By Henrylito D. Tacio
Vitamin A promotes good vision, especially in low light. It is also important in reproduction, growth, and immune function. Despite current interventions, vitamin A deficiency (VAD) remains a serious problem worldwide.
“VAD is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children and increases the risk of disease and death from severe infections. In pregnant women VAD causes night blindness and may increase the risk of maternal mortality,” says the World Health Organization (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, according to the Geneva-based UN health agency.
Vitamin A, a fat-soluble vitamin that is stored in the liver, comes in two types. There’s the preformed vitamin A which is found in animal products such as meat, fish, poultry and dairy foods. The pro-vitamin A is found in plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables.
Filipinos are susceptible to VAD as rice is their staple food. Some studies show that 89% of Filipinos consume rice on a daily basis. “Rice-consuming populations are especially vulnerable to VAD because regular rice does not contain vitamin A or its precursors, and intake of vitamin A–containing meat is low,” the American Society of Nutrition says.
But there’s a better way to solve this problem: putting vitamin A in rice. And this is where Golden Rice comes handy. 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.
“Not owned by any company, Golden Rice is being developed by a nonprofit group with the aim of providing a new source of vitamin A to people both in the Philippines, where most households get most of their calories from rice, and eventually in many other places in a world where rice is eaten every day by half the population,” wrote Amy Harmonaug in an article which appeared in The New York Times.
But the rollout of Golden Rice in the Philippines may be delayed due to the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) in stopping the government’s field testing of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplant talong and nullifying biotechnology regulations.
According to a resolution read by SC spokesman Theodore Te, the high tribunal dismissed several petitions in support of field testing for genetically modified, pest-resistant Bt talong.
In its decision, the SC said the Department of Agriculture Administrative Order No. 8 failed to meet the minimum requirements for safety set in Executive Order No. 514 which established the National Biosafety Framework (NBF).
Deputy Director General Bruce J. Tolentino of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) believes the issuance of new rules to replace AO No. 8 could affect the launch of Golden Rice in the Philippines.
Golden Rice, which is undergoing experiments at IRRI, has not yet reached the field testing stage. “At this moment, IRRI has no research ongoing in research farms outside of the IRRI headquarters experiment station, which, thereby, would require review under AO 8. Thus, at this time, it seems the SC decision has no effect on the ongoing Golden Rice research,” Tolentino was quoted as saying by the Business Mirror.
“However, should there be an extended delay in the issuance of regulations to replace AO 8, then IRRI’s research, particularly those in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and the Philippine Rice Research Institute may be subject to delay,” the IRRI official added.
Golden rice has been bred with local rice cultivars in the Philippines and Taiwan and with the American rice cultivar Cocodrie. The first field trials of these golden rice cultivars were conducted by Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in 2004. According to scientists, field testing provides a more accurate measurement of nutritional value and enables feeding tests to be performed.
In the Philippines, the first generation golden rice was first tested in advanced field trials in IRRI in 2008. The second generation of selected varieties was field tested in the wet season of 2010. At the state-owned PhilRice, confined field trials of advanced lines were conducted in February to June 2011.
“The field trials are an important step in evaluating the performance of golden rice and to determine if it can be planted, grown, and harvested just like other popular rice varieties,” PhilRice said in a statement. “These trials are also part of the safety assessment of golden rice.”
But despite the good things that golden rice brings, there are those who are against its commercialization. “The statement that golden rice would solve world hunger is ludicrous,” wrote Leonard Pollara of Organic Sage Consulting.
The international organization Greenpeace opposes the use of any patented GMOs in agriculture and opposes the cultivation of golden rice, claiming it will open the door to more widespread use of GMOs.
“There’s so much misinformation floating around about GMOS that is taken as fact by people,” said Dr. Michael D. Purugganan, a professor of genomics and biology and the dean for science at New York University, who sought to calm health-risk concerns in a primer on GMA News Online. “The genes they inserted to make the vitamin are not some weird manufactured material,” he wrote, “but are also found in squash, carrots and melons.”
Golden Rice was one of seven winners of the 2015 Patents for Humanity Awards by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. (To be concluded)
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