[astazangasta]

Genetically modified rice (golden rice) is a propaganda tool that can't change anything (you can't cure malnutrition due to poverty with genetically modified anything), so bad example.

What offends me about the claims is the difference between what could be done and what is done. In 1999 we learned via Napster of a fundamentally new type of entity, the digital good. This was an item with zero marginal cost - it literally costs nothing to reproduce on margin.

This fact should be fundamentally changing the world. A new type of economy is possible now, one that goes beyond capitalism, one where wealth can be shared instantly across the planet and multiplied infinitely the moment it is created.

This revolution was shot in the face by the DMCA and various other efforts, and that brilliant energy channeled instead into making a panopticon to allow better ad targeting.

Facebook did not change anything; Facebook is squatting on the corpse of real change.

[3pt14159]

> Genetically modified rice (golden rice) is a propaganda tool that can't change anything...

Vitamin A deficiency is responsible for 1–2 million deaths and hundreds of thosands of cases of blindness per year. Even just basic Vitamin A fortified rice could literally change millions of peoples lives per year.

See this paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2682994/

And if I'm wrong and this has been refuted, please share your research.

> A new type of economy is possible now, one that goes beyond capitalism... Facebook did not change anything; Facebook is squatting on the corpse of real change.

Facebook made the internet usable by normal people for things normal people wanted to do. It is changing their lives right now. DMCA is shitty, but most people find a way to watch shows just fine.

[astazangasta]

Yes, Vitamin A deficiency is a problem, and Golden Rice can treat it. You know what else can? Pretty much any other food with Vitamin A. Why do we need to create an entirely new kind of fortified rice? Why not just, say, give these people carrots?

These people are vitamin deficient in their diets because they are poor. Making golden rice is solving the wrong problem. What we need to do is end poverty.

[3pt14159]

You are using a logical fallacy in your argument.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma

Should we work towards ending world wide poverty? Yes.

In the meantime, just like Canada added iodine to salt to prevent a whole host of diseases at the turn of the 20th century, so to can we add things like vitamins to very basic foodstuffs for the third world.

> Why not just give these people carrots?

Because that is extremely costly, difficult, and destroys local agriculture and has a host of other negative externalities. Furthermore many people are too proud to take a handout, but selling their farmers better grains is achievable.

[astazangasta]

It isn't costly at all. We can feed everyone on earth for a few paltry billion; food is not expensive. We choose not to. Golden rice has its own technical hurdles and is only solving a single nutritional problem.

[sangnoir]

We already have enough food to feed the world[1]: the problem is distribution. Poor people can't afford to get a balanced diet that's already there, would the GM rice be miraculously free?

1. http://www.wfp.org/hunger/faqs

[3pt14159]

I agree that distribution is a large part of the problem, but there are other problems as well, like perverse incentives (destroying local farm economies by flooding in free food).

Rice is an extremely durable foodstuff and even if it wouldn't be free, it would be much cheaper than the alternatives and it would easily integrate into already existing markets and logistics chains.