Vandana Shiva is excellent. She
really gives hope to the fight and the future for happiness and peace.
Find more of her interviews here, and find her
documentaries here. A Wikipedia entry on the International Rice Research Institute and its "golden rice," referenced by Shiva, is summarized here:
IRRI is pursuing the development of "golden rice." Geneticists inserted a gene into the rice plant that allows it to produce beta carotene, which makes its grains yellow. Because the human body converts beta carotene to vitmain A, golden rice has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of millions of people around the world, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia, where vitamin A deficiency is an especially common malady that can cause blindness and increases the risk of death from disease. Children are particularly vulnerable; according to the World Health Organization, "An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight". In August 2013, anti-genetically modified organism protestors broke into IRRI's research facilities and destroyed field trials of golden rice. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports IRRI in its development of golden rice.
