photo courtesy GMO Answers
by Carie Moore
And the Golden Globe goes to… Golden Rice!
The Golden Globes caused quite a stir the past couple weeks among all people, rural and urban, with our food supply and production under attack yet again. Nevertheless, I look to another golden winner, Golden Rice.
There are a variety of GMO crops, a small variety, but none-the-less important part of our kitchen staples. We rely on these crops, but many don’t know why or how they became a necessity.
People have written about why GMOs exist and defend or counter-attack them, but I am going to take a different approach and just discuss each one. Perhaps, it will give people a different viewpoint on why they were created or enhanced from a previous version instead of a blanket explanation for why we need GMOs.
The first GMO I’d like to explain is Golden Rice.
Vitamin A deficiency is a crisis in many countries where availability and access to fresh fruits and vegetables is limited. Where it is available, the people are often too poor to buy it. Beta carotene is found in such foods as liver, leafy greens, eggs, squash, carrots and sweet potatoes and it gives the golden coloration in the plant. The beta carotene is synthesized in our bodies to produce Vitamin A which aids in preventing blindness and boosts our immune systems to prevent against other diseases.
Children in Africa and Asia are weaned and then fed a rice porridge meal. Rice is made primarily of carbohydrates and not much else, so this leaves the children vulnerable to Vitamin A deficiencies. The idea with Golden Rice is that it’s a product that is already financially able to be purchased by the poor and is also a primary food source. It was estimated that one cup of Golden Rice would carry the recommended daily requirement of Vitamin A so it was an excellent option to develop and provide to these families.
Golden Rice is a genetically modified strain of rice that contains Vitamin A and has the potential to save lives and lower the numbers of those enduring long term suffering due to Vitamin A deficiency. While others are arguing against GMOs and their “dangers,” nothing is more final than death, and millions are dying.
There are medical and scientific facts that this GMO crop is SAVING and enhancing lives. Some people don’t want those cold numbers, they want human and personal stories. My guess is, no matter if you’re a mother in Africa or the United States, your child is your child. Mothers of all ethnicities and financial status want their children to be healthy and happy and do everything they can to try to make that happen.
Imagine for a moment you didn’t have a doctor on call or within an hour’s drive. Imagine you didn’t have a grocery store within a town or two away. Imagine you didn’t have health insurance or a job. Now combine all those factors together. As a mother, you just want to keep your child and yourself healthy. If the mothers and children are over-the-moon grateful for this rice, who are others to step in and oppose and contradict what THEY want? They are more focused on the word GMO than the lives of a thriving mother and child.
I support Golden Rice and those working to create a food designed to save and promote life and wellness. If the seed was enhanced in a lab for a positive nutritional outcome as its sole source, I say, Go Go (Golden Rice) GMO!