Introduction

Agriculture in 21^st century is facing unprecedented challenges. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation report, an additional 2 billion will have to be fed over the next 30 years from an increasingly fragile natural resource base. We have introduced chemical agriculture through Green Revolution which has led to erosion of biodiversity and large scale environmental pollution due to use of toxic agrichemicals and wasteful use of water, resulting in lowering of groundwater level to the extent of inclusion of toxic minerals in drinking water. With the introduction of Gene Revolution, are we going to repeat the same mistake while adding the new hazards in terms of ecological and health risk.

Agricultural biotechnology encompasses a range of research tools scientists use to understand and manipulate the genetic make-up of organisms for use in agriculture: crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries. However, Genetic Engineering, particularly in the crop sector, is the area in which biotechnology is most directly affecting agriculture in developing countries and in which the most pressing public concerns and policy issues have arisen. It is also an area in which a body of economic evidence regarding the impact of biotechnology on the poor is beginning to emerge. Supporters hail Genetic Engineering as essential to addressing food insecurity whereas the opponents claim it will wreck environmental catastrophe, worsen poverty and hunger and lead to corporate takeover of traditional agricultural and global food supply.

One of the most controversial example of Genetically Modified crops is Golden Rice, hailed as "The Promise"�, the new miracle to prevent disease and blindness in million of poor children every year. Golden Rice is rice genetically engineered to produce b-carotene, the precursor of Vitamin A developed by biotech researchers Ingo Potrykus and his colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. No known variety of rice produces b-carotene, so Potrykus put appropriate genes from Daffodil and Bacteria into rice, which produces the missing b-carotene. The orange yellow colour of b-carotene is what makes the Golden Rice, “Golden”. �.

 Golden Rice is currently being adopted for the local growing conditions at the Philippines based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Scientist at IRRI are breeding the Golden Rice samples, developed originally from the temperate japonica variety into tropical indica varieties. According to IRRI plant biotechnologist Swapna Dutta, it will take them at least three years to send Golden Rice for field-testing in Asia and another 2 years before they are available to farmers. Researchers estimate that Golden Rice could prevent almost 9000 new cases of blindness and 950 deaths per year in Philippines alone. Some international agencies estimate that Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) affects more than 200 million people worldwide and is responsible for an estimated 2-8 million cases of blindness in children under 5 years of age. However the critics claim that Golden Rice is an expensive[1], high tech solution to a problem that should be addressed through dietary diversification and dietary supplement. One green group has labelled it “fool’s gold”.

In the developing countries, the controversial story of Genetically Engineered food is creating ripples. Here the corporate patents and researches clash with the native requirement and knowledge in complex ways altering both long standing practices and the social fabric associated with them. Many questions have been raised about the practices of modifying genes to benefit human nutritional needs including both biological and economic concern, ranging from potential hazards to income effects of corporations competing in rural market.

The present article attempts to find out about the Vitamin A Deficiency, how it affects human body, the treatment available, the Golden Rice alternative, the risks and doubts attached, nutritional, operational and economic analysis of golden rice, how the cultivation of Genetically Engineered crops going to affect the agriculture sector in developing countries and who is going to benefit from its farming. Finally it tries to find out how and where lies the actual solution and what requires be done to improve the present conditions and meet the growing and pressing needs of the agriculture in the 21^st century.

Vitamin A - The Basics, Bioavailability and other Dietary Factors

Vitamin A is an organic compound soluble in fats, needed in small amounts and is widely found in animal foods (eggs, butter, cheese, whole milk, fish, fish liver oil etc.) and plant foods (Green leafy vegetables, green and yellow fruits esp. papaya, mango, carrots). It is present in the form of retinol in animal foods and as carotene in plant foods. Food and Agriculture Organisation / WHO recommend daily intake of 500-850 micrograms (: gms) for adults and 400 : gms for children below 1-3 years. Its deficiency leads to:

·                    Night Blindness;

·                    Conjunctival Xerosis (Dryness and wrinkling of the conjunctiva)

·                    Corneal Xerosis. (Dryness and wrinkling of the cornea)

·                    Bitot's spots (These are gray plaques which form over the conjunctiva)

·                    Keratomalacia (The cornea is damaged and ulcers form on the cornea)

·                    Growth Retardation;

·                    Chest Infection ; and

·                    Follicular Hyperkeratosis

However, if consumed in excess it causes Vomiting, Anorexia, Sleeping Disorder, Enlarged liver and Increase in pressure inside the brain.

