Manicka Velu, R. Sethu Raja Durai, R.P. Gnana Malar Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Agricultural College and Research Institute Madurai
Golden rice has been heralded as the miracle cure for malnutrition and hunger of which 800 members of the human community suffer. Herbicide resistant and toxin producing genetically engineered plants can be objectionable because of their ecologic and social costs. But who could possibly object to rice engineered to produce vitamin A, a deficiency found in nearly 3 million children largely in the Third World ? to short term profit will restore this technology to political acceptability. Unfortunately, Vitamin A rice is a hoax, and will bring further dispute to plant genetic engineering where public relations exercises seem to have replaced science in promotion of untested, unproven and unnecessary technology.
The problem is that vitamin A rice will not remove vitamin A deficiency (VAD). It will seriously aggravate it. It is technology that fails in its promise. Currently, it is not even known how much vitamin A the genetically engineered rice will produce. The goal is 33.3 % micrograms / 100 gms of rice. Even if this goal is reached after a few years, it will be totally ineffective in removing VAD. Since the daily average requirements of vitamin A is 750 micrograms of A and 1 serving contains 30 gms of rice according to dry weight basis, vitamin A rice would only provide 9.9 micrograms which is 1.32 % of the required allowance. Even taking the 100 gms figure of daily consumption or rice used in the technology transfer paper would only provide 4.4 % of the RDA. In order to meet the full needs of 750 micrograms of vitamin A from rice, an adult would have to consume 2 kg 272 gms of rice per day. This implies that one family member would consume the entire family ration of 10 kgs from the PDS in 4 days to meet vitamin A needs through “Golden rice”. This is a recipe for creating hunger and malnutrition, not solving it.
Besides, creating vitamin A deficiency, vitamin A rice will also create deficiency in other micronutrients and nutrients. Raw milled rice has a low content of Fat (0.5 gms / 100 gms). Since fat is necessary for vitamin A uptake, this will aggravate vitamin A deficiency. It also has only 6.8 gms /100 gms of protein, which means less carrier molecules. It has only 0.7 gms / 100 gms of iron, which plays a vital role in the conversion of Beta carotene (precursor of vitamin A found in pant sources) to vitamin A. Superior alternatives exist and are effective. A far more efficient route to removing vitamin A deficiency is biodiversity conservation and propagation of naturally vitamin A rich plants in agriculture and diets.
Traditional breeding methods have been unsuccessful in producing crops containing a high vitamin A concentration and most national authorities rely on expensive and complicated supplementation programs to address the problem. Researchers have introduced three new genes into rice, two from daffodils and one from a microorganism. The transgenic rice exhibits and increased production of Beta carotene as a precursor to vitamin A and the seed is yellow in colour. Such yellow or golden rice, may be useful tool to help treat the problem, of vitamin A deficiency in young children living in the tropics. It appears as if the world’s top scientists suffer a more severe form of blindness than children in poor countries. The statement that “traditional breeding has been unsuccessful in producing crops high in vitamin A” is not true given the diversity of plants and crops that the Third World farmers, especially women have bred and used which are rich sources of vitamin A such as Coriander, Amaranth Carrot, Pumpkin, Mango and Jackfruit.
It is also untrue that vitamin A rice will lead to increased production of beta-carotene. Even if the target of 33.3 microgram of vitamin A in 100 gms of rice is achieved, it will be only 2.8 % of beta carotene we can obtain from amaranth leaves 2.4 % of beta carotene obtained from coriander leaves, curry leaves and drumstick leaves. Even the World Bank has admitted that rediscovering and use of local plants and conservation of vitamin A rich green leafy vegetables and fruits have dramatically reduced VAD threatened children over the past 20 years in very cheap and efficient ways. Women in Bengal use more than 200 varieties of field greens. Over a 3 million people have benefited greatly from a food based project for removing VAD by increasing vitamin A availability through home gardens. The higher the diversity crops the better the uptake of pro-vitamin A.
The technology availability issue is related to whether the various elements and methods used for the construction of transgenic crop plants are covered by intellectual property rights. Licenses for these rights need to be obtained before a product can be commercialized. The Cornell based ISAAA ( International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application) has been identified as the partner for ensuring technology availability by having material transfer agreements signed between the representative authority of the ICAR and the “Owners” of the technology, Prof, I Portykus and Prof. P. Beyer. In addition, Novartis and Kerin Breweries have patents on the genes used as constructs for the vitamin A rice.
Gene giants Novartis, Astra-Zeneca and Monsanto are claiming exclusive ownership to the basic patents related to rice research. Further, neither Monsanto nor Astra-Zeneca said they will give up their patents on rice – they are merely giving royalty fee licenses to public sector scientists for development of “golden rice”. This is an arrangement for a public subsidy to corporate giants for R & D since they do not have the expertise or experience with rice breeding which public institutions have. Not giving up the patents, but merely giving royalty free licenses implies that the corporations like Monsanto would ultimately like to collect royalties from farmers for rice varieties developed by public sector research systems. Monsanto has stated that it expects long term gains from these IPR arrangements, which implies markets in rice as “intellectual property” which cannot be saved or exchanged for seed. The real test for Monsanto would be its declaration of giving up any patent claims to rice now and in the future and joining the call to remove plants and biodiversity out of TRIPS. Failing such an undertaking by Monsanto the announcement that Monsanto giving royalty free licenses for development of vitamin A rice like the rice itself can only be taken as a hoax to establish monopoly over rice production and reduce rice farmers of India into bio-serfs. While the complicated technology transfer package of “Golden Rice” will not solve vitamin A problems in India, it is a very effective strategy for corporate take over of rice production, using the public sector as a Trojan Horse.
