Elizabeth M. Whelan, The Call (Woonsocket, RI), Oct. 15, 2000
Recently, TIME magazine ran a cover story on a new strain of beta-carotene
enhanced rice, the cover boldly proclaiming: “This rice could save a million
lives” (TIME, July 31, 2000).
The product in question, “golden rice” -
so-called because the high beta-carotene content gives the rice a yellow hue -
is indeed a tremendous development. Beta-carotene is an important pro-vitamin,
which the human body converts to vitamin A. As many as 100 million children
worldwide suffer from vitamin A deficiency, many of those cases in parts of the
developing world where diets consist mainly of rice. Vitamin A deficiency is the
developing world’s leading cause of childhood blindness. By infusing the primary
food staple with this much-needed nutrient, the development of golden rice may
help prevent millions of cases of this devastating affliction.
Golden
rice is not the only food produced through biotechnology that holds great
promise for developing countries. More than 400 million women of childbearing
age are iron-deficient; rice enhanced with iron may help prevent retardation,
premature birth and perinatal mortality by combating iron deficiency. Scientists
are searching for ways to boost beta-carotene levels in canola oil, and fruits
and vegetables enhanced with vitamins C and E may soon be on the market.
In addition to producing more healthful, nutritious foods, biotechnology
can help create crops that can be used to help vaccinate vulnerable populations
against deadly diseases such as hepatitis, viral diarrhea, and others.
Scientists are on the verge of producing a banana that delivers the vaccine for
Hepatitis B; and researchers at Cornell University have developed a potato that
successfully immunizes against the Norwalk Virus - an illness particularly
dangerous to infants and the elderly. These vaccines could one day help to
overcome the shortage of medical personnel and refrigeration, as well as poor
infrastructure and high transportation costs, that makes inoculations difficult
in the developing world.
Biotechnology is also helping to diminish crop
losses by developing strains of corn, cotton, potatoes and other crops that
produce their own protection against pests and disease. Future biotech crops may
be able to grow in poor or high-salinity soil, or in harsh growing conditions,
as well, helping to make previously marginal lands productive.
The
advantages of biotechnology have not been lost on those countries that stand to
gain the most from access to this technology. Throughout the developing world,
partnerships between public and private research institutes, biotech companies
and other interested parties have sprung up like wildfire as a result of the
tremendous advantages this technology can bring. At the same time, world leaders
from Nigeria’s minister of Agriculture to Kenya’s President Daniel arap Moi have
called on western nations to help them develop this incredibly promising
technology.
While hardly a panacea for the tough questions that must be
addressed to truly cure world hunger, agricultural biotechnology can
significantly enhance the quality of life for millions of people around the
world. As we celebrate World Food Day on October 16th, it is encouraging to know
that there is one tool, at least, that holds much promise in the fight against
world hunger.
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan is the president of the American Council on Science and Health. ACSH has recently published “Biotechnology and Food,” available free of charge online at www.acsh.org/publications/booklets/biotechnology2000.html.
Reprinted with permission of the author.