While Provitamin A Biofortified Rice Event GR2E, more popularly known as golden rice, has received positive assessment from three international regulatory bodies (the US Food and Drug Administration, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, and Health Canada), it may take about 4-6 years before it will be approved for commercialization in the Philippines.
“If everything turns out well, golden rice may be available for commercial production by 2022 or 2026,” said Dr. Reynante L. Ordonio, healthier rice project leader at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in an interview. “It’s too hard to really know the exact date.”
Golden rice is a product of biotechnology, defined as “any technique that uses living organisms to make or modify a product, to improve plants or animals or to develop microorganisms for specific uses.”
The methodology seems like a work of fiction. Listen to the words of Dr. Frank A. Shotkoski, an adjunct professor at the Cornell University in the College of Life Science Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics: “Traditional methods of crop improvement require the mixing of genes by making specific crosses, observing and selecting for specific phenotypes [traits] in the offspring. This has been a very effective tool for crop improvement, and our ancestors have been quite successful in using these techniques to develop the productive, tasty and nutritious crops that we have today.”
But modern biotechnology completely changes that. “Biotechnology allows us to introduce genes into crops that could never be achieved using traditional or conventional methods, because the gene tied to a specific trait (that is, insect resistance, disease resistance, herbicide tolerance, etc.) doesn’t exist in species,” Shotkoski explained.
In recent years, modern biotechnology—through genetic engineering—has been used to increase plant and animal food production, to diagnose disease, improve medical treatment, produce vaccines and other useful drugs and to help dispose of industrial wastes. This paved way to the buzzword, genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
In the case of golden rice, respected scientists Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer used a gene from daffodil and an ordinary microbe and introduced it to rice through genetic engineering. Using the same microbe and another gene from yellow corn, the second version of golden rice came into existence. The new form has been found to contain 20 times more beta carotene than the original one.
The development would have been welcome with much fanfare. But such is not the case. “GMOs worldwide are governed by a stringent biosafety regulatory process starting from their development to commercialization,” says Ordonio. “The biosafety procedure involves a series of checkpoints to ensure that GMOs or their by-products will meet the expected level of safety to health and the environment.
“Going through this procedure doesn’t mean that GMOs have higher risks as even ordinary foods such as peanuts, milks, melons, breads, and shrimps can cause harm as sources of allergens,” Ordonio continues. “In fact, GMOs can even be a lot safer because of this strict biosafety process.”
Take the case of golden rice, which had to go through a series of rigorous testing and regulatory procedures. To ensure that golden rice is safe for the environment and health, the planting materials used were subjected to confined field-testing in fenced and isolated areas for at least 2 cropping seasons in 3 different locations in the country.
“During the tests, any discrepancy or variation from the original variety in terms of appearance, and any unusual disease, pest, or weed incidence at the sites were carefully assessed,” Ordonio reports.
The Biosafety Committee of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) that provides overall supervision along with scientist representatives and members of the local community who jointly form the Institutional Biosafety Committee of each site, see to it that biosafety guidelines are strictly followed. Among these guidelines is preventing the intentional or unintentional release of viable seeds or plants from the site, and the proper disposal or transport of transgenic materials.
Once the 5 best-performing lines of the planting materials are identified, these are to be forwarded to a season of field trials under the supervision of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture (DA) as stated in the Joint Department Circular No. 1 Series of 2016 pertaining to the handling and use, transboundary movement, release, and management of GMOs.
Aside from the two government agencies, other departments involved are the Departments of Health, Environment and Natural Resources, and Interior and Local Government. This collaborative assessment further ensures the safety of golden rice.
The edible parts or grains of GMOs also need to be assessed for safety and suitability for food, feed, and processing.
“Once the technology has passed the rest of the biosafety procedures, only then will it be approved by government for commercialization,” says Ordonio. “Ultimately, we expect that Golden Rice will not only pass biosafety regulations but also be proven efficacious in fighting Vitamin A deficiency, the real reason for its conception.”
Golden rice has been promoted as a staple that can reduce the incidence of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in the country. About 89% of Filipinos consume rice on a daily basis. Normally, rice plants produce beta-carotene in their green parts, but not the grain that people eat. Golden rice is genetically engineered to produce beta-carotene in the edible part of the plant.
The beta-carotene gives the golden color to the cereal (as well as to fruits and vegetables like squash, papaya and carrots). The body converts beta-carotene in golden rice to vitamin A as needed.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) estimates between 250,000 to 500,000 children who become blind each year because of a lack of vitamin A in their diets. Not only that, about half of these children die within 12 months.
Vitamin A deficiency also depresses the immune system, raising overall mortality among children from other causes such as diarrhea, measles, and pneumonia. For these diseases the additional toll is estimated at 1 million preventable deaths a year, or around 2,700 per day, mostly among children younger than 5.
According to research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2009, daily consumption of a cup of rice – about 150 grams uncooked weight – could supply half of the Recommended Daily Allowance of Vitamin A for an adult.
Balancing cereal-diets with vegetables and animal products is one approach used in some developing countries to address the vitamin A-deficiency. But results were frustrating. Vegetables and animal products are expensive and seasonal, subject to spoilage and transport facilities.
The 8th National Nutrition Survey of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) showed VAD remains a persistent public health issue in the Philippines. There was an increase of VAD incidence (among children ages 6 months – 5 years old) from 15.2% in 2008 to 20.4% in 2013.
“This is equivalent to 2.1 million children who are at risk of getting sick, blind, and even dying if left untreated,” Ordonio deplores.
A number of Filipino pregnant and nursing mothers are also vitamin A deficient.
Experts see golden rice as one possible solution to the problem. “Make no mistake – this agricultural innovation is not a game-changer, it’s a life-changer Dr. Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director of CropLife Asia, a non-profit science-based organization.
Filipino farmers need not to worry about planting golden rice once it is available for commercialization. In fact, farmers who produce organically grown crops currently co-exist with farmers who grow genetically modified crops and crops grown in conventional ways. ‘Co-existence’ is the practice of growing different kinds of crops, crops grown in different ways, or crops for different customers nearby or next to each other, while keeping the crops separate so they don’t mix and so their economic value is not affected.
“Golden rice could likewise co-exist with other crops, including other types of rice and rice grown in other ways such as in organic agriculture,” states the Laguna-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) which works on golden rice in collaboration with PhilRice. “Golden rice is unlikely to impact organic agriculture through cross-pollination – also known as outcrossing or gene flow – for reasons that apply to all cultivated rice. Cross-pollination in rice is rare if plants are separated by a short distance of a few feet or meters and it can only occur when rice plants are flowering at the same time.
“Moreover, rice pollen is normally viable for only a few minutes after flowering. All these factors mean that organically-grown rice won’t usually cross-pollinate with another cultivated rice variety unless they are growing close together and flower at the same time,” IRRI adds.
