"Golden rice" was developed to help combat vitamin A deficiency, or VAD. According to UNICEF, VAD causes approximately 1 million to 2 million deaths worldwide each year and currently 124 million children worldwide are deficient in vitamin A. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least 350,000 pre-school children become partially or totally blind from VAD. About 60 percent of these children die within a few months of going blind. The WHO estimates there are some 14 million preschool children who already have some eye damage due to VAD.
Scientists believe the tools of biotechnology could help address that problem by fortifying foods people eat every day with extra precursors of vitamin A. They chose rice as the crop to fortify because it provides 80 percent of the world’s diet.
Unmilled brown rice contains a minute amount of beta-carotene, but only in the green tissues of the plant. Using biotechnology, rice can be enhanced to produce beta-carotene in the edible portions of the plant, where it is needed most.
In January 2001, "golden rice" arrived in the Philippines, where it will be thoroughly tested to assess its efficiency, safety and usefulness for people in the developing world. The testing is being made possible by a joint effort among the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Syngenta and the Rockefeller Foundation.
The IRRI established a Humanitarian Board to oversee the project and ensure that goals for testing, safety and support for individual developing countries are met. The board includes several public and private organizations, such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank, Cornell University and the Indo-Swiss Collaboration in Biotechnology.
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