On the Golden Rice variety, the primary issue here is the carotene content
of local foods in areas like southeast Asia.

The underlying issue is food distribution. For instance in Bhutan not long
ago it was common to find people with goiters due to a lack of iodine in the
diet, similarily to Europeans living in the prairies here in the early 20th
century. Addition of iodine and the importation of shellfish, and fish has
reversed completely the presence of goiters, and hyperthroidism in North
America.

Better nutritional education in those areas where diets are low in carotene
is  easy to accomplish. Carrots are very high in carotene, and they can be
grown just about anywhere. This was the problem in southeast Asian India.
The carrots were not getting to the market. The potential problems with
golden rice is of course:

1.    Some people will be eating Golden  Rice and eating carrots (therefore
they do not need more carotene and some may experience poisoning, especially
the fetus);

2.    There will only be one variety of golden rice, and that increases the
specificity of the rice to pathogens through selection of insect adaptation;

3.    The patented golden rice will be expensive, and if it is a hybrid will
not do well without soil and chemical amendments;

4.    Rice is lacking in the necessary proteins which humans require (there
are only about 3 proteins in rice - potatoes have about 20 proteins and is a
complete food; diets high in rice may contribute to protein deficiency; some
people may acquire an intolerance to high carotene in the diet);

5.    If the Golden Rice hybridizes with native rice species, then the genes
will be lost for rice which has other benefits (there are many native
varieties of rice: some for workers high in carbohydrate, some for nursing
mothers, some for priests (high in protein), etc.; and,

6.    Various perverse economic, social and ecological impacts such as
increased acceptance of modern industrial agriculture leading to the loss of
small, traditional mixed farming practices; changes in the structure of the
labour market (division of labour within families will change; some will
become 'wage earners' and some will 'stay at home' all the time). Rice can
be grown using dry land techniques, and this would provide incentives for
further mechanization, use of pesticides and also chemical fertilizers).

If nature had designed a better root than the carrot for the purposes of
supplying carotene, not to mention carbohyrate, then i would like to know
what it is?


chao

John Foster




----- Original Message -----
From: "sbissell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 7:31 AM
Subject: Re: Genetic Engineering


> Duncan, take a look at the information on "Golden Rice" on the Web. I
think
> the anti-GM groups have done a good job of painting GM as a tool of big
> agri-business, but if you take a look at the Web Site at Colorado State
> University on GM products, you'll get a different perspective. I'm quite
> familiar with this program and it mostly consists of agricultural
specialists
> from the third world who are mostly concerned with increasing
> production/nutrition in crops.
>
> I apologize that I'm not in a situation where I can send the links myself,
but
> Costa Rica is only just getting access to the Web in a dependable manner.
> Steven