Clarifying recent news about Golden Rice

In February, two major stories about Golden Rice appeared in the Guardian and collaborative project organization, stimulating other articles. They explained the long history of the development of Golden Rice and pointed out its important potential contribution to dealing with vitamin A deficiency.

I hope that Golden Rice will soon be safe and effective, and that some of the most vulnerable people will be able to use it to help lack Vitamin A, but with other countries and two potential Misunderstanding must be clarified.

First of all, I saw a statement "After several months, Golden rice will be sent to the farmers in the Philippines to cultivate rice field". "Finally, the Philippines cultivates" Golden Rice "with Vitamin A. "Some headings indicate that golden rice is approved in the Philippines

Indeed, even in the coming months or even this year, farmers in the Philippines and any other country can not grow golden rice.

The Philippine Rice Research Institute recently completed a two-season field trial in the Philippines in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute and other partners, but this means that in the sense that Golden rice is now ready for farmers' growth There is none. As part of the biosafety approval process, we need to submit data from these trials to the Philippine government regulatory body for evaluation.

Second, the protagonist of this story describes Golden Rice as "a new strain that increases vitamin A levels in developing countries and reduces blindness."

Indeed, human nutritional studies have shown that beta carotene during golden rice is easily converted into vitamin A in the body. And it provides promising evidence to help eat golden rice help reduce Vitamin A deficiency.

However, it has not been clarified whether ingesting golden rice every day actually improves the vitamin A status of people with vitamin A deficiency and therefore can relieve related diseases such as night blindness. If Golden Rice is approved by domestic regulatory authorities, Hellen Keller International and University partners will use a controlled community survey to determine whether everyday golden rice intake improves the state of vitamin A I will do.

In a nutshell, Golden rice will be widely available to farmers and consumers in the Philippines only if it is approved by domestic regulatory authorities and there is relief of vitamin A deficiency under community conditions. This process can take over two years

According to a recent report by FSANZ, a food safety regulatory body in Australia and New Zealand, "golden rice consumption" is considered to be as safe as traditional rice varieties. In the safety assessment of FSANZ, it turned out "We are not worried about potential toxicity and allergy." Mentioning the beta carotene produced from golden rice, the Golden rice humanitarian committee says, "There is no reasonable argument to support public health, human toxicology, or other harmful effects on carotenoids," writing. Carotenoids are often associated with important health benefits. "

Because of the opposite, the Golden Rice Project adopted more golden rice than originally proposed in fewer developing countries. Currently, the Golden Rice Project has 16 national research institutes under the Golden Rice Humanitarian Commission, including Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, India, South Africa, Philippines and Vietnam. In spite of the contrary, the Golden Rice Project continued to receive support such as the Pope 's blessing and the 2015 Human Patent Award (Golden Rice Project). However, rather than from the Golden Rice Project, over time, 5,591 scientists and citizens signed the Greenpeace Organization to 110 winners (from 296 Nobel laureates) by June 2016 . The opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMO) and GMO's support. Sir Robert Roberts, who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, led the campaign titled "Glory Support for Precision Agriculture" (GMO).