 Pro Vitamin A  compounds such as b-carotene found in plant foods need to be transformed into Vitamin A. The availability of b-carotene and efficiency of its conversion together is called bioavailability. According to new recommendations of US National Academy of Science, 12 : gms of ingested b-carotene are required to produce 1 : gm of Vitamin A. In lower conversion rate, it increases to 21 : gms to convert into 1 : gms of Vitamin A.

Natural deficiencies such as zinc, protein, fat/oil can limit the bioavailability. Vitamin A is fat soluble vitamin. Thus adequate intake of fat is useful if not essential for absorption and utilisation of provitamin A. Protein malnutrition depletes Vitamin A storage. The availability of enzyme responsible for conversion of b-carotene to retinol is severely impaired during clinical protein deficiency. Thus PEM will synergise VAD. Hence a balanced and diverse diet is important for body’s capabilities to absorb provitamin A and convert it to Vitamin A.

Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD)

A well understood function of retinol (Vitamin A) is in the visual process. It is necessary for clear vision in dim light. Thus Vitamin A Deficiency leads to night blindness. Another function of Vitamin A is to maintain the integrity of epithelial tissues. The lack of Vitamin A may cause redness and inflammation of the eye and gradual loss of vision may follow. The cornea may lose its transparency and become opaque and soft and if not treated, may lead to total blindness. VAD is a major nutritional problem affecting young children leading to blindness.

VAD Analysis

VAD is more wide spread in regions where rice, wheat or cassava forms the basis of diet as compared to areas where major staple is yellow maize, millet or sweet potato having considerable amount of Vitamin A.VAD blindness began early in life. Often eye damage is unnoticed and discovered when the patient is being treated for some other disease and treatment is not initiated until cornea is affected.

Disease Morbidity

A number of communicable diseases precipitate VAD because they adversely influence absorption and utilisation of Vitamin A. these diseases include Diarrhoea, Measles, Chicken pox, Whooping cough, Hook worm and Tuberculosis. Repeated infections contribute to VAD. Pattern of VAD differ because outbreak of these diseases vary year to year. Dietary sources of carotene vary from country to country, seasonal variations, food habits and maldistribution within families also account for differences in Vitamin A intake. The universal patterns are:

·                    Poverty and low purchasing power limits the intake of animal products, fruits and any vegetables other than cheapest staples.

·                    Mother's deficient in serum Vitamin A bear children with low reserves.

·                    Diets of post weaning children often low in calories, proteins and Vitamin A which lead to VAD and PEM.

·                    Repeated episodes of gastro intestinal infections, respiratory infections and childhood diseases aggravate malnutrition.

Treatment

It is estimated that nearly 20,000 children go blind every year due to VAD and Keratomalacia in India alone. It has been established that PEM Measles can aggravate VAD and contribute to nutritional blindness.  Prevention of VAD therefore received top priority in India's national nutritional programme. There are 2 approaches adopted to prevent VAD.

i)        Educating the mothers to feed their children with green leafy vegetables and yellow fruits.

ii)       Administrating a massive dosage of Vitamin A i.e. 20,00,000 IU (International Units) of Vitamin A every six month in a spoonful of groundnut oil. This approach is based on the property of Vitamin A that it can be stored in liver and utilised slowly over time.

The National Prophylaxis Programme against Nutritional Blindness was started in 1970, which followed the second approach. Despite low coverage and other implementation problems (the most comprehensive and recent data shows that only 30% children received a dose of Vitamin A), it is most noteworthy that prevalence of VAD in India declined from 2% in 1975-79 to 0.7% in 1988-90 and 0.21% in 1998.

