KUALA LUMPUR - The International Year of Rice is
coming to an end, but the debate over GM (genetically
modified) rice will continue for some time as it gains
momentum worldwide with GM rice's introduction for
commercial planting in China expected to take place as
early as next year. Currently, China, India and the
Philippines are holding field trials after investing a
lot of resources in genetically engineered rice.
According to a Reuters report, Chinese
agricultural scientists have said China - the world's
top producer and consumer of rice - could release GM
rice by next year, with pressure mounting on Beijing to
boost domestic grain production and farmer income. But
the same report also cited officials at the
Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI) as saying that the first commercial growing of GM
rice crop could be at least three years away. The
International Service for the Acquisition of
Agri-biotech Application, on the other hand, says most
of the GM rice in the research pipeline will only be
available for commercial use in five to eight years.
The types of GM rice that are likely to be
available for commercial use in the short term are
herbicide tolerant varieties, Bt rice (those that
contain the Bacillus thuringiensis endotoxin gene
that allows the rice to be resistant to the yellow stem
borer) and rice that is resistant to bacterial leaf
blight. Other varieties of GM rice in various stages of
development include biofortified rice (beta-carotene,
iron and zinc), rice resistant to other major pests
(such as brown planthopper), pathogens (bacterial
blight, rice blast) and abiotic stresses (drought,
salinity, submergence). Researchers are also pyramiding
(or stacking) multiple GM genes into rice, trying to
make GM rice resistant to multiple insects or both
disease- and insect-resistant. Currently, only one GM
rice trait - tolerance to the herbicide glufosinate -
has been approved in the US but is not commercially
grown.
In Asia, where rice is the staple diet,
vitamin A and iron deficiency is a serious problem.
These essential dietary components are found in animal
products, fruit and vegetables, which are not always
available to the poor. A lack of these nutrients can
cause anemia, vision loss or a weakened immune system,
and is one reason for the high rate of mortality and
illness among women and children in developing
countries.
Proponents of "Golden rice" - a GM
variant that has been biofortified to produce
pro-vitamin A - argue that it holds the key to
widespread vitamin A deficiency problem in the
developing world. Critics, however, say there are many
alternatives and cheaper ways to solve this problem as
vitamin A can also be obtained from green vegetables and
unpolished rice, which are rich in other essential
vitamins and minerals as well.
"To offer the
poor and malnourished a high-tech "Golden rice" that is
tied up in multiple patents, requiring US$100 million to
produce and perhaps costing as much to develop, is worse
that telling them to eat cake," says scientist Mae-wan
Ho, director of the Institute of Science in Society in
the United Kingdom, in her book Golden Rice - An
Exercise in How Not To Do Science.
Greenpeace also rejected the idea and pointed
out that "Golden rice" would not solve the problem of
nutritional deficiencies among the poor. The
environmental group calculated, based on the product
developers' own figures, that an adult would have to eat
at least 12 times the normal intake of 300g of rice to
get the daily recommended amount of pro-vitamin A. As Ho
says: "An adult would have to eat at least 3.7 kg dry
weight of rice, ie around 9 kilograms of cooked rice, to
satisfy the daily need of vitamin A from Golden rice. In
other words, a normal daily intake of 300 grams of rice
would, at best, provide 8% of vitamin A needed daily. A
breast-feeding woman would have to eat at least 6.3
kilograms in dry weight, converting to nearly 18
kilograms of cooked rice per day!"
Other traits
of GM rice are also under close scrutiny. Using the
experience in the US as a guide, critics believe that
use of herbicides is likely to increase, rather than
decrease, as the proponents of GM rice claim. In the
nine years of commercial growing of GM crops in the US,
herbicide use, while having dropped in the early years,
increased later. Though the reasons are varied, the
increase in herbicide usage is primarily due to several
weeds becoming tolerant to herbicide with
herbicide-tolerant crops. Therefore, claims by
proponents that herbicide use will fall and farmers will
save costs and the environment will benefit sound
hollow.
Many GM varieties of rice under
development confer resistance to some type of plant pest
or pathogen, whether insects, weeds, fungi, viruses or
bacteria. According to Greenpeace, pests can evolve to
overcome these insect-resistant crops. Citing studies,
it says that past experience in chemical control of
organism would indicate that insects, weeds, or
pathogens will also eventually develop resistance to GM
varieties of rice. Loss of control because of the
evolution of resistance is likely to increase the use of
insecticides, which is more harmful to the environment
or human health.
But what worries some
scientists and critics about the introduction of GM rice
in Asia, which is the center of origin for rice, is the
danger of GM rice contamination of indigenous varieties
and the threat that this poses to food security. Crop
genetic diversity is important for food security. If a
disease sweeps through the rice population worldwide,
locally bred traditional varieties that are currently
abundant, can be relied upon to provide varieties that
are resistant to the disease. However, if GM rice is
introduced, it is likely to cross-breed with local
varieties, causing the extinction of local crops. The
incident of genetic engineering contamination in Mexico
is a case in point and signals what would happen to rice
in Asia. In 2001, it was found that local varieties of
maize in Mexico were contaminated by GM maize even
though the country has a moratorium on it. Just as
Mexico is the center of origin and diversity for maize,
so is Asia for rice.
Asia produces over 90% of
the world's rice supply. An estimated 140,000 different
varieties of rice have been created by small farmers in
Asia. It is therefore of great importance that
contamination is avoided in the region in order to
protect food security and crop diversity.
Another worry that plagues critics is that the
introduction of GM rice heralds the arrival of corporate
dominance of rice by a small number of large seed and
agriculture companies such as Monsanto, Bayer and
Syngenta, the main developers of GM rice. According to
an Actionaid (an aid organization) study, as of 2001,
there are 250 patents on rice, 61% are controlled by
just six seed companies, three of them also the world's
largest pesticide corporations. There is concern that
through patents and contractual agreements, seed
companies will seek to prohibit farmers from sharing or
saving seed, control what pesticides are used and even
assert ownership rights over the harvest.
But
researchers in the field of biotechnology insist the aim
of GM organisms is not to create monopolies or to
introduce new farming techniques, but to try to improve
nutrition and health in developing countries. However,
critics point to the successful alternatives to genetic
engineering that are less costly and controversial.
Plant breeders at IRRI, for example, have identified
rice varieties in its collection of germplasm that are
naturally high in iron. They found that aromatic grains
were usually higher in iron concentration and often also
higher in zinc, compared to non-aromatic varieties. At
the same time, they also experimented in growing, by
conventional breeding, new varieties that could thrive
in poor soils and cold temperature, and found that one
variety that was designed to tolerate low temperatures
was also rich in iron and zinc.
With mounting
evidence on why the GM road is full of peril, coupled
with uncertainties of the benefits of GM rice, there are
justifications for farmers and governments in Asia and
other rice growing regions in the world to tread
cautiously and continue to search for less costly and
more durable alternatives.
(Copyright 2004 Asia
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