One of the concerns of opponents of Golden Rice is a distrust of the GMO patent holders.
In August of 2013, a group of protesters uprooted the golden rice plants in a test plot in the town of Pili, Camarines Sur, Philippines. There have been ongoing protests.
According to Helen Keller International, around 670,000 children will die each year from the problem, while 350,000 will go blind.
It is estimated that one cup of Golden Rice could provide half an adult’s recommended daily intake.
The protestors argue that international agrochemical corporations and the US are behind the drive for Golden Rice. In a statement, they said they were concerned that the rice trial was both a danger to human health and biodiversity.
The scientists involved with the trial say they were relieved that no-one was hurt during the incident.
“It was not completely unexpected as we had heard threats,” the IRRI’s Dr Bruce Tolentino told BBC News.
Hundreds of Philippine farmers uproot Golden Rice being tested in the town of Pili, province of Camarines Sur, in an attempt to stop the commercialization of genetically-modified rice.
Pili, officially the Municipality of Pili is a 1st class municipality and capital of the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 99,196 people.
The town is 450 kilometres (280 mi) from Manila.
The town of Pili has a “plain and elevated” geography, thus is very ideal for agriculture. Majority of the farmlands are in the area between the Uptown and Downtown Area. Rice, sugarcanes, and corn are the primary products.
Map of world poverty by country, showing percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day. Information is based on different years (2000-2006) for different countries. Data is missing for countries colored grey. By Sbw01f, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measuring_poverty
This Rice Could Save a Million Kids a Year J. MADELEINE NASH/ZURICH JULY 31, 2000 12:00 AM EDT
Golden rice is clearly not the moral equivalent of Roundup Ready beans. Quite the contrary, it is an example–the first compelling example–of a genetically engineered crop that may benefit not just the farmers who grow it but also the consumers who eat it. In this case, the consumers include at least a million children who die every year because they are weakened by vitamin-A deficiency and an additional 350,000 who go blind.
WEIGHING THE PERILS
Beneath the hyperbolic talk of Frankenfoods and Superweeds, even proponents of agricultural biotechnology agree, lie a number of real concerns. To begin with, all foods, including the transgenic foods created through genetic engineering, are potential sources of allergens. That’s because the transferred genes contain instructions for making proteins, and not all proteins are equal. Some–those in peanuts, for example–are well known for causing allergic reactions. To many, the possibility that golden rice might cause such a problem seems farfetched, but it nonetheless needs to be considered.
Then there is the problem of “genetic pollution,” as opponents of biotechnology term it. Pollen grains from such wind-pollinated plants as corn and canola, for instance, are carried far and wide. To farmers, this mainly poses a nuisance. Transgenic canola grown in one field, for example, can very easily pollinate nontransgenic plants grown in the next. Indeed this is the reason behind the furor that recently erupted in Europe when it was discovered that canola seeds from Canada–unwittingly planted by farmers in England, France, Germany and Sweden–contained transgenic contaminants.
The continuing flap over Bt corn and cotton–now grown not only in the U.S. but also in Argentina and China–has provided more fodder for debate. Bt stands for a common soil bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis, different strains of which produce toxins that target specific insects. By transferring to corn and cotton the bacterial gene responsible for making this toxin, Monsanto and other companies have produced crops that are resistant to the European corn borer and the cotton bollworm. An immediate concern, raised by a number of ecologists, is whether or not widespread planting of these crops will spur the development of resistance to Bt among crop pests. That would be unfortunate, they point out, because Bt is a safe and effective natural insecticide that is popular with organic farmers.
Even more worrisome are ecological concerns. In 1999 Cornell University entomologist John Losey performed a provocative, “seat-of-the-pants” laboratory experiment. He dusted Bt corn pollen on plants populated by monarch-butterfly caterpillars. Many of the caterpillars died. Could what happened in Losey’s laboratory happen in cornfields across the Midwest? Were these lovely butterflies, already under pressure owing to human encroachment on their Mexican wintering grounds, about to face a new threat from high-tech farmers in the north?
The upshot: despite studies pro and con–and countless save-the-monarch protests acted out by children dressed in butterfly costumes–a conclusive answer to this question has yet to come. Losey himself is not yet convinced that Bt corn poses a grave danger to North America’s monarch-butterfly population, but he does think the issue deserves attention. And others agree. “I’m not anti biotechnology per se,” says biologist Rebecca Goldberg, a senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, “but I would like to have a tougher regulatory regime. These crops should be subject to more careful screening before they are released.”
Are there more potential pitfalls? There are. Among other things, there is the possibility that as transgenes in pollen drift, they will fertilize wild plants, and weeds will emerge that are hardier and even more difficult to control. No one knows how common the exchange of genes between domestic plants and their wild relatives really is, but Margaret Mellon, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ agriculture and biotechnology program, is certainly not alone in thinking that it’s high time we find out. Says she: “People should be responding to these concerns with experiments, not assurances.”
And that is beginning to happen, although–contrary to expectations–the reports coming in are not necessarily that scary. For three years now, University of Arizona entomologist Bruce Tabashnik has been monitoring fields of Bt cotton that farmers have planted in his state. And in this instance at least, he says, “the environmental risks seem minimal, and the benefits seem great.” First of all, cotton is self-pollinated rather than wind-pollinated, so that the spread of the Bt gene is of less concern. And because the Bt gene is so effective, he notes, Arizona farmers have reduced their use of chemical insecticides 75%. So far, the pink bollworm population has not rebounded, indicating that the feared resistance to Bt has not yet developed.
Viral diseases, along with insect infestations, are a major cause of crop loss in Africa, observes Kenyan plant scientist Florence Wambugu. African sweet-potato fields, for example, yield only 2.4 tons per acre, vs. more than double that in the rest of the world. Soon Wambugu hopes to start raising those yields by introducing a transgenic sweet potato that is resistant to the feathery mottle virus. There really is no other option, explains Wambugu, who currently directs the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications in Nairobi. “You can’t control the virus in the field, and you can’t breed in resistance through conventional means.”
To Wambugu, the flap in the U.S. and Europe over genetically engineered crops seems almost ludicrous. In Africa, she notes, nearly half the fruit and vegetable harvest is lost because it rots on the way to market. “If we had a transgenic banana that ripened more slowly,” she says, “we could have 40% more bananas than now.” Wambugu also dreams of getting access to herbicide-resistant crops. Says she: “We could liberate so many people if our crops were resistant to herbicides that we could then spray on the surrounding weeds. Weeding enslaves Africans; it keeps children from school.”
