Commentery :
Golden Rice
Medicine is worse than illness
Golden Rice was hailed as the
“rice that could save millions.” Two
decades hence this claim the
Golden Rice has yet to fulfill its
messianic promise of solving
Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) among
kids in poor countries. The
International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) and its cohorts are
quick to lay the blame among the
farmers and organisations that
oppose the GM rice. Their “wicked”
opposition has allowed the
blindness and death of millions of
children who could have benefitted
from this noble and humanitarian
product. But, is it really the case?
What is Golden Rice?
Rice is a very important crop
for many communities in Asia. Rice
production is mostly still in the hand
of peasants. The livelihood of the
majority of the farm labour is related
to rice production in one degree or
another. Rice also has a wide range
of varieties, from dry land rice to
varieties that can grow in marshy
lands. Over 40,000 rice varieties
can easily be found from India to
Indonesia, from China to the
Philippines and more than 90% of
rice worldwide is produced and
consumed in Asia.
Despite being seen as a
nutritious meal, rice does lack
micronutrients like Vitamin A or its
precursor, betacarotene. That is
why it is normally eaten with a side
dish, such as vegetables or meat-
based proteins to complement the
lack of micronutrients in rice-rich
diets. In 1999, a group of European
scientists led by Dr. Ingo Potrykus
tried to change this by developing
genetically-engineered rice that
contains beta-carotene, by inserting
bacteria and daffodil and maize
10
genes into it. This is the Golden
Rice, called hence because of the
golden colour of its grains. They
argued that Golden Rice could
solve the problem of Vitamin A and
other nutrient deficiencies, since
rice is consumed as staple food
mostly in poor and developing
countries that could not afford a
balanced diet.
Syngenta then developed a
new version of Golden Rice, GR2,
and donated it to its Golden Rice
Humanitarian Board to ensure the
GR2’s introduction and deployment.
Syngenta claimed that mass
consumption of Golden Rice would
address prevalence of VAD, which
leads to blindness among an
estimated hundred thousand of
children annually in countries such
as the Philippines, Bangladesh,
Indonesia and India. Then, in 2011,
the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation donated around US
$10.3 million dollars to the
International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) for the development
of Golden Rice.
Since the first announcement
of this genetically-engineered rice
in the late 1990s, Golden Rice has
been going through several stages
of development and has been faced
with both excitement and criticism
in every corner of the world. The fight
over Golden Rice has been fiery.
Its proponents hail it as a symbol
of all the goodness biotechnology
has to offer, promoting it as the
panacea for VAD and accusing
those who oppose it as responsible
for blindness among children.
Golden Rice has opened the
door to other biofortified genetically
- modified crops and has played a
critical role in arguments around GM
crops. To name a few of these
biofortified GM crops in the pipeline:
- GM biofortified zinc and iron rice
developed by the same team at
IRRI that works on Golden Rice.
Super or golden banana, a beta-
caroteneenhanced genetically-
engineered banana, developed by
researchers from Queensland
University of Technology with £5.9
million funding from the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation. Golden
potato, genetically-engineered
strain of yellow-orange potato that
contains vitamin A and vitamin E,
developed by a group of scientists
at Ohio State University and the
Italian National Agency for New
Technologies.
Purple rice,
genetically-engineered rice that
contains the colourful antioxidant
compounds normally found in
blueberries, developed by a team
at the South China Agricultural
University in Guangzhou. It is said
to help ward off cancer.
What are the target countries
for the development of Golden Rice
and what’s the status now?
India
India has been involved in the
development of Golden Rice since
the very beginning. Dr. Potrykus
himself acknowledged the support
he received from Indo-Swiss
Collaboration in Biotechnology
(ETH Zurich), an institution jointly
financed by the Indian Department
of Biotechnology in New Delhi, India
and the Swiss Development
Corporation in Bern, Switzerland.
Golden Rice was introduced into
India through the established
organisational framework of the
Indo-Swiss Collaboration in
Biotechnology, and initially foreseen
to take a leading role and to serve
Class Struggle