Sept 21, 2012
By Anchalee Kongrut, a Thai journalist from the Bangkok Post who is on exchange with the Economic Observer

If you have reservations about the safety of genetically-modified foods (GM food), you would probably have been upset by the announcement that scientests had engineered a new "Golden Rice" in 2000.

Golden Rice is known to help alleviate Vitamin A deficiency syndrome (VAD).

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 250 000 to 500 000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight.

Golden Rice was produced by a group of scientists who modified a rice gene to produce beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A.

People planned to provide the rice for free to poor farmers in developing countries.

Golden Rice made it on to the front page of Time Magazine in the summer of 2000 with the glowing caption "This rice can save a million kids a year."

The rice had such a good reputation that even Greenpeace - an avowed opponent of GM products - was reluctant to come out and criticize the rice.
 
Surprisingly enough, Golden Rice has remained in the experimental stage for the past 12 years and despite its warm welcome, Golden Rice never received any kind of food safety approval.

As a reporter covering the environmental beat, I have followed news of Golden Rice with interest.

Despite my doubts about genetically modified products, Golden Rice has the potential to change the lives of many.

We might be able to question the necessity of insect-resistance BT cotton and GM corn, but the potential benefits of Golden Rice shows us the positive side of genetically-modified foods.

Golden Rice has once again been back in the news in recent weeks.

Tufts University last month published research about the nutritional value of Golden Rice in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The content of the article helped push the case for Golden Rice, the way the experiment was conducted did not.

Indeed, the study caused widespread concern and anger in China and also drew criticism internationally. As part of the research, Golden Rice was fed to 24 preschool students in China's Hunan Province.

The Hunan 2008 trial was not such a big secret. In 2009, 22 scientists signed an open letter warning Tufts University that its researhers were violating research ethics by testing the rice on poor rural children whose families may not have been properly informed.   

The Golden Rice issue now appears like rotten leftovers that no one wants to taste.

Chinese authorities initially rejected the news outright when Greenpeace first reported it. Yet, Tufts University and Tang Guangwen, the university's researcher and lead author of the report, insisted that the research project had been approved by the relevant Chinese authorities.

Earlier this month, the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences admitted it signed the cooperation letter with Tufts University to conduct the experiment, yet insisted it did not know that it would involve GM rice.

Hu Yuming and Yin Shi'an, two researchers at China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whose names were listed as authors on the report, distanced themselves from the project, saying they did not know the trial involved GM rice.

The Ministry of Health then ordered the CDC to conduct an investigation and Yin Shi'an was suspended from the duty.

Future of Golden Rice

It's highly likely that Golden Rice will soon leave the laboratory and be planted in the fields.

The IRRI last year received a 10.3 million USD grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund the development and assessment of Golden Rice varieties for the Philippines and Bangladesh. The institute also cooperates with Helen Keller International, a leading global health organization that reduces blindness and prevents malnutrition worldwide.

Will the fuming Chinese public response about children being used as "guinea pigs" subside?

There are many reasons why the Chinese should be concerned about GM food.

Despite the sale and the production of genetically modified rice being forbidden in China, news about illegal cultivation of GM rice was reported in 2005, in Hubei and Hunan. There were more reports of genetically-modified rice being planted in 2010-2011.

Despite the collective fear of GM food, the country is the world's largest grower of GM cotton and the top importer of GM soybeans.

There are also news reports of illegal plantation of GM corn, another controlled GM plant.

Last but not least, academic experts at Huazhong Agricultural University admitted to a reporter from The Economic Observer that researchers at the university's laboratory had eaten two strains of GM rice for many years and found it tasted good and had no harmful effect on their bodies.