Golden Rice

[triffid]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/26/gm-golden-rice-delay-cost-millions-of-lives-child-blindness

I first heard of Golden Rice many years ago, but haven't been following its progress. Ed Regis's book is free on Google Play and now on my winter reading list.

Edit:-
Important to note, Regis states in the first chapter that the variety was essentially public domain after 2004. 'Golden Rice was unique among genetically engineered foods, and the properties that made it different also made it immune to many of the conventional criticisms of GMOs-'
'The rice would benefit the poor and disadvantaged, not modern, multinational corporations. It would be given free of charge to subsistence farmers who can save seeds and plant them from one harvest to the next, without restriction or payment of fees or royalties'.

[William S.]

My professor in plant genetics at OSU had an question to make us think about this. Why are some folks kept so poor they can't afford to devote some ground to growing vegetables to go with their grains for needed vitamins? Or afford to buy a few vegetables to add to their meals?

Edit: That said I think they should release the rice. I don't think it's harmful and people need it. But I do think we shouldn't have people so poor in this world that they can't have a few carrots or a tomato plant. Does this economic system of disproportionate poverty subsidize my lifestyle in the U.S.?  I also think we should carefully think before we release such technologies, though this one has probably been considered long enough.

[Ocimum]

Having worked in rice growing areas, same kind of questions:

Why do we change functioning* polycultures into rice monocultures for export, and destroy the hydrological balance by doing so? Why are the frogs, fish, other plants sprayed in the paddy, when they constitute an important nutritional source?

*By functioning, 1) the nutritional, 2) hydrological, as well as the 3) pest-predator balance are meant.

By the way, last time I read about the golden rice, it said it had to be cooked and eaten with fats, otherwise the vitamin cannot be metabolized.

I am always wary of people presenting THE solution. Is the purpose of golden rice to have a foot in the door to introduce more GM, proprietary ones? Is it to change legislation in favor of the corporate plant breeding sector?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306919202000659

[Ellendra]

My professor in plant genetics at OSU had an question to make us think about this. Why are some folks kept so poor they can't afford to devote some ground to growing vegetables to go with their grains for needed vitamins? Or afford to buy a few vegetables to add to their meals?

Edit: That said I think they should release the rice. I don't think it's harmful and people need it. But I do think we shouldn't have people so poor in this world that they can't have a few carrots or a tomato plant. Does this economic system of disproportionate poverty subsidize my lifestyle in the U.S.?  I also think we should carefully think before we release such technologies, though this one has probably been considered long enough.

Sometimes the problem is cultural. If the prevailing culture of the area is that grains are the best food to grow, and that leafy greens are only fed to animals, then people will grow and eat primarily grains.

There was an article put out by Heifer International about that once. I remember that part of it included an interview with an Ethiopian woman who had gotten some cooking and nutrition classes from Heifer, in addition to garden seeds. She said she honestly hadn't known that greens were good for people, so she had been planting millet in her garden and nothing else. After the training, she added greens and other vegetables, and her kids grew healthier, with the same amount of land.

I've run into this in varying degrees, in all sorts of places, including the US. I have no idea how much of a factor it is worldwide, but it is definitely a factor.

[Ocimum]

Sometimes the problem is cultural. If the prevailing culture of the area is that grains are the best food to grow, and that leafy greens are only fed to animals, then people will grow and eat primarily grains.
...

Also, in many places, greens were collected from the wild, untill there were no more due to population growth. What was left, were the grains in a high carb diet. Now, in many places, the costs of the greens is problematic.