the world’s first harvest in the Philippines

Golden Rice, the name alone sounds promising and raises hopes. Compared to the conventional variety, the genetically modified rice contains beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. This pigment gives the rice grains their characteristic golden hue. The Philippines has now become the first country in the world to harvest Golden Rice. The yield amounted to 67 tons.

This harvest is the culmination of more than 20 years development– and also a story of woe. It is the first genetically modified plant (GM plant) that does not benefit a corporation or a farmer, but improves people’s health.

Millions of children suffer from vitamin A deficiency

The Philippine government has high hopes for the golden rice: it is said to provide beta-carotene, which the human body converts into vitamin A, to Philippine children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers from the lower income brackets. This is important for an intact immune system and good eyesight. The World Health Organization estimates that up to half a million children worldwide go blind every year because they don’t get enough vitamin A. Half of them die within a year of losing their sight because their immune systems are too weak to fight off pathogens.

In the Philippines the situation is precarious. 15.5 percent of children between the ages of six months and five years suffer from vitamin A deficiency; the share in the lowest income group is even 22.4 percent. The poor Filipinas and Filipinos eat an unbalanced diet because they lack money: an average Filipino eats between 300 and 400 grams of rice a day. This contains carbohydrates, but hardly any micronutrients. Vitamin A is in animal
Products such as eggs and liver or indirectly as beta-carotene in apricots, lamb’s lettuce, carrots and spinach.

However, such foods are often too expensive for the poorer Filipinas and Filipinos. Because of bird flu, the price of a bowl of eggs has risen by more than 13 percent to 210 Philippine pesos, which is equivalent to CHF 3.52, within a short space of time. In times of need, poor Filipinas and Filipinos satisfy their hunger with rice, which they eat two or three times a day. So it would be ideal if the cheap staple food were also a source of vitamins. Golden Rice contains so much beta-carotene that a child in the Philippines can get about half of their daily vitamin A requirement through normal rice consumption.

The corona pandemic has exacerbated the problem

The problems of malnutrition are well known and international organizations are active with programs to combat it, especially among the youngest. For years, vitamin A capsules or syrup have been distributed to children in poorer countries every four to six months. Before the pandemic, more than 200 million children were cared for with it. However, the children’s charity Unicef ​​sounded the alarm years ago: more than 134 million needy children are not being reached, especially in those countries where food supplements are most urgently needed to combat vitamin A deficiency.

During the pandemic, the situation has continued to deteriorate, not only in the Philippines. In many places, schools were closed for almost two years. Even the teachers lost sight of their students. UNICEF announced that by 2020 only 40 percent of needy children worldwide could have been supplied with vitamin A supplements.

Why it took so long for the first harvest

As early as 1992, the researcher Ingo Potrykus, who was then working at ETH Zurich, launched the idea of ​​combating deficiency diseases with the help of rice enriched with vitamin A. Together with his colleague Peter Beyer from Freiburg, Potrykus’s team inserted genes into rice so that beta-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A, is formed in the rice grain. In 1999 the first such rice prototype was presented. However, technical problems as well as resistance to GM plants and the resulting bureaucratic hurdles delayed further development.

Hundreds of studies have been conducted to demonstrate the consumption and environmental safety of Golden Rice. However, the cultivation of GM rice has met with some resistance in the Philippines and neighboring countries. One of the biggest opponents is the environmental protection organization Greenpeace. She continues to describe the sowing of golden rice as ecologically irresponsible and a potential threat to nutritional, financial and food security.

The opponents of genetically modified food did not shy away from radical measures. In August 2013, for example, activists in the Philippines destroyed a field where golden rice had been planted for testing purposes. However, all the protests and campaigns have not prevented that meanwhile worldwide Various such plants were cultivated on almost 200 million hectares in 29 countries – including in Southeast Asia.

Harvesting the Golden Rice went smoothly. The yellow-golden grains of rice are currently being distributed to particularly poor families in the Philippines. A portion is reserved for sowing next year. In addition, a long-term study has now been started to check to what extent golden rice can reduce vitamin A deficiency and the resulting fatal diseases in everyday life.

The researchers of International Rice Research Institute, who developed the local Golden Rice variety for the Philippines are eagerly awaiting whether the rice will become popular with farmers in the long term. It yields just as much as non-GM rice and does not require any different planting and care.

For Potrycus it is a satisfaction that in the end scientific judgment triumphed over ideology. But he and many of his supporters are still angry that millions of children have had to suffer and die over the years.

It is quite possible that a locally adapted Golden Rice variety will be cultivated in other countries as early as next year. Approval in Bangladesh is expected soon. The situation is different in China, however. In the country with the most rice consumers in the world, it is not legal for cultivation, and it is unclear whether it will be soon.

An old scandal is delaying approval in China

In China, the golden rice is still associated with a scandal from 2012. At that time, researchers led by Tang Guangwen from the American Tufts University gave this rice to children in China. However, the team had not informed the children’s parents that the rice was genetically modified. They had not sought the necessary approval from an ethics committee in China, and they had imported Golden Rice into China without the necessary approval. However, there were no security problems.

In general, China relies on genetic engineering. China is to become independent of food imports and improve its high-tech capabilities in this area as well. Various GM food crops may be imported as animal feed or as a basis for cooking oil, GM cotton is grown. A researcher from the Chinese Agricultural Academy of Sciences, who asked not to be quoted, says: “There is research into genetically modified rice in China, but none has been commercialized until now. The regulation is pretty strict.”

Many researchers and organizations that want to fight malnutrition are now hoping that the Philippines will not only pave the way for golden rice. In addition, other GM food crops containing beta-carotene are currently being tested. Rice, beans, sweet potatoes and fruit are also being developed which, thanks to genetic modification, contain a large amount of iron and zinc.