Position Paper: con

            Golden Rice was meant to be launch on the market after over 10 years of research and development. Advocates maintain that there is no alternative to this genetically engineered rice variety in the fight against vitamin A deficiency and accuse government agencies and critics of endangering the lives of millions of children. Some even go as far as to charge government agencies and critics of being complicit in bringing about a “Holocaust.” To speed up market approval and limit expenses, they demand a general loosening of standards for the risk assessment of genetically engineered plants.

            However, this report shows that the managers of the Golden Rice project have demonstrated a disregard for necessary scientific accuracy and precision and thus I am against Golden Rice project. They have employed propagandistic methods to push the project beyond the issue of vitamin A deficiency, setting a precedent to increase the pressure on regulatory authorities and accelerate the introduction of agricultural biotechnology.

            It is still not possible to judge whether or not Golden Rice is even technically able to combat vitamin A deficiency. No data has been made available on the degradation rate of its B carotenoid content in our stomach during storage nor on its bioavailability. Any risks posed by the cultivation or consumption of Golden Rice has been largely ignored. Very little data is available on new active ingredients and changes in the metabolism of the plants, and on the reaction of the plants to changing environmental conditions. So far not a single feeding study on the rice has been published. In spite of all this, a trial has already been conducted on Chinese school children. This “experiment” on human alone is inhumane since golden rice can cause allergies from transferring genes from other species. A study has shown that putting a protein that kills pests into pea DNA and feeding that pea to mice have done this. It was found that the altered chemical structure of protein caused allergies in mice.

            It is highly likely that the commercial cultivation of Golden Rice will lead to the irreversible entry of this genetically engineered organism into the environment and to its crossbreeding with local rice varieties. It is not scientifically possible to predict the long term ecological consequences. Other than this, poor people have harder time to pay for the Golden Rice product. Therefore, I do not support the Golden Rice project.