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| Golden Rice. CC photo by IRRI photos on Flickr |
Last year, some eminent international
scientists got together to write a letter to a top science magazine.
Their aim was to broadcast the role of the green movement in delaying the
development of 'golden rice'. They claim this wondrous, philanthropic rice has
been genetically transformed to produce vitamin-A to save the poor in
countries where many suffer from malnourishment.
This year, a group of academics at the
University of California prepared a report for their university's
bi-monthly publication. Their aim was to expose the presence of
'powerful forces that hide behind environmentalism' and which are
blocking the development of golden rice.
The refrain has, of course, been
eagerly picked up by others in the pro-GM lobby [1].
It's claimed that because of this
'absolutely wicked' and 'disgusting' 'concerted activism', there is
an international prohibition on producing golden rice because
regulators are refusing to approve it. And the result has been harm and
human suffering and the death of millions of children, with the poor
paying the majority of the price.And all this, despite California, as
one of the world's major rice producers, being ready to supply the
vitamin-enhanced product, especially for export.
But, before you start feeling too
guilty about killing children and harming the poor, even the
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the body rolling out GM
golden rice, has felt the need to issue a reality check. (Also,
see below on Why
golden rice might be useless, or even harmful.)
The Institute has prepared a statement
on the status of its golden rice project. As of March 2014, no
successful strain of golden rice has yet been grown in field trials.
The questions of safety and efficacy in the target, malnourished,
community have not been addressed (there's nothing worth testing).
No applications to market golden rice have ever been made (there's
nothing to market).
All in all, the golden rice project is
being pushed ahead as fast as it will go: no one's blocking it, it
just isn't working. And, no one's died because of any green activism.
In fact, there's not even a hopeful
strain of golden rice in the pipeline, because the only one produced
to date has just failed to yield during field trials.
So far, the only harm caused by golden
rice has been to the reputation of over-enthusiastic scientists who
carried out a rather premature human feeding study. This involved
American scientists who shipped golden rice to China and fed it to
Chinese children. The study has become so embroiled in an ethics
scandal over irregularities in the trans-boundary shipment of the
experimental material, and the lack of information given to the human
experimental subjects, that the journal which published it is
reportedly considering retraction [2].
While academics fail to do their
homework, golden rice fails to grow too well, and scientists are not
only forgetting to test the novel rice on animals before humans, but
forgetting to tell their human guinea-pigs what they're being fed or
to get permission, Australian scientists have been going bananas,
literally: golden bananas.
GM vitamin-A enhanced cooking bananas
are being developed for East Africa where the fruit is a staple diet.
Rumour has it that the first batch is on its way to America for
human trials with a view to commercial production by 2020.
Why golden rice might be useless, or even harmful.
Golden rice has been genetically transformed to generate a vitamin A precursor which, in its natural form, humans are able to convert into active vitamin A.
GM vitamin A precursor from a plant which doesn't naturally produce
it may not be handled by the plant nor by the consumer in the same
way as the natural form in its natural setting.
Vitamins are, of course, highly biologically active substances in
very small concentrations.
Vitamin A and its precursor belong to a large family of chemicals
known as carotenoids.
Some derivatives of carotenoids are known to be toxic, especially to
the embryo and can be cumulative in the blood and fat.
Not all carotenoids have been clearly identified or measured.
Since Vitamin A is a fat-soluble substance, there has to be a
substantial amount of fat or oil in the diet before it can be
absorbed. The most vulnerable people, who are restricted to a
starchy diet, won't get much Vitamin A no matter how much is in their
daily intake.
The severely mal-nourished (who are deficient in the whole range of
nutrients) may get no more than limited long-term benefit from being
given a single nutrient. Introducing, for example, greens into their
deficient diet would supply a whole range of micro-nutrients
including vitamin A.
For more, see [3]
OUR COMMENT
Six years seems a remarkably
tight schedule for safety and efficacy testing of golden bananas plus
scaling up GM plant production to commercial levels. Unless, of
course, the safety and efficacy questions are going to be by-passed
in favour of ignoring scientific ethics and hyping the product, as it
seems to be the case with golden rice.
The dangers of golden
bananas are, of course, exactly the same as for golden rice as
described for golden rise above.
Just keep voicing your
concerns about GM foods before the malnourished and poor are caused
even more suffering than they already are.
Background:
[1] THE GOLDEN RICE BLAME GAME - November 2013
[2] A STRANGE TALE OF GOLDEN RICE - January 2013
[3] THE DARK SIDE OF GOLDEN RICE - July 2012
SOURCES:
- Ag at Large: Prohibition on Golden Rice kills millions, www.appeal-democrat.com , 11.05.14
- GM 'golden rice' opponents wicked, says minister Owen Paterson, www.bbc.co.uk, 14.10.13
- What is the status of the Golden Rice project coordinated by IRRI?, and, When will Golden rice be available to farmers and consumers? http://irri.org, June 2014
- GMO Myths and Truths, 2nd Edition May 2014
- Jonathan Matthews and Claire Robinson, Golden rice falls at first hurdle, GM Watch 13.05.14
- Cat Ferguson, Rice researcher in ethics scrape threatens journal with lawsuit over coming retraction, RetractionWatch, 17.07.14
- Cahal Milmo, GM banana designed to slash African infant mortality enters human trials, Independent 16.06.14
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