Golden rice

Golden rice, a genetically modified rice (Oryza sativa) that has been engineered to biosynthesize beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A. Beta-carotene, a pigment responsible for the orange coloration of carrots and other plants, gives the rice its distinctive hue. Although the crop was intended to help combat vitamin A deficiency—particularly in children—in low-income countries that use rice as a staple food, the GMO has been the source of significant controversy.

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for the human body and is only obtained through diet. It is most abundant in fatty fish—especially in fish-liver oils—and is also found in other animal products, including milk fat, eggs, and liver. Although vitamin A is not present in plants, many vegetables and fruits contain beta-carotene or other pigments that the body can convert to vitamin A. In low-income and developing countries, access to these foods can be limited, increasing the risk of a serious deficiency that can cause developmental defects or even death. Vitamin A deficiency is a major public health concern in more than half of all countries, with millions of children affected each year. The World Health Organization estimates that around 250 million people suffer from vitamin A deficiency, including 40 percent of children under five in the developing world. Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of childhood blindness, and half of all afflicted children die within a year of losing their eyesight.

Creation and cultivation

In 1982 German scientist Ingo Potrykus began to research a grain-based solution to the problem of vitamin A deficiency. Given that rice is a staple crop for more than 3 billion people, the cereal grain was a logical and promising candidate. But since beta-carotene does not naturally occur in rice grains, Potrykus faced serious challenges. He began investigating the genetic pathways behind beta-carotene synthesis. About a decade later he was joined by another German scientist, Peter Beyer, and the project was funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation. Te project required more engineering than typical genetic modifications that involve the addition of a single novel gene because the production of beta-carotene is a complex biochemical process regulated by several genes.To generate such a modified grain, scientists leveraged gene editing technology and took the genes responsible for beta-carotene production in daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) and bacteria (Pantoea ananatis and Escherichia coli) and added these to the DNA of rice. Later versions included genes from corn (maize; Zea mays). Golden rice first successfully expressed beta-carotene in 1999, and the scientists published the results in 2000.

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The inventors sought to legally protect golden rice as a humanitarian project instead of having it used commercially. The crop was licensed to Syngenta, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, and a humanitarian board was established to grant noncommercial licenses to public research facilities and to oversee any development of the GMO to adapt it to local climate conditions. Syngenta agreed to license the crop for free to farmers in the Global South with incomes less than $10,000 annually, allowing such farmers to regrow the crop from seed after every harvest.

Cultivating golden rice does not require any different agricultural methods than growingregular rice, nor does it produce markedly different yields. A study estimated that golden rice can provide up to 50 percent of the necessary vitamin A in a child’s diet.

Reception and backlash

Some organizations and countries have hailed golden rice as an essential tool for reducing starvation and childhood illness and fatalities from vitamin A deficiency. The crop was still under development in the first decade of the 21st century and has needed to pass safety assessments and gain the approval of national regulators before being distributed for use. Between 2017 and 2019 Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States designated golden rice as safe to consume but did not greenlight its cultivation. In 2021 the Philippines became the first country to approve the commercial cultivation of golden rice. In 2023 more than a dozen other countries had national rice research institutions under the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board, including Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, India, South Africa, and Vietnam.

Like many other GMOs, golden rice has been the target of vitriolic backlash, largely due to misinformation. Greenpeace launched an impassioned campaign against golden rice soon after the modified grain’s creation, claiming that the crop had the potential to contaminate regular rice and thus disrupt food and financial security for rural farmers. The organization and others have also asserted that the money spent developing golden rice could have been used to combat vitamin A deficiency more directly and efficiently and argue that there will be social and cultural roadblocks, such as dietary preferences, that will render the crop undesirable in some places. Critics have stated that the grain is unsafe to consume, despite testing that has established that the grain is as safe to eat as non-genetically engineered rice and has no heightened toxicity or allergen levels. In some cases, the outrage against golden rice has slipped into conspiracy and violence. Detractors falsely claimed that the agrochemical corporation Monsanto invented golden rice and that the crop is being forced on poor countries in a manipulative attempt to win support for GMOs more broadly. Opposition to golden rice has even prompted anti-GMO demonstrators to destroy fields of the crop.

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Political and cultural objections to golden rice have delayed its availability to those suffering from vitamin A deficiency, and some estimate that the delay has resulted in the blindness and deaths of millions of children. In 2016 more than 100 Nobel Prize laureates signed a statement urging Greenpeace and governments worldwide to support GMOs and golden rice in particular, arguing that because golden rice may reduce avoidable deaths, restricting it is a crime against humanity.