GMO Changing the World: Golden Rice

When you think about carrots what is the first thought that comes to mind?  I think of a snowman's nose first.  The second thing I think about is it will make my eyesight better according to the stories I heard growing up as a kid.  While probably not entirely true, it is a good tale to make kids eat their vegetables.  The tale originated from the fact that carrots are a source for your body to make Vitamin A which is associated with eye health.  In reality, carrots are full of beta-carotene which causes the orange color.  When we eat a carrot or other vegetable with beta-carotene our bodies can convert it to vitamin A.

Vitamin A is an important vitamin and in many parts of Africa and some other parts of the world, Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a real problem.  VAD can cause blindness and death.  Children are especially susceptible to VAD when their diets are not sufficient.  According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 250 million preschool children are Vitamin A deficient. WHO also states on their site that an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A deficiency children become blind every year with half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight.  All of these cases are preventable if only vitamin A was available in their diets.

This is when we are thankful for the people that take the time to help the world.   Over and over in history when great minds get together then great solutions are realized.  That is what happened when Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer invented Golden Rice.  Golden Rice is a transgenic crop in which genes from another species were inserted into the rice genome.   These genes were part of the beta-carotene biosynthesis pathway found in other species like daffodils.  In essence, rice would make beta-carotene and when ingested, the body had a way to make Vitamin A.    Let's go back to the carrot.  A carrot is orange and so you can probably guess what happens when rice starts making beta-carotene.  It turns orange!

http://www.goldenrice.org/index.php  (Golden rice on right)

Golden Rice continues to improve and Golden Rice 2 now exists that provides even higher levels of beta-carotene by using a gene from maize.  One of the reasons Golden Rice has advanced to where it is today is due to the help of Syngenta.  Syngenta and other biotech companies seem to get a bad rap in some circles who see them as the big corporations doing anything they wish.  The original inventors of Golden Rice realized they had a great invention, but they needed help in some other areas to continue to develop the rice.  Syngenta helped develop Golden Rice and Golden Rice 2 and then donated the events to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board.  Syngenta did not keep the line for themselves for profit, but instead donated it for the good of the world.   The biotech companies are nothing more than people and these people care about the betterment of the world.

Golden Rice is a success story that can change the world.   It can provide children and adults the Vitamin A they need through their diet.  Some time is still needed before it is widely available in all the countries that desperately need it.  It also still faces resistance from some groups simply because it is GMO.

When something is proven safe and can prevent VAD for hundreds of thousands of people how can you really be against it?  It blows my mind.   There are all kinds of great resources on Golden Rice that go into much more detail.  Check out http://www.goldenrice.org/index.php for lots more information on Golden Rice and spread the word about stories like Golden Rice the next time someone opposes GMOs.


Resources:
http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/vad/en/