Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
Among Asians, rice means life. In fact, the domesticated grass — whose origin may go back to more than 130 million years — provides more than half the daily food for one of every three persons living on earth today.
In the Philippines, rice is the leading staple food. As the late food epicure Doreen Fernandez wrote: “If we did not have rice, our deepest comfort food, we would probably feel less Filipino.”
According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, Filipinos spend more on rice than any other food. A survey conducted by the line agency of the Department of Agriculture showed that Filipinos, especially those from low-income households, are depending solely on rice more than ever for their daily dietary energy supply and dietary protein because it remains the most affordable food in the country.
Although rice (known in the science world as Oryza sativa) is basically a complex carbohydrate, its protein contains all eight of the essential amino acids and complements the amino acids found in many other foods. It is low in sodium, fat, and fiber, it is easily digested.
Most of the rice available in the market is enriched, which means, besides its other assets, it is also supplemented with iron, niacin, and thiamine. But most of these added nutrients are lost if rice is washed before cooking or drained afterward.
“One more rice please!” That call, which rings at dining time in all karenderias, best sums up the eating habits of the typical Filipino to whom eating is a matter of filling up. Meat, fish, and other viands are expensive while rice is not. Since most people can’t fill up with ulam, they fill up with rice.
Fortunately, rice does not only help solve hunger but also “hidden hunger,” the colloquial term for micronutrient deficiency. It happens when people get enough macronutrients (such as carbohydrates, protein, and fat), but not enough micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) for optimum health.
Two years ago, the State of Food and Agriculture report of the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said that two billion people suffer from one or more micronutrient deficiencies.
“The impact of hidden hunger on people’s health is very real,” the Laguna-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said in a statement. “It can result in more frequent and severe illness and complications during pregnancy, childbirth, infancy, and childhood.”
These days, farmers are doing their best to produce more food for the ever growing population. “Producing enough food energy to maintain the world’s population is not enough,” deplores IRRI. “Even if energy requirements are met, billions of malnourished, poor people will continue to live in poor health, with low productivity and an inferior quality of life. Nutritious foods that meet minimum daily nutritional requirements must be produced.”
Enter the controversial golden rice. It is called so because it contains beta carotene, which is converted to vitamin A when eaten. “Because rice is so popular in the Philippines,” says IRRI, “providing rice that is more nutritious and that contains beta carotene could help boost people’s vitamin A status. In turn, this could reduce the extent and impact of vitamin A deficiency among Filipinos.”
Vitamin A is found naturally in many foods, including liver of chicken, beef, pork, and fish. Most of them, however, can be found in root crops (carrot and sweet potato) vegetables (broccoli and tomato), and milk products (cheese and butter), and fruits (papaya, mango, melon).
Most of these sources, however, are beyond the reach of poor people, particularly those living in shanty places, upland areas, and rural communities. So, some scientists came up of an unthinkable idea: that of putting vitamin A in rice, as 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.
Using genetic modification techniques, respected scientists developed Golden Rice using genes from corn and a common soil microorganism that together produce beta carotene in the rice grain.
According to IRRI, conventional breeding programs could not be used to develop Golden Rice because rice varieties do not contain significant amounts of beta carotene.
Credited for discovering the Golden Rice were Ingo Potrykus, who was 65 at that time and was about to retire as a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg. “My team targeted vitamin A deficiency because this is one of the largest health problems worldwide,” Prof. Potrykus was quoted as saying.
In 2005, scientists develop the current version of Golden Rice. 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 Philippine Rice Research (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.”
In 2009, results of a clinical trial of Golden Rice with adult volunteers from the US were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The trial concluded that “beta carotene derived from golden rice is effectively converted to vitamin A in humans.”
A summary for the American Society for Nutrition suggested that “Golden Rice could probably supply 50% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamin A from a very modest amount — perhaps a cup — of rice, if consumed daily. This amount is well within the consumption habits of most young children and their mothers.”
Although golden rice was developed as a humanitarian tool, it met significant opposition from environmental and anti-globalization activists. Studies have found that golden rice poses no risk to human health, and multiple field tests have taken place with no adverse side-effects to participants.
In a feature which appeared in The New York Times, one of those interviewed made this very thought-provoking statement on Golden Rice. “This technology can save lives,” he said. “But false fears can destroy it.”
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