Opposition to GMOs Has Killed Millions
Of all the calories consumed daily by humans on Earth, 20% of them come from rice. Rice is a great source of carbohydrates, and therefore energy — it is filling, it has dietary fiber, and it’s plentiful.
With 8.9% of the world’s population undernourished, many do not get their recommended amount of vitamin A, a compound vital for healthy development, reproduction, immune function, and vision.
Every year, an estimated 250,000–500,000 children become blind due to vitamin A deficiency, with at least half of them dying within a year of losing sight. This is a bleak tragedy, especially so in light of the fact that it is entirely preventable.
The rice plant naturally contains beta carotene, a chemical that is converted into vitamin A once it enters the body. The problem, however, is that while the plant’s leaves and stem contain the nutrient, the edible grains do not.
This is to say that the rice plant has the machinery to produce vitamin A, it just does not naturally keep it in the part people actually eat.
In the 90s, researchers Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer began engineering a strain of rice that would grow to have beta carotene in its rice grains. This new strain of rice was aptly named Golden Rice, due to the yellowish tone of beta carotene.
In 2002, golden rice was ready for use.
One would think this miraculous strain of rice capable of saving a billion lives would have been instantly adopted everywhere, but to this day it remains almost entirely unavailable. And there’s no path in sight for the rice to make its way to families in need.
In fact, the first country to approve the commercial cultivation of Golden Rice was the Philippines, and that only just happened on July 21, 2021. Despite decades of study confirming the safety and efficacy of the grain, the Phillippine decision became a massive controversy: protestors have taken to the street, on one occasion going so far as to destroy Golden Rice crops, in an ideological struggle against GMOs.
This widespread opposition to GMOs is mainly the reason why Golden Rice has failed to reach the masses. Even large non-governmental organizations, such as Greenpeace, have been vocal about their opposition to the new strain of rice.
And it is not an opposition based in scientific concern — only a baseless fear of “unnatural” crops. The body digests nucleic acids (what DNA is made of) the same way, with no regard for their specific codes. Genetic engineering does not make the plant any less “whole.” Every change brought on by genetic engineering must have a high degree of intentionality behind it.
This is in sharp contrast to other methods of genetic modification:
Mutagenesis crops have no such intentionality: through chemicals and radiation, they are changed by the thousands of genes, at random, until a favorable adaptation occurs and can be further explored by traditional breeding. This practice has virtually no opposition, is almost entirely unregulated, and its products can refer to themselves as “Non-GMO."
Change a crop by the thousands of genes at random and nobody bats an eye; surgically alter two genes capable of saving millions of children and everybody loses their shit. It is almost like these opponents to genetic engineering have something against human intentionality itself.
They fetishize the random chaotic order of nature and demonize the artificial. It’s a pointless view, not only because it neglects that humans are natural beings, it is also entirely unpragmatic.
These opponents do not care for the objective biological risks of genetic engineering, because these are already addressed in modern society with rigorous testing. They do not take into account the higher land allocation necessary for organic and non-GMO produce, and the natural devastation that comes as a result. There is not enough land on earth for all to eat organic non-GMO. In their quest for more natural lives, they destroy nature.
Baseless opposition to GMOs causes famine and disease. It enables the needless deaths of millions. It destroys nature. One can only hope that these opponents do this in complete ignorant bliss, rather than to service a misplaced sense of superiority over those who cannot afford to eat like them.
The conclusion to the tale of Golden Rice is not a pretty one: millions have needlessly died, all to sustain some false abstract sense of non-GMO foods.
