know exactly rights

does not surprise you. as a citizen of switzerland you must have had plenty of opportunity to recognize how unpopular trends genetic plants are this golden rice is considered a dangerous plant by professional opponents of genetic engineering because it simultaneously shows that the technology is not only being used to benefit months until this but to help the poor for the public good and to improve public health is that no one is making any profit from it. this name in my entire life i've never received a penny for our work the entire humanitarian board has invested its own time but never received any money for it so that means the entire arguments the g.m.o. opponents like to use really are not valid anymore guns an argument that he could not swythe a fight against our golden rice with all the means and resources they can muster to

go in the eyes. and takes. china. a small city in hunan province the date is october two thousand and twelve. our research into golden rice has brought us to the school where us researchers have been testing the product on six to eight year old children according to greenpeace and scientists critical of genetic technology the testing was carried out without telling the parents that their children were being fed genetic modified rice we have come here to find out what really happened we succeed in meeting with some of the children and their families and asked them about the experiment draws us i'm a o.p.m. hog there were tables with numbers on them are we had to sit down and eat. there were numbers. yes i remember i was number fifty four.

does look how much how little they want us to see how much we ate hesitated and when something was left over they wrote it down zero six that i had to say that. the rice balls was disgusting i couldn't eat them. if you didn't finish it all you didn't get any notebooks or colored pencils if you didn't eat right they didn't let you go out at harvard yet. so were you afraid michael morris very much. who took the blood samples just like the man who brought us the food along with the few doctors. the u.s. researchers gave the school free meals. but they didn't tell the parents that their children were eating genetically modified rice.

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coming up on r t american whistleblowers have made a trip to russia for a secret meeting with former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden they presented him a special award for revealing the surveillance program more on that. day ten of the government shutdown republicans are now pushing for a short term debt ceiling increase but don't get your hopes up that doesn't mean the government will be back to business so what does this mean for the economy find out coming up climate change global warming it doesn't matter what you call it scientists say we're getting closer to the point of no return a new documentary sheds light on what could happen if humanity fails to curb our carbon emissions we'll talk with the man behind that documentary later in the show .