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Notes on Golden Rice (a genetically modified food)

Himal (http://www.himalmag.com/2004/march_april/perspective_2.htm) uses this evidence to say that golden rice is a threat to food sovreignity:

"Top executives of Syngenta have already told The New York Times that while companies would not seek to patent the entire genome, they would try to patent individual valuable genes. They categorically stated that Syngenta and Myriad were well on their way to locating many of those. First it was Monsanto which made international headlines in April 2000 by announcing to share its working draft (rough version, 60 percent) of the genome map with international researchers sequencing the rice genome under a publicly funded International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP), and now it is Syngenta making clear its efforts to seek patents on genes with visible commercial output – the race is on to draw proprietary control over something that is actually part of nature and a human heritage."

According to Himal Magazine (http://www.himalmag.com/2004/march_april/perspective_2.htm), Syngenta (in a report to the NY Times) said that while companies would not try to patent the entire rice genome, Syngenta and other companies would try to patent individual genes. This, and Monsanto's contribution of its rice genomic research to the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (http://rgp.dna.affrc.go.jp/IRGSP/), are why Himal says that "the race is on to draw proprietary control over something that is actually part of nature."

India Together (http://www.indiatogether.org/opinions/guest/riceigkv.htm)

Syngenta's history of controversial involvement in rice research and marketing is well documented. In recent years the much hyped "golden rice' was released, allegedly to benefit rice-eating populations of South East Asia, as the answer to the Vitamin A deficiency in nations where the staple food is rice. In countries such as India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, the lack of adequate vitamin A in a rice-based diet causes childhood blindness and up to 1 million deaths a year; genetically modified rice was offered as a plausible solution. However, on scrupulous calculations, it was revealed that to get one's required supply of Vitamin A from golden rice, a child would have to consume absurd quantities of rice each day (9 kg of cooked rice). Moreover the required dose of vitamin A can easily be fulfilled by consuming a few carrots, yams and other vitamin A enriched substitutes. Further, since vitamin A is fat soluble and requires fats and proteins in the body to metabolize it, a malnourished child would not receive the intended benefit from consuimg it. This crucial point was completely ignored by the scientists in Syngenta.

It maintains a golden rice stats page with references to scientific articles:

http://www.indiatogether.org/reports/goldenrice/vitaminA2.htm

India Together maintains a statistics page (http://www.indiatogether.org/reports/goldenrice/vitaminA2.htm) with links to reports from the World Health Organization, the Food Agriculture Organization , and Ingo Potrykus, one of golden rice's inventors. According to this page, 500 to 850 micrograms of vitamin A is the required daily intake for adults (400 for children), and 1,6 microgram of beta-carotene is produced per gram of (uncooked) rice. Using these figures, India Together calculates that a child would need to consume 9 kg (19.8 lbs) of cooked rice a day to meet the required daily intake-- "a scientific inadequacy" (http://www.indiatogether.org/opinions/guest/riceigkv.htm).

But three Asia-based groups of campaigners, in a June 2 statement, said moves like Zeneca's ''are clouding the real issues of poverty and control over resources''. The three are Biothai, the Philippine-based Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines) and Philippine-based Masipag or Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development. ''Malnutrition is a problem of poverty, not technology,'' Day-cha Siripat of Thailand's Alternative Agriculture Network said in the statement.

Indeed, UN reports say a good amount of the answer to malnutrition lies in food diversification. Green leafy vegetables, oranges and red palm oil are good sources of Vitamin A. The reintroduction of vegetables rich in micronutrients has also worked in countries like Thailand and Bangladesh. ''Farmers' own experiences of diversification show that there are many ways to address Vitamin A deficiency in Asia without isolating the problem from socio-political realities,'' the three Asian NGOs pointed out.

Asia Today (http://www.atimes.com/se-asia/BF22Ae01.html) mentions UN reports like the UN Development Programme's Human Development Report 2001 (http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2001/en/). This UN report says that there is a lack of long-term study of GM foods on the body and the environment, but these particular concerns need more research (Chapter 3):

Health related -- allergies, toxicity, antibiotic resistance

Environment related -- Unintended effects on non-target species, Effects of gene flow to close relatives, Increased weediness, virus-resistant crops, Threats to biodiversity.

Monsanto cites the same UN report, but points to its mention of agricultural biotechnology's potential benefits (Chapter 2), saying that it "focuses attention on the concerns and needs of the developing world for better agricultural technology." The UN report says this of rice: "In China, genetically modified rices offers 15% higher yields without the need for increases in other farm inputs..." A few pages later, the report says that this aspect of higher yield is much more important to developing countries than to the U.S. and Europe:

"Western consumers who do not face food shortages or nutritional deficiencies or work in fields are more likely to focus on food safety and the potential loss of biodiversity, while farming communities in developing countries are more likely to focus on potentially higher yields and greater nutritional value, and on the reduced need to spray pesticides that can damage soil and sicken farmers. Similarly, the recent effort to globally ban the manufacture of DDT did not reflect the pesticide's benefits in preventing malaria in tropical countries.(UN report, p 4)"

Monsanto Company today welcomes the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report 2001 http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2001/en/, which focuses attention on the concerns and needs of the developing world for better agricultural biotechnology.

http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/layout/media/01/07-09-01.asp

Monsanto: rice-research.org

http://www.tigr.org/tdb/e2k1/osa1

http://rgp.dna.affrc.go.jp/cgi-bin/statusdb/seqcollab.