            As adapted in India, at present the following approaches are adopted for the treatment of VAD.

i)        Emergency intervention: Large doses of Vitamin A to be administered. Such programmes are expensive, require well organised clinics or travelling teams of health workers, the area of visits, number of people covered and the follow up to be effective.

ii)       Long term measures: Eating of green leafy vegetables, ripe papaya is equally safe and effective as well as much more readily available and far cheaper. It must be emphasised by means of the media, nutrition education programme and baby health clinics. The villagers must be encouraged to grow, market and consume more plant foods rich in pro Vitamin A.

Golden Rice Solution: What is Golden Rice?

Golden Rice is proclaimed as a miracle cure for more than one million annual deaths and of blindness as a result of VAD. The question arise, is the Golden Rice a miracle that is the only means for preventing blindness for Asia or will it introduce new ecological problems like Green Revolution did and create new health hazards like other genetically engineered foods? Golden Rice is rice genetically engineered to produce pro Vitamin A or b-carotene in the endosperm i.e. the part of the rice grain that remains after it has been polished. The scientists introduced three foreign genes, two taken from a daffodil and one from a bacterium into a rice strain to produce a yellow rice with high levels of b-carotene, which is converted into Vitamin A within the body. At present, the rice produces just 1.6 : gm per gm of rice, while the scientists aim at achieving 2.0 : gm/gm of rice.

The Risks and the Doubts

The Golden Rice adds new hazards in terms of ecological and health risks and being an isolated and single nutrient approach, it raises other doubts as well.

·                    Environmental cost: High yielding rice varieties are highly water demanding, therefore lead to mining of ground water or intensive irrigation from large dams with all the associated environmental problems of water logging and salinisation. Golden Rice will have impact on food web. The ecological impact on soil organisms and other organisms dependant on rice in the food chain should be part of the biosafety analysis Golden Rice before it is released for production. Research shows that indigenous rice varieties support far more species than green revolution varieties. How will Golden Rice impact biodiversity and potential for disease and pest vulnerability?

·                    Health risks: Since rice is a staple eaten in large quantities in Asian societies, Vitamin A rice could lead to Hypervitaminosis A or Vitamin A toxity which can lead to abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, dizziness etc. it could occur after ingestion of large quantities of Vitamin A for protracted periods. Natural resources of Vitamin A are consumed seasonally and in small quantities as green, relishes, fruits and hence do not carry the risk of Vitamin A toxity. Rice eating regions are found to be associated with higher malnutrition, have higher prevalence of water borne diseases, vector borne diseases etc. The additional risk of Vitamin A under these conditions of vulnerable health situation needs to be assessed carefully.

·                    Biology: The Golden Rice exists in laboratories only. So far there is no experience if the plant shows the unexpected properties in different ecosystem. ( it is common observation that transgenic plants, performing well in labs, fail in nature, specially if they contain one, but three added gene constructs). Furthermore, evidence is growing that malnutrition with health consequences often extends to iodine, iron, and to vitamin C and D, folate, riboflavin and calcium. “There is no ‘quick fix’ or ‘magic bullet’ solutionâ€�, remarks John R. Lupien[2].

·                    Hazards of Genetic Construct:The audit by Dr. Mae Wan Ho[3], uncovers fundamental deficiencies in all aspects, from scientific to social rationale. It says that the Golden Rice involves standard first generation technology and carries some of the worst features in terms of health and biodiversity. It is no technical improvement and is more unsafe. It exhibits all the undesirable traits and hazardous characters of the existing genetically modified plants and in added measures on account of the increased complexity of construct and the sources of genetic material used. The hazards are:

·                    Made with a combination of genes and genetic material from virus and bacteria, it is associated with disease in plants and from other non-food species.

·                    The gene constructs are new, and have never existed in billions of years of evolution.

·                    Unpredictable by-products have been generated due to random gene insertion and functional interaction with host genes which differ from one plant to another.

· Over expression of transgenes linked to viral promoters exacerbate unintended metabolic effects as well as instability.

·                    The transgenic DNA is structurally unstable, leading to instability of the GM plants in subsequent generation, multiplying unintended random effects.

