|
Golden rice is a strain of rice created in 1999 through genetic engineering. The rice was created by Ingo Potrykus of the Institute of Plant Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, working with Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg. It was made by inserting daffodil genes for producing beta-carotene into the rice genome. The work was primarily funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and took eight years to complete.
Creation of Golden Rice
Golden rice was designed to produce Vitamin A precursor beta-carotene in the rice endosperm; beta-carotene gives the rice a distinctive yellow colour. Golden rice was created by engineering rice with three beta-carotene biosynthesis genes:
- psy (photoene synthase)
- lyc (lycopene cyclase) both from daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus), and
- ctr1 from the soil bacterium Erwinia uredovora
The resulting plants produce significant amounts of beta-carotene in the endosperm. Some nutritionists say that a 200 gram serving daily should be sufficient to prevent death and chronic Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD).
Vitamin A deficiency
The research that led to golden rice was conducted with the goal of helping the millions of children who suffer from Vitamin A deficiency (VAD). At the beginning of the 21st century, VAD is responsible for 1-2 million deaths, 500,000 cases of irreversible blindness and millions of cases of xerophthalmia annually. Because many of these children rely on rice as a staple food, the gene-based introduction of provitamin A into rice is a simpler and less expensive alternative to vitamin supplements or an increase in the consumption of green vegetables or animal products. It is the genetically engineered equivalent of fluoridated water or iodized salt.
Potrykus has spearheaded an effort to have golden rice distributed for free to subsistence farmers; this required several companies which had rights to the results of Beyer's research to license it for free. This happened much more quickly due to the positive publication that golden rice received; it was the first genetically modified crop that was inarguably beneficial, and thus met with widespread approval.
Objections
Greenpeace points out that the amount of Vitamin A in golden rice is too low. It is also concerned that it is a Trojan horse that will "open the door" to more controversial genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Vandana Shiva, an Indian anti-GMO activist, argued that the problem was not particular deficiencies in the crops themselves, but problems with poverty and loss of biodiversity in food crops. These problems are aggravated by the corporate control of agriculture based on genetically modified foods. By focusing on a narrow problem (vitamin A deficiency), Shiva argued, the golden rice proponents were obscuring the larger issue of a lack of broad availability of diverse and nutritionally adequate sources of food.
External links and sources
| 
