Australian GM rice breakthrough gives hope to micronutrient deficient billions
Scientists from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) have produced rice with high enough iron levels to meet daily recommended requirements for iron intake.
The ACPFG claims the fortified rice provides an inexpensive and sustainable solution to the micronutrient malnutrition problems that currently plague people in developing countries.
Scientists based at the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne and South Australia, and Flinders University, genetically modified rice to increase the amount of iron that is transported to the endosperm of the grain (the part that people eat). This resulted in rice that has up to four times more iron than conventional rice. The rice also has doubled zinc levels.
Dr Alex Johnson from ACPFG said, “Rice is the primary source of food for roughly half of the world’s population, particularly in developing countries, yet the polished grain, also known as white rice, contains insufficient concentrations of iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A to meet daily nutritional requirements.
“A lack of genetic variation in rice has hindered efforts by conventional breeding programs to address iron levels. These programs have not been able to achieve the level of iron and zinc in the rice grain that we are able to achieve with a biotech approach in our glasshouse experiments.”
This research represents the first time rice lines have been reported with iron levels at or higher than the daily recommended levels.
According to the World Health Organisation, iron deficiency is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world and affects more than two billion people (30% of the world’s population). Symptoms include poor mental development, depressed immune function and anaemia.
The results of this research were published yesterday in the online peer reviewed journal PLoS ONE.
The research was funded by the Australian Research Council and HarvestPlus. Work is now underway to test this technology in field trials.
Restoring the nutrients in processed white rice (Aus Food News, 8/9/11) is like tweaking white bread to replace the nutrients lost in making white flour, or chemically enhancing breakfast cereals to replace the nutrients lost in processing. The article says: “the polished grain is too low in iron, zinc and Vitamin A to meet dietary needs.” When rice is ‘polished’ to make it white these nutrients are lost. In contrast, unpolished brown rice contains all the missing nutrients needed for good health, when eaten as part of a balanced diet that includes green vegetables. Polishing rice to make it white – a practice introduced by Western colonialists so rice could be stored longer and traded further – destroys rice’s essential nutrients. Johnson also laments: “A lack of genetic variation in rice,” but the thousands of rice varieties in Asia until the 1950s were lost in the Green Revolution, when US industrial farming and seed arrived. GM rice is another Trojan horse.
GM fortified rice will be another patented, corporate-owned commodity to make profits, not improve health or better feed the world. We should insist that our scarce public research and development funds are spent on the transition to food production systems that minimally process foods so they retain their wholesome, nutritious and health-giving natural properties.
Time and time again studies have shown that organic agriculture is the only way to feed the world (ie: recent U.N. study). By not over processing foods they remain nutrient rich.
Why “blinkered” scientists are allowed to develop these GM crops (none of which, by the way, have been proven beneficial in any way excepts for gm companies) is beyond me.
It’s time for us to stand back and see what is really happening here: further loss of food sovereignty, the addition of another crop which is not proven safe for either the environment or humans and another step towards world food control by a handful of multinationals.
Wake up!
The official U.S. position on genetically-modified organisms is that there is no difference between them and natural organisms. The issue goes even further to suggest that no country should be able to require mandatory GMO labeling on food items, even though science shows that GMOs act differently in the body than do natural organisms and are a threat to health.
Hi there,
Watch GMO update on RT.com, documentary section, it’s interesting, thanks to it I know what’s happening on me. I am allergic to gluten that causes me skin rash and dermatitis. I avoid anything with fluors (added in many food, including soya sauce). I take rice cake as I got bored with non-gluten bread that still causes itchy skin for me too. I also eat rice with veggies, no meat, still itchy. Then I watch the RT update on GMO, wow, I just discovered today that there is also GMO rice. The greed is killing people slowly & softly, as most skin problems are caused by damaged digestive system (GMO can do that and scientist still don’t know what is the consequences on human body). Why some scientists are so “ignorence” ? they need to eat the GMO food themselves and feed their family with it before having a go on others !!!