·                    The CaMV promoter is promiscuous in function and work efficiently in all plants. The spread of gene linked to this promoter by ordinary cross-pollination or by horizontal gene transfer will have enormous impact on health and biodiversity.

·                    Horizontal transfer of genes and construct from the Golden Rice will spread transgenes including antibiotic resistance genes to bacterial pathogens and also has potential to create new viruses and bacterias associated with diseases.

Golden Rice posses all the usual defects of first generation transgenic plants plus multiple copies of CaMV promoter. Strong recommendations to withdraw the use on the basis of scientific evidence indicating the promoter to be especially unsafe. A growing number of scientists (318 from 39 countries) are calling for a global moratorium on the environmental GMOs until shown safe.

·                    Culture: Food and Agriculture Organisation’s experience with VAD program shows that a key to any successful program is a careful appreciation of cultural habits, traditions and benefits. They cant be changed overnight. Golden Rice is a typical North attempt to solve the problems of South with a technocratic “magic bulletâ€� approach, which experience of past 50 years show hardly ever works.

·                    Patents: Earlier, researches were mostly devoted to high value crops and rarely on self-pollinated ones like rice because resource poor farmers, constituting a large number, save their seeds for the following cropping season. What recently spurned the interest of TNCs to collaborate with research agencies, the academics and the private sector to engage in such studies is the race to patent novel genes, create new varieties and distribute them to a market hungry for false hopes and promises.

Rice has been cultivated in Asia for thousands of years embedding it in rich genetic diversity. There are about 140,000 rice varieties, all of which are adapted to local conditions, farmers and consumers preferences. GE has manipulated biological resources, giving rise to a highly profitable industrial process. This led the companies into the race of bio patenting and piracy of traditional varieties from many developing countries.

As reported in Financial Times[4], Ingo Potrykus, struck a deal with corporate giant Astra Zeneca to give Third World farmers free access to grain while allowing commercial exploitation in the developed world. The company will oversee the production of stable GM line(s) and patenting. Farmers in the developed world will pay royalties, those in third world earning less than US $10,000 will not. But will they be allowed to save seeds for replanting, it did not say. Moreover, he is named as inventor and thus has interest in 30 plant related patents, most of them belonging to Novartis, company he earlier worked and is very close with. He admits himself that they filed a patent application for the transgenic rice, before anybody else did it and his group used some patented processes to construct the rice. All the processes in the development of blight and blast resistant rice, from gene itself down to the markers and the promoters are patented by Monsanto. Agroevo owns patents on all transgenic crops containing Bt such as Bt rice, Bt corn etc. Japan Tobacco has right to an agrocetus patent on all form of transgenic rice. According to a survey by SEED Europe, the top 5 transgenic gene giants (Astra Zeneca, DuPont, Monsanto, Novartis and Aventis) account for nearly 2/3^rd of the global pesticide market (60%), almost one quarter (23%) of global seed market and virtually 100%of the transgenic seed market. This make rice production ripe for a corporate through the use of transgenic rice, which include an apomixis gene for hybrid rice production. 

Patents made on transgenic rice with traits from local traditional varieties will be solely under the hands of a few TNCs who are investing in it. There are already 160 patents claims on rice with half belonging to the top 13 companies. Now the question arises, will the cost of paying royalties for the patents claims be added to the cost of Golden Rice? Which of the royalties on the patents would the third world farmers be absolved from paying? How can a technology, monopolised only by a few, claim to be for uplifting the lives of poor?

Nutritional, Operational and Economic Analysis of Golden Rice

The best line of GM rice produces 16 : grams b-carotene/ gm of uncooked rice. No study yet published about the bioavailability of b-carotene in Golden Rice. Even assuming bioavailability as high as in vegetables and fruits, then according to new recommendation, if only Golden Rice is the only source of vitamin A:

·                    If a woman consumes 300 gms uncooked Golden Rice/day she obtains only 8% of recommended daily intake and if she is breast feeding, only 4.7%.

