Golden Rice - Lifesaver_ - NYTimes - Golden Rice Lifesaver...

8/26/13 Golden Rice - Lifesaver? - NYTimes.com
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Jes Aznar f or The New York Times
Genetically engineered Golden Rice
grow n in a facility in Los Baños,
Laguna Province, in the Philippines.
Related
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Genetically Modified Food (May
25, 201 2)
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Altering Its DNA (July 28,
201 3)
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Erik De Castro/Reuters
Mothers w ith masks made from baby
bathtubs protested Golden Rice in
Quezon City, the Philippines, in June.
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NEWS ANALYSIS
Golden Rice: Lifesaver?
By AMY HARMON
Published: August 24, 2013 160 Comments
ONE bright morning this month, 400 protesters smashed down the
high fences surrounding a field in the Bicol region of the Philippines
and uprooted the genetically modified rice plants growing inside.
Had the plants survived long enough
to flower, they would have betrayed a
distinctly yellow tint in the otherwise
white part of the grain. That is
because the rice is endowed with a
gene from corn and another from a
bacterium, making it the only variety
in existence to produce beta carotene, the source of vitamin
A. Its developers call it “Golden Rice.”
The concerns voiced by the participants in the Aug. 8 act of
vandalism — that Golden Rice could pose unforeseen risks
to human health and the environment, that it would
ultimately profit big agrochemical companies — are a
familiar refrain in the long-running controversy over the
merits of genetically engineered crops. They are driving the
desire among some Americans for mandatory “G.M.O.”
labels on food with ingredients made from crops whose
DNA has been altered in a laboratory. And they have
motivated similar attacks on trials of other genetically
modified crops in recent years: grapes designed to fight off
a deadly virus in France, wheat designed to have a lower
glycemic index in Australia, sugar beets in Oregon designed
to tolerate a herbicide, to name a few.
“We do not want our people, especially our children, to be
used in these experiments,” a farmer who was a leader of
the protest told the Philippine newspaper Remate .
But Golden Rice, which appeared on the cover of Time
Magazine in 2000 before it was quite ready for prime time,
is unlike any of the genetically engineered crops in wide use
today, designed to either withstand herbicides sold by
Monsanto and other chemical companies or resist insect
attacks, with benefits for farmers but not directly for
consumers.
And a looming decision by the Philippine government about whether to allow Golden Rice
to be grown beyond its four remaining field trials has added a new dimension to the debate
over the technology’s merits.