Golden rice was first presented in 2000 as a rice variety that
was genetically engineered in a laboratory to produce pro-vitamin A
(beta-carotene). The aim was that this genetically engineered (GE)
rice would solve the problems of vitamin A deficiency, which can
result in blindness and even death and occurs predominantly in
developing countries.
"Industry tries to sell Golden Rice as a magic solution. Their
strategy is misleading the public, they are oversimplifying the
actual problems in combating vitamin A deficiency and try to turn
down other, more effective solutions," says Christoph Then, GE
campaigner, Greenpeace International. "The Golden Rice project
simply aims to help industry to gain support for their
controversial GE-food in markets such as India and Europe".
"The GE industry is using hungry children in India as their
expense account to open up Indian markets to GE foods - an
untested, potentially dangerous and irresponsible act." says Divya
Raghunandan, GE Campaigner, Greenpeace India.
Close reading of the Golden Rice publications reveals that these
publications were hiding technical problems. The original
publication on Golden Rice did not fully, nor accurately, describe
the type of pro-vitamin A present in Golden Rice. In fact, the
reported amount of beta-carotene present was significantly
over-estimated. The main problem is that current science doesn't
understands how the GE rice makes the beta-carotene in the
plant.
The human food safety of the GE rice is unknown, but it is known
that cultivated rice will outcross to wild and weedy relatives,
likely to cause agronomic and environmental problems.
Since Golden Rice was presented in 2000, solutions such as
increased food diversity, medical vitamin A supplementation and
home gardening, have proven to be working solutions for VAD.
Although VAD is still a serious problem, in some countries such as
Bangladesh, these solutions helped to virtually eliminate the
blindness of children induced by VAD . There are also traditional
rice varieties that not only contain beta-carotene but also several
other important nutritional compounds such as iron, high quality
protein and even fatty components that are necessary for any uptake
of beta-carotene .
"GE rice could, if introduced on a large scale, exacerbate
malnutrition and undermine food security because it encourages a
diet based on a single industrial staple food rather than upon the
reintroduction of the many vitamin-rich food plants with high
nutritional value that are cheap and already available." says
Professor Klaus Becker, from University of Hohenheim, Germany, one
of the contributors to the Greenpeace reports that are released
today.
Greenpeace warns that Golden Rice researchers will again try to
draw attention by presenting new research on their GE rice,
claiming that this Golden Rice will have a ten times the content of
beta-carotene as the first generation. In five years of propaganda,
Golden Rice has not deliverd any real solutions to combat VAD, but
distracted public awareness away from available solutions that are
likely to be cheaper, more effective and more sustainable for the
environment.
Read Reports:
All That Glitters is Not Gold : The False Hope of
"Golden Rice"
ON RICE, BIODIVERSITY & NUTRIENTS
Vitamin A deficiency: diverse causes, diverse
solutions
Q&A : GOLDEN RICE
For more information:
, GE campaigner, Greenpeace India. +91
9845535406
Christoph Then, GE campaigner, Greenpeace International. +49
1718 780 832
, Media Officer, Greenpeace India. +91 9343788424
(1) Greenpeace, Not all that glitters is gold, The false hope of
'Golden Rice' (2) Antje Lorch, Vitamin A deficiency: diverse
causes, diverse solutions (3) Micheal Frei and Klaus Becker, On
rice, biodiversity and nutrients