·                    Even if scientist current goal of 2 : gms/ gm of rice is achieved, 300 gm Golden Rice/day would provide only 10% for an adult female (5.9% for breast feeding ones) of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin A.

·                    To obtain the benefit from Golden Rice, a 4 yr child needs 1.8 kg rice a day to avoid night blindness. The current price the lowest priced rice in India for BPL people is Rs. 2/kg. A family of 4 will have to consume, even at the child’s estimate- 216 kg (1.8 x 4x 30) rice /month i.e. Rs. 432/month to pay on rice alone. The lowest paid Indian labourer gets paid Rs. 30/day i.e. Rs. 750/- (30 x 25) month, hence having left with only Rs 318/- for all other expenses for the rest of the month.

·                    LPG is not available to poor Indian, who cooks with kerosene stove or through wood fire. Cooking 1 kg rice takes approx. 30 minutes, thus for a family of 4, cooking 7.2 kgs (1.8 x 4) rice everyday would require 3 ½ hours to cook rice alone. The amount of fuel need to cook and amount spent on it shall also be taken into account.

Hence whatever is being sold as great science is impractical and unable to address the issue meaningfully.

The Farmers Fear

With the scientific advent, machinery, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides etc have become an integral part of the present agriculture and production system. Agricultural research centres like CGIAR, IRRI played an important part in giving birth to technology driven agriculture and Green Revolution. However, instead of alleviating the status of small farmers, it has further buried them in the mire of debt and destroyed the very fields from which they seek out a living. IRRI claims that answer to all the current agricultural problems is Gene Revolution – which places in the human hands, the power to alter what is to be passes from one generation to the next, collapsing the boundaries set by time and the uniqueness of each species. It can now join or disjoin functions or traits that would otherwise normally take thousands of years to be passed on and adapted by simply altering the contents of a chromosome. The following might be the possible consequences that the Asia farmers fear:

·                    Loss of control over production:  With TNCs controlling rice seed production, govt will tend to support its nationwide use and offer transgenic seeds as part of a package of technology, alongside inputs for marketing, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation and production loans. Such approach will choke rights of farmers to save their own seeds and even control production in their own fields.

·                    Monopoly: Corporates aiming to monopolize seed industry, will definitely exploit the insertion of apomixes gene to compliment hybrid and transgenic gene production. These improved seeds will grant companies the ability to mass produce the planting material that farmers need to buy every season. It will also enable them to dictate what input to use (that being their products as well), thus increasing farmers dependence and indebtness. Also, the production of these varieties in the fields is not guaranteed since it generally decreases in germination rate after two planetary seasons. Thus, albeit claims to increase production, farmers will not end up saving much as compared to traditional varieties.

·                    Production in light of global production: Asian peasants have already been shoved into global trading system, forcing them to compete in an international market against large scale and resource rich producers. On an average, a farmer in Asia owns about 1.5 hectare of land, some still leasing lands from large land owners. To resort to the use of transgenic rice might be the only means by which these farmers can avail the services from the govt. This desperate effort to survive in the midst of the global competition would further reduce the poor to an even poorer state by increasing dependence on TNCs for seeds and other inputs.

·                    Loss of diversity: Due to Green revolution, much of the rice diversity has already been lost, under the guise of feeding the world. Gene revolution poses the same threat. Genetic uniformity is already gripping the Asian fields today with production being confined to only a few varieties, increasing dependence on toxic chemicals and genetic engineers. Diversity in fields prevent mass infections and Traditional Rice Varieties (TRVs) are advantageous since they are adopted to local conditions. Although susceptible to pest attacks, the diverse nature distributes the damage incurred, thus the overall productivity is slightly affected. The cultural practices and indigenous knowledge systems are employed to cope up with such attacks, which are equally, if not more, effective without destroying the farm ecology.

·                    Raising the requirement and its effects:  High yield varieties were presented as the solution during the 70s, yet national production level has not increased considerably. The 3-4 ton yield gap was due to some other production constraints and not in the seed itself. Climate conditions which have grown more erratic, such as El Nino and La Nina, will make the targets even harder to attain. The patented technology will also increase the cost of production and prevent saving of seeds and their exchange among farmers. A large scale planting transgenic seeds will increase susceptibility to pests and disease. Farmers would have to either resort to some unsustainable means to reduce the attack or suffer the consequences of resulting yield decline. The resulting harvest wont be different from what was previously obtained, perhaps may be even less.

