Moves have been set in motion to introduce the world’s first genetically engineered rice containing human genes which its proponents claim will help save the lives of millions of children suffering from diarrhea. But critics beg to differ.
A US company has received approval to grow rice genetically engineered (GE) with human genes which it claimed could help save lives of millions of children. But concern groups have questioned the need for such a rice, indicating that this might be a sheer marketing ploy in the name of saving lives.
The rice, which is produced by Ventria Bioscience, has been engineered to produce milk proteins which then can be extracted for use in food and drinks including for oral rehydration solutions to treat diarrhea.
This pharmaceutical (pharma) rice has received preliminary approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for large scale planting in Kansas, USA eventhough the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has refused to approve Ventria’s recombinant pharmaceutical as safe.
The rice is to be planted on up to 3200 acres in Kansas and if Ventria’s application is fully approved by the USDA, this will be the largest planting of a drug-producing food crop in the US and the first GM food crop containing human genes in the world.
The company plans to harvest the proteins from the rice and use them in drinks and foods to be given to save millions of children who suffer from diarrhea and the resulting dehydration. Diarrhea is responsible for over 2 millions death each year, the majority in the developing world. It is also a major cause of death among children, particularly those under five years old.
However, Friends of the Earth (FOE) Africa has criticised this move saying that the GE rice is unnecessary because diarrhea is an illness that has well-known causes and that there exist proven and inexpensive solutions to address the illness.
It pointed out that the GE rice produced by Ventria is a distraction from existing solutions such as providing access to safe water and improved sanitation, to save children suffering from illness.
Also, children suffering from diarrhea lose a lot of water and what they need is rehydration. There are already cheap and accessible ways of fighting dehydration by simple oral rehydration therapy.
These proven and effective measures have already reduced the mortality rate of children suffering from diarrhea from 4.6 million deaths in 1980 to 1.5 to 2.5 million deaths today, and this is regarded as one of the greatest medical achievements of the 20th century.
In India, for centuries, diarrhea has been treated with home fluids for rehydration eg. Rice kanji (rice fluid obtained by boiling rice), coconut water, butter milk and aniseed water, which are simple, low cost solutions and locally available and endorsed by international organizations such as the UNICEF and World Health Organisation.
According to Drs Mira Shiva of the International Peoples Health Council and Vandana Shiva of Navdanya in India, the best rehydration for breast fed babies is the mother’s milk. Ventria is using ‘lacto ferrin’ found in breast milk to produce the transgenic rice. Breast fed babies therefore can get lacto ferrin directly from their mothers instead of through the GE rice.
The pharma rice also raises health concerns. According to analysts, pharma crops such as Ventria’s rice pose a threat to human food supply and public health as the proteins they contain are intended to be biologically active in humans, yet have not undergone adequate testing or received FDA approval as drugs, and thus may be harmful if eaten accidentally.
According to FOE Africa, an experiment using this technology has already been conducted in Peru on 140 infants from 5 to 33 months in age in hospitals attended by the poorest sectors of the population. Reports indicate that parents of the children were not adequately informed of the experimental nature of the treatment, and at least two mothers of infants in the clinical trial reported that their children suffered from allergic reactions, causing the Peruvian government to launch an enquiry into the experiment.
Concern has also been raised of the risk of contamination of pharma rice on other non-GE rice varieties especially if they are grown outdoors. The contamination routes are numerous, including cross-pollination and seed mixing during commercial growing and seed production. The few cases of contamination in the US in recent times prove that such fears are not unfounded.
The latest incident involved the contamination of a popular non-GE long-grain rice in the US - Clearfield CL131 (CL131) - by the unapproved GE variety LLRICE604 developed by Bayer Cropscience. While the FDA concluded that the presence of the rice at low levels in food would pose no food or feed safety concerns, because LLRICE604 remains a regulated article, producers will not be able to plant any CL131 seed that currently remains on hold.
Another GM contamination involving the LLRICE 600 series last year caused a major disruption in the US rice industry.
Last August, commercial US long grain rice was found to be contaminated with LLRICE601, an unapproved variety genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide glufosinate ammonium. Even though the variety won US approval in December, it continues to disrupt US rice exports as it remains unapproved in importing countries. As much as 47% of US rice exports are said to be affected.
The contamination sparked a series of reactions against Bayer CropScience the producer of the transgenic rice and the US rice export market. Major retailers removed US rice products from their shelves and some countries put restrictions on US rice imports thus resulting in an immediate impact on US farmers, who retaliated with a flood of lawsuits against Bayer. The variety has also found its way into the food supply of other countries raising the spectre of the scale of the contamination and the urgent need for international regulations of GE products.
Given the challenging objective of ensuring the safety and welfare of millions of its children, it is obvious that developing countries do not need the high risk and high tech GE rice to combat diarrhea, especially when low cost and simple and proven solutions exits.
As the Shivas point out, there is no scientific basis for the GE rice to be introduced adding that it is merely an ‘unadulterated marketing stunt’ in the name of savings lives.
