Golden rice is back in the news

The last time I wrote about golden rice was way back in 2016, when I concluded that "it is still being tested and the non-profit institute responsible for its development fears that the modified rice does not actually grow well enough to be embraced by farmers".

Fast forward to 2024, and golden rice is still not widely accepted, and has just run up against another major hurdle. The Philippines is to date the only country to officially approve (in 2021) the cultivation of golden rice, a genetically-modified strain of rice that incorporates beta-carotene to combat vitamin A deficiency in its highly rice-dependent population. 

Vitamin A deficiency is common in developing countries, where it is a leading cause of childhood blindness and "significant morbidity and mortality from common childhood infections", according to the World Health Organization, which estimates it may cause the deaths of up to 100,000 children a year worldwide.  Beta carotene-infused golden rice was developed in the 1990s, as a potential solution to this, and its proponents maintain that widespread adoption of golden rice will result in saving the sight and the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, although it's modelling is not universally accepted, and seems an excessive claim in light of the WHO's figures.

But now, Greenpeace Philippines and many local farmers have just won a court of appeal case calling on the Philippines to overturn that approval, on the grounds that golden rice has not been shown to be safe. The farmers are also concerned that the "the high-value seeds that they have worked with for generations and have control over", including organic or heirloom varieties, may be sabotaged by the introduction of genetically-modified golden rice. Vulnerability pf a monoculture to climate impacts in one of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries is also a worry.

The scientists involved are incensed, and a new appeal will almost certainly be brought. But golden rice is back in the news.

My question, though, is: wouldn't it be cheaper, less controversial, and possibly even better, to make sure that those that need it have access to other foods containing beta-carotene, like good old carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and leafy greens like kale and spinach, etc. The typical western diet is quite sufficient in vitamin A-producing foods, and I'm not sure we should be encouraging Asians to stuck with their unhealthily rice-reliant diet anyway.