Golden
Rice provides a simple and direct method of introducing vitamin A
into the diet unmistakably. Unfortunately the rent seekers of the
environmental movement have locked on to the GM angle
indiscriminately only because it is a trivial lie to sell to the
paying public.
Some
GM work has been mercilessly gamed and richly deserved to be
challenged. However when we have a clear need that is completely
resolved through this technology, then it is time to back off.
However, the likes of Green peace is quite happy to peddle outright
bogus science if it allows them to grab headlines and grab more
donations. Besides. A lot of this advocacy is tainted by hidden
corporate agendas of their own.
It
appears that all good ideas can be corrupted if one tries hard
enough.
Similar
things can be done with other feed stocks and will be. It is time
the whole issue of GM is thrown open to a public debate and we arrive
at a working consensus.
Genetically
modified Golden Rice prevents Vitamin A deficiency and Blindness
AUGUST 18, 2012
Vitamin A is vital for
preventing childhood blindness, which affects 500,000 children
worldwide each year. Greenpeace is against using genetically modified
rice which is enriched with a lot more Vitamin A. There are now
clinical studies that show the rice is 100-150 grams of rice (half a
child's daily intake) provides 60 per cent of the vitamin A that is
needed.
Natural sweet potatoes has been shown to provide needed vitamin A. However, some children will prefer to eat rice and some may not have access to the sweet potatoes.
More controversial than the naturally bred sweet potatoes is Golden Rice - genetically engineered to contain 30 micrograms of beta-carotene per gram. Ordinary rice has none.
Critics had claimed that the rice is impractical. According to calculations by Greenpeace, people would need to eat huge amounts - as much as 18 kilograms of cooked rice a day - to obtain enough vitamin A, but they are wrong by over 100 times.
A study involving 68 Chinese children demolishes the criticism. Guangwen Tang of Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues have demonstrated that just 100 to 150 grams of the rice - about half the children's daily intake - provided 60 per cent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition - β-Carotene in Golden Rice is as good as β-carotene in oil at providing vitamin A to children
An editorial in the New Scientist makes the case that Greenpeace needs to drop opposition to using genetically modified rice to prevent blindness and vitamin A deficiency.
Sweet Potato (non-GM) works as well
Introduction of β-Carotene–Rich Orange Sweet Potato in Rural Uganda Results in Increased Vitamin A Intakes among Children and Women and Improved Vitamin A Status among Children
A two-year project involving 10,000 households in Uganda found that vitamin A intake doubled in women and in children aged 6 to 35 months who ate the improved sweet potatoes compared with families that continued eating regular varieties. By the end of the project almost 90 per cent of the kids eating the new strain had escaped vitamin A deficiency, compared with just 50 per cent in a control group.
Nutrient-boosted
Golden Rice should be embraced
17 August 2012
ONE of the more
unedifying aspects of the fight over genetically modified food has
been the unbending opposition of Greenpeace and others to
rice that has been modified to help prevent blindness. Golden Rice
contains a precursor of vitamin A, deficiency of which blinds an
estimated half a million children every year.
Opponents of the rice
are not oblivious to the tragedy, but argue there are other
solutions. They are correct. One has just been found effective in
Uganda - a naturally bred, fortified sweet potato.
Good news, but no
single solution will work everywhere. To eradicate preventable
blindness, we need as many options as possible. The sweet success of
the potato doesn't mean that GM can or should be taken off the menu.
So it is also good news that the latest research into Golden Rice
bolsters the case for its adoption (see "Nutrient-boosted foods
protect against blindness").
In light of this,
opposition to Golden Rice increasingly looks like bullheadedness
rooted in a desire to halt GM at any cost. There are reasons to be
wary of GM promoted by big business. But tarring a humanitarian
project with the same brush is dogmatic - and wrong.
1 comment:
I would be surprised if GM food is as trouble-free as it is promoted.
There will be many contaminants in there as well as the target DNA, and it may cause conditions that will take a lifetime to assess.
I'm sure thalidomide was promoted in the same way, and it took a long time to realise the problems it caused.
I suppose the Third World is the usual place to try these things, but it would be nice to see America using its own people as guinea-pigs for once. Then at least the manufacturers can be sued.
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