The Beneficiaries

Who in truth, will benefit from the high tech agribusiness discoveries? Neither people who eat, they want all food containing GM labelled; nor the farmers eg the Filipino farmers esp. the small ones are allies of environmentalists, who feel the effect of these clones will not be known until it is too late. The favourers are big agribusiness farms, fully automated and can reduce production cost in the process. The food giants who can buy cheaper ingredients. Big MNCs like Syngenta AG, who hold patents for Golden Rice and have money for the expensive long-term researches. These are pharmaceutical and agro chemical giants, without a conscience, just seeking big bucks ahead. They will control the production of clone seedlings and foresee a windfall. They will induce dependence, as they did for the use of pesticides for hybrid rice. Their targets are millions of third world farmers, much larger than the food giants.

Conclusion

The Golden Rice are campaigned as means to prevent more than one million annual deaths and cases of blindness as a result of VAD. Whereas in India, having the highest, there are 25,000 children going blind every year due to VAD and through the numbers of programmes, the number is reducing gradually but certainly. Moreover, the basic principles of nutrition suggest that Golden Rice containing b-carotene, is unlikely to alleviate VAD for the following reasons:

·                    Bioavailability of b-carotene is quite low. The digestion, absorption and transport of b-carotene require a functional digestive tract, adequate protein and fat stores and adequate energy, protein and fat in diet.

·                    In numerous countries where VAD is endemic, food sources of b-carotene are plentiful, but are not cooked sufficiently to be digestible or are not accompanied by enough dietary fat to permit absorption.

·                    In addition to doubts about cost and acceptability, biological, cultural and dietary factors act as barriers to the use b-carotene. The extent to which the b-carotene in Golden Rice can compensate for these barriers is limited. The complexity of physiological, nutritional and cultural factors that affect VAD suggest that single nutrient added in food can be effective remedy for dietary deficiencies.

One of the strategy to fight VAD is Food Based Project or Dietary approaches focusing on information on nutrient habits was neglected for a long time but it is becoming increasingly important. UN and Food and Agriculture Organisation started these projects together in 1985. Under one programme, in Bangladesh, small home gardens with vitamin rich foods and vegetables were introduced taking up, improving and promoting traditional cultivation methods. In Thailand, a Vitamin A rich green leafy vegetable, Ivy Gourd was promoted. The evaluation showed that health conditions and nutrition in general of the people improved and the more different fruits and vegetables a person eats, the better is the uptake of pro Vitamin A. according to the World Bank, the project was most cost effective e.g. the per capita cost of Thailand project was a meagre US $0.42 only. According to John R Lupien, “a single nutrient approach towards a nutrient related public health problem is neither feasible nor desirable�.

Gene Revolution is no solution to rice crisis. The chemical agriculture in Asia through Green Revolution has already led to erosion of biodiversity and erosion of diverse sources of nutrition for poor. Instead of million farmers breeding and growing thousands of crop varieties to adapt to diverse ecosystem and diverse food system, the green revolution reduced agriculture to a few varieties of a few crops (rice, wheat, maize) bred in one centralised research centre. It led to massive genetic erosion in farmer’s fields and knowledge among farmers besides leading to a large-scale environmental pollution due to use of toxic agrochemicals and wasteful use of water. Though it did get more yields, it depleted the water level and made Asia one of the most water scarce areas in the world. The companies from the developed world who sold the small-scale farmers from the third world countries, chemicals for farming are doing well, though not the poor farmers who buy the chemicals. Many more companies are selling them water now. Now more scientists and companies from the same developed world are approaching to sell them Golden Rice and it will make them more rich.

