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Opinion piece about Golden Rice by Benedikt Haerlin
International Co-ordinator Greenpeace Genetic Engineering Campaign

"Golden Rice" The pile of rice is astonishing - nine kilos of cooked rice is a substantial and unappetising mound - but the Genetic Engineering (GE) industry says it is the solution to a major health problem in the developing world.

The rice is called "Golden Rice" because of its yellow colour, indicating it contains some amounts of beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A.

"Carrots are good for your eyesight", we were told as children and indeed around 500, 000 children worldwide are going blind every year because their diet and their mothers' breast milk does not contain sufficient amounts of vitamin A.

The deficiency also causes reduced immune responses. Millions of children and young mothers could survive infectious diseases, like measles, if only their immune response was stronger.

The United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF have been fighting vitamin A deficiency for more than a decade now, handing out pills, which are cheap and effective, fortifying foods and developing programmes to improve the poor composition of millions of poor peoples diet.

There are impressive successes, but also significant shortcomings. Everybody agrees that a diversified and healthy diet is the solution, but in a world of 800 million people suffering hunger and 1.2 billion living at a poverty level below one dollar a day, this solution is often far away.

Beta-carotene is only one component needed. In order to convert it into vitamin A the body also needs some fat, sufficient levels of zinc and iron along with the sanitary conditions, especially clean water. All must be available to avoid the carotene being flushed through the body with no effect.

Can "Golden Rice" solve all these problems? Certainly not. And the problem is the massive glutinous pile I describe. It represents the amount of this so-called "golden rice" needed in the diet every day to intake the amount of Vitamin A the WHO says is needed to prevent such health problems. It's a simple calculation: About 500 micrograms of vitamin A are needed for adults, 300 for children, 850 for breast feeding mothers. The conversion rate from beta carotene to vitamin A is estimated to be around 12:1. So 6000 micro grams of beta carotene would be needed to ensure eyesight and ordinary growth.

However, the genetically engineered wonder-rice only contains a fraction of that. So an adult would need to eat a staggering 3,75 kilos of dry rice, roughly 9 kilos of cooked rice, for their daily dose. Compare that to the usual Asian diet of around 300 grams. "Would have been a nice idea, but doesn't work," you would probably say at this point. Not so the GE industry. "One month delay to the project will cost 50.000 childrens' eyesight," claims Dr. Adrian Dubrock of Syngenta.

His company, the world leader in GMO and pesticide production, has bought up the patents of Golden Rice. "Should the opponents eventually succeed in preventing Golden Rice to reach the poor in developing countries," writes the inventor, Prof. Ingo Potrykus of Switzerland, "it will be them who will have to take responsibility for the foreseeable, yet avoidable, death or blindness of millions of poor, underprivileged people..." And together they succeeded in making Golden Rice a veritable media star.

"This rice could save a million kids a year", read the cover of Time magazine. Even Bill Clinton knew it: "If we could get more of this golden rice ... out to the developing world, it could save 40,000 lives a day". Did nobody make the simple calculation?, Greenpeace asked at the "BioVision" conference in Lyon last week. Some probably didn't bother. Others did not want to draw the honest conclusions. Potrykus for instance, while repeating his allegations, confirmed that the 9 kilo pile was probably correct, adding he hoped to improve the strains over time but admitting that, of course, his rice could only serve as a complement. He also claimed to "share Greenpeace's disgust about the heavy PR campaign of some agbiotech companies using results from our experiments".

Still more surprising, no tests have been conducted on them so far. While Potrykus believes the approach has a fair chance to be successful, he admits "We have to be patient for a few years, until this can be verified or falsified." In a few years, however, the Vitamin A problem could already be under control, according to those really working on Vitamin A deficiency.

There are cheap and proven solutions and technologies available. The main problems are political will and sufficient resources. In promoting an untried solution using a controversial, unworkable and, I would argue, environmentally dangerous technology when simple and effective alternatives can be implemented, the bio-tech industry is looking after quite different interests than those of poor children.

They actually abuse the misery of these children for a frivolous and fraudulent public relations gag. For them there is a lot riding on the promotion of positive health effects. It is an attempt to find a moral high ground for a genetically modified crop, and to convince an increasingly suspicious public and governments in developing countries of the benefits of genetically engineered crops.

For environmental campaigners such as myself, there is a need to stand up to moral challenges, but on this issue the basic human right of self-sufficiency, free from the interventions of a global bio-tech industry, does not have to be at the expense of people's health and environmental safety.

This is why we argue, that we should not go further than we can see. By the way, have you ever heard of red palm oil and the fact that a single spoon full of this abundant and cheap commodity, readily available both in Africa and Asia, can provide all the beta carotene needed per day? Probably not. You may ask yourself why that is. Because the solution is too simple and not overly exciting? Because it is not a genetically engineered wonder-product? Because it would serve no other interests than those of the people in need?

I am confident that simple truth will prevail in the longer term. For the time being I would suggest that there should be limits to engineering the facts of life even for the most powerful transnational companies of this world. And I would suggest that some of those, who all too willingly bought this "fools gold", should take a moment to contemplate the moral challenges of that 9 kilo pile of rice. It tells its own story.

Benedikt Haerlin, International Co-ordinator Greenpeace Genetic Engineering Campaign "Golden Rice" The pile of rice is astonishing - nine kilos of cooked rice is a substantial and unappetising mound - but the Genetic Engineering (GE) industry says it is the solution to a major health problem in the developing world.

