GM Rice

Time magazine (Asian edition) has featured the development of Golden rice as a cover story. Time writer, J. Madeleine Nash states that: "Golden rice and other genetically engineered crops could revolutionize farming and help solve world hunger. Protesters fear they could also destroy the environment."

Golden RiceTM  is genetically modified grain able to improve the supply of Vitamin A in the human diet. The resulting transgenic rice is able to produce and store beta-carotene. It is called Golden RiceTM because of the slightly yellow endosperm (the starchy interior part of the grain) resulting from the added beta-carotene.

Rice plants only produce carotenoid compounds that are converted to Vitamin A, in the green parts of the plant and not in the rice grain that is consumed by humans. Thus, Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) often occurs where rice is the major staple food.

VAD is a major contributor to childhood and maternal mortality in developing countries. Each year more than one million VAD-associated childhood deaths occur. VAD makes children more vulnerable to infection and worsens the course of many infections. It is also the single most important cause of blindness among children. Attempts have been made to solve this problem (e.g. fortifying rice with Vitamin A). However, due to the costs involved and a general lack of infrastructure for efficient distribution in many developing countries, they have had limited success. Consequently, the use of genetic modification was adopted to improve the nutritional quality of rice.

Related topics:

• Virus resistance
• Virus resistance technology
• Nematode resistance
• Nematode resistance technology
• Herbicide tolerance
• Herbicide tolerance technology
• Iron-rich
• Golden rice
  • The technology
  • The developers
  • Issues
  • Current status

Summary Report on the Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops - [View the 2004 report]

Transgenic Crops - [Click Here]

Extensive Study on Bt Cotton - [Click Here]

Download the complete copy of the ISAAA Briefs on Global Status/Review of GM Crops - [Click Here]

SciDev.Net's dossier on GM crops - [Click here]

Global Status of Approved Genetically Modified Plants -  [Click here]

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