Golden Rice and Fear of the Unknown

In the Philippines a few weeks ago, 400 activists broke down a fence and destroyed a field of rice. This was no ordinary rice field, but one of four test fields in the country for what its developers call Golden Rice. Golden Rice is a genetically modified strain into which genes from corn and bacteria have been inserted, allowing it to produce beta carotene:

The concerns voiced by the participants in the Aug. 8 act of vandalism — that Golden Rice could pose unforeseen risks to human health and the environment, that it would ultimately profit big agrochemical companies — are a familiar refrain in the long-running controversy over the merits of genetically engineered crops. They are driving the desire among some Americans for mandatory “G.M.O.” labels on food with ingredients made from crops whose DNA has been altered in a laboratory. And they have motivated similar attacks on trials of other genetically modified crops in recent years: grapes designed to fight off a deadly virus in France, wheat designed to have a lower glycemic index in Australia, sugar beets in Oregon designed to tolerate a herbicide, to name a few.

I don't regard distrust of genetically-modified organisms as necessarily silly. This is a very new technology and we really don't know whether, for example, those genes for Roundup resistance might spread to the weeds it is supposed to control. I think the issue of who owns the seeds produced by crops in farmers' fields is a real one. I think we should proceed carefully here.

But this particular protest was still dumb. So what if the genes for the production of Vitamin A spread in wild plants? How would that hurt anyone? Golden Rice does not belong to some agrochemical company, but to a nonprofit foundation that allows anyone to grow it freely. Plus, it addresses a major health problem. Across much of Asia, poor people get most of their calories from rice, and as a result end up lacking key nutrients, especially beta carotene:

Lack of the vital nutrient causes blindness in a quarter-million to a half-million children each year. It affects millions of people in Asia and Africa and so weakens the immune system that some two million die each year of diseases they would otherwise survive.

Maybe Golden Rice won't work out; maybe it will have poor yields, or be vulnerable to drought, or something else. But if it does work, it would be a huge benefit for tens of millions of people. Reaction to the protest has been very strong, as you would expect:

“It is long past time for scientists to stand up and shout, ‘No more lies — no more fear-mongering,’ ” said Nina V. Fedoroff, a professor at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and a former science adviser to the American secretary of state, who helped spearhead the petition. “We’re talking about saving millions of lives here.”

Indeed. People need to stop reacting according to simplistic categories —  GM = evil, for example — and think about what is actually happening in the world.