The rice is called "Golden Rice" because of its yellow colour, indicating it contains some amounts of beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. "Carrots are good for your eyesight", we were told as children. And indeed around 500,000 children world wide are going blind every year, because their diet and their mothers' breast milk does not contain sufficient amounts of vitamin A.

The deficiency also causes reduced immune responses. Millions of children and young mothers could survive infectious diseases, like measles, if only their immune response was stronger. The United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF have been fighting vitamin A deficiency for more than a decade now, handing out pills, which are cheap and effective, fortifying foods and developing programmes to improve the poor composition of millions of poor peoples diet. There are impressive successes, but also significant shortcomings.

Everybody agrees that a diversified and healthy diet is the solution, but in a world of 800 million people suffering hunger and 1,2 billion living at a poverty level below 1 Dollar a day, this solution is often far away. Beta-carotene is only one component needed. In order to convert it into vitamin A the body also needs some fat, sufficient levels of zinc and iron along with the sanitary conditions, especially clean water. All must be available to avoid the carotene being flushed through the body with no effect. Can "Golden Rice" solve all these problems? Certainly not. And the problem is the massive glutinous pile I describe. It represents the amount of this so-called "golden rice" needed in the diet every day to intake the amount of Vitamin A the WHO says is needed to prevent such health problems. It's a simple calculation: About 500 micrograms of vitamin A are needed for adults, 300 for children, 850 for breast feeding mothers. The conversion rate from beta carotene to vitamin A is estimated to be around 12:1. So 6000 micro grams of beta carotene would be needed to ensure eyesight and ordinary growth.

However the genetically engineered wonder-rice only contains a fraction of that. So an adult would need to eat a staggering 3,75 kilos of dry rice, roughly 9 kilos of cooked rice, for their daily dose. Compare that to the usual Asian diet of around 300 grams. "Would have been a nice idea, but doesn't work," you would probably say at this point. Not so the GE industry. "One month delay to the project will cost 50.000 childrens' eyesight," claims Dr. Adrian Dubrock of Syngenta. His company, the world leader in GMO and pesticide production, has bought up the patents of Golden Rice. "Should the opponents eventually succeed in preventing Golden Rice to reach the poor in developing countries," writes the inventor, Prof. Ingo Potrykus of Switzerland, "it will be them who will have to take responsibility for the foreseeable, yet avoidable, death or blindness of millions of poor, underprivileged people..." And together they succeeded in making Golden Rice a veritable media star. "This rice could save a million kids a year", read the cover of Time magazine.

Even Bill Clinton knew it: "If we could get more of this golden rice ... out to the developing world, it could save 40,000 lives a day". Did nobody make the simple calculation?, Greenpeace asked at the "BioVision" conference in Lyon last week. Some probably didn't bother. Others did not want to draw the honest conclusions.

Potrykus for instance, while repeating his allegations, confirmed that the 9 kilo pile was probably correct, adding he hoped to improve the strains over time but admitting that, of course, his rice could only serve as a complement. He also claimed to "share Greenpeace's disgust about the heavy PR campaign of some agbiotech companies using results from our experiments".

Certainly the main funder for his research, the Rockefeller Foundation, wrote to Greenpeace complaining that "the public relations' uses of Golden Rice have gone too far." And there was more to learn about "Golden Rice": At this moment there are probably less seeds of "Golden Rice" available than the pile needed for a single persons single day intake. Still more surprising, no tests have been conducted on them so far. While Potrykus believes the approach has a fair chance to be successful, he admits "We have to be patient for a few years, until this can be verified or falsified." In a few years, however, the Vitamin A problem could already be under control, according to those really working on Vitamin A deficiency. There are cheap and proven solutions and technologies available. The main problems are political will and sufficient resources. In promoting an untried solution using a controversial, unworkable and, I would argue, environmentally dangerous technology when simple and effective alternatives can be implemented, the bio-tech industry is looking after quite different interests than those of poor children.

They actually abuse the misery of these children for a frivolous and fraudulent PR gag. For them there is a lot riding on the promotion of positive health effects. It is an attempt to find a moral high ground for a genetically modified crop, and to convince an increasingly suspicious public and governments in developing countries of the benefits of genetically engineered crops.

Greenpeace opposes any releases of GMOs into the environment, because the risks involved cannot be properly assessed at the present state of scientific knowledge. Still, once released into the environment, such GMOs cannot be recalled. They can contaminate our global genetic resources and they can threaten natural biodiversity. This is why we argue, that we should not go further than we can see. By the way, have you ever heard of red palm oil and the fact that a single spoon full of this abundant and cheap commodity, readily available both in Africa and Asia, can provide all the beta carotene needed per day? Probably not.

You may ask yourself why that is. Because the solution is too simple and not overly exciting? Because it is not a genetically engineered wonder-product? Because it would serve no other interests than those of the people in need? I am confident that simple truth will prevail in the longer term. For the time being I would suggest that there should be limits to engineering the facts of life even for the most powerful transnational companies of this world. And I would suggest that some of those, who all too willingly bought this "fools gold", should take a moment to contemplate the moral challenges of that 9 kilo pile of rice. It tells its own story.

Benedikt Haerlin
International Co-ordinator Greenpeace Genetic Engineering Campaign

More information and reports:

Press release
Greenpeace demands false biotech advertising in Canada be removed from TV (February 9, 2001)
Golden Rice: Reality Vs Fiction backgrounder (download pdf document)
Letter from the Rockefeller Foundation (download pdf document)
Vitamin A: Natural Sources vs Golden Rice backgrounder (download pdf document)
The false promise of genetically engineered rice (download pdf document)

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