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Golden Grains Of Hope

A Life-Saving, Genetically Altered Rice Gets Stuck In Politics

According to the Sacramento Bee, 1 million to 2 million children die every year because their diet lacks enough of a single nutrient, vitamin A. Since many of these children eat a diet based on rice, researchers figured out a way to manipulate the genes of rice so that it naturally produced more vitamin A so that some of these children would live.

Unfortunately this technology has been locked up because of regulatory hurdles, patent disputes and fear-mongering politics that try to portray every genetic alteration as a "Frankenfood." According to Dr. Ingo Potrykus, the only thing that appears unusual about the rice is its color. Because the beta carotene is packed into the grain, the rice is golden.

"Meanwhile in Switzerland, the government is considering whether to ban the export of all genetically modified organisms. Activists who oppose the technology shout down Potrykus at lectures. Progress to bring this invention into the real world has been slow. Potrykus said he had hoped his seeds would have reached farmers "a year ago." He works on what he hopes to be his next breakthrough, a rice filled with more iron, the key ingredient to prevent millions of malnourished children from developing anemia."

The author concludes by stating that "the researchers' golden rice is not a Frankenfood. It is a miracle of modern technology. It is those who seek to keep this rice locked away, because it doesn't fit their ideology about the evils of modern science, who are acting like monsters."

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