When Europe expressed strong protest, MNCs moved to Asia. Asians will not protest because they are less sensitive to such health issues and can be bought with good and expensive PR. GM technology is a multinational game, people understood the environment and health issues but they do not see the subtle economics of it all. The real and most threatening impact of commercialisation of this technology on the user themselves are neglected. Transgenic rice doesnot answer the pressing needs of farmers, nor is it able to enhance their strength and resources, instead it preys upon their innocence, weakness and poverty. MNCs assume there is no damage until proven i.e. until people die or get sick or until there are irreversible aberrations in the food chain.

The truth is that deep underlying political, economic and social problems prevent the just distribution of food even though enough is produced. These quick fixes are ignoring bigger underlying problems, which are constraining farmers from achieving higher agricultural yields. Access to land and capital, unstable market prices, poor infrastructure like farm to market roads and post production facilities among others should be taken into account as well. Food and Agriculture Organisation targeted that following projects should be implemented in poor communities in rural and peri-urban areas for ensuring food production, employment and income and thus achieving sustainable food security:

·                    Small water harvesting.

·                    Irrigation and drainage works (walls, canals, treadle pumps etc.).

·                    The use of improved seeds and seedlings.

·                    The combination of organic and chemical fertilizers in soil.

·                    The integrated biochemical control of pests, insects and plant diseases without excessive use of pesticides.

·                    Post harvesting techniques.

·                    Diversification of village and household farming system, with introduction of short cycle animal production (poultry, sheep, goats, pigs) and the provisions of feed, vaccine and shelter.

·                    The construction of rural roads, local markets and storage and packaging facilities meeting quality and sanitary standards; and

·                    The negotiation of more equitable terms for international agricultural trade.

According to Dr. Hans R Herren[5], most of the problems that are to be addressed via Golden Rice and other GMOs can be resolved in matter of days, with the right political will. Half of the Rockfellar’s agricultural money goes to Biotechnology. One must wonder how many other low-tech, sustainable, people centred solution to hunger and malnutrition go unfounded, thanks to government and biotech industry’s obsession with hugely expensive technology of genetic engineering. As per Dr. Richard Horton[6], seeking a technological food fix for world hunger may be the most commercially malevolent wild goose chase of the new century. As rightly put by Van Hernandez of Greenpeace, there is nothing golden about Golden Rice and it is actually cheaper and one gets more nutrition if one eats vegetables and fruits than Golden Rice.

References:

                     I.                        Dr.Vandana Shiva, "Genetically Engineered Vitamin 'A' Rice: A Blind Approach to Blindness Prevention" (2000) available at http://www.biotech-info.net/blind_rice.html

                   II.                        India Together - Samanvaya report, “All That All That Glitters Is Not Gold: A Tale Of Genetic Engineering For Nutrition In India,â€� available at http://www.indiatogether.org/reports/goldenrice

                 III.                        ISIS-TWN Sustainable Science Audit, “The 'Golden Rice' - An Exercise in How Not to Do Science,â€� available at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/rice.php

                 IV.                        Marion Nestle, Letter to the Editor "Genetically Engineered "Golden" Rice is Unlikely to Overcome Vitamin A Deficiency" Journal of the American Dietetic Association Volume 101 (March): 289-290, 2001 available at www.biotechinfo.net/unlikely_to_overcome.html

                   V.                        Nikki Tait and Michela Wrong, "Deal Offers Free GM Rice To Poor Farmers While Rich Must Pay" Financial Times (London), May 16, 2000

                 VI.                        P. Parameswaran, “Europe’s ‘Golden’ Rice Arrives In Asia Amid Controversy,â€� Agence France – Presse (2001), available at www.biotech-info.net

               VII.                        Red Porphyry,  "Golden Chance/ Levels of Vitamin A Required To Prevent Deficiency", AgBioView Post(2001) available at http://www.biotech-info.net/golden_chance.html

             VIII.                        Ronald Bailey, “ Where’s the Golden Rice?â€�  Reason (2000), available at http://reason.com

                 IX.                        Unknown, “ Golden Rice and Vitamin A Deficiency,â€� available at www.foe.org

( Author Swati Gola is a  LL.M holder from  University of Delhi, presently working as Research Officer with Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. )