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4 Int'l J. Soc. Sci. Stud. 51 (2016)
The Arrested Development of Golden Rice: The Scientific and Social Challenges of a Transgenic Biofortified Crop

handle is hein.journals/ijsoctu4 and id is 1317 raw text is: International Journal of Social Science Studies Vol. 4, No. 11; November 2016 Fam e ISSN 2324-8033 E-ISSN 2324-8041 Published by Redfame Publishing URL: http://ijsss.redfame.com The Arrested Development of Golden Rice: The Scientific and Social Challenges of a Transgenic Biofortified Crop Hyejin Lee' & Sheldon Krimskyl Department of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning, Tufts University, Medford, MA, U.S.A. Correspondence: Sheldon Krimsky, Department of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning, Tufts University, 97 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA, 02155, U.S.A. Received: October 11, 2016 Accepted: October 18, 2016 Available online: October 24, 2016 doi:10.11114/ijsss.v4ill.1918 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.11114/ijsss.v4ill.1918 Abstract Since its initiation to reduce the global public health crisis of vitamin A deficiency (VAD), the Golden Rice (GR) Project has met with both successes and challenges. After 16 years of its scientific breakthrough in 2000 with the GR prototype to produce P-carotene in rice grain, it has yet to be released. As the first biofortified crop developed with transgenic technologies designed to reduce the micronutrient deficiency, GR has met controversy and even academic scandal. This review updates the science and situates GR in its political, regulatory and economic contexts. In doing so, peer-reviewed journal articles on GR and VAD were studied, specific data were cited from well-recognized organizations, and both the science and regulatory issues were checked through personal communications. This review aims not only to update and provide evidence-based analysis of GR, but also to facilitate broader social conversations on transgenic crops. Keywords: Golden Rice, vitamin A deficiency, biofortification, transgenic crops 1. Introduction On July 31, 2000 Time Magazine's front cover pictured plant scientist Ingo Potrykus, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in a field with his new strain of rice with the headline This rice could save a million kids a year (Nash, Zurich Monday, & Potrykus, 2000 July). This article described Potrykus' dream of creating carotene-enriched rice that would save countless Third World children from blindness and death. A dozen years later in August 2012, Greenpeace International voiced alarm at a scientific publication that had fed genetically engineered (GE) rice to 24 Chinese children aged 6 to 8 years (Greenpeace International, 2012 September 5). Greenpeace claimed that the study, supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, could not have been conducted without a breach of scientific and medical ethics. A campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, responding to this news, said It is incredibly disturbing to think that an American research body used Chinese children as guinea pigs for GE food, despite a clear directive against this experiment issued by Chinese authorities in 2008 (Greenpeace International, 2012 September 5). The publication referred to by Greenpeace was a study that evaluated bioconversion efficiency of P-carotene to vitamin A from GE rice in children (Tang et al., 2012). The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2012, concluded that P-carotene in GE rice was as effective as pure 3-carotene in oil and better than that in spinach at providing vitamin A to children (Tang et al., 2012). While media firestorms (Hvistendahl & Enserink, 2012 September 11) and contentious debates over GE rice continued, suspicions were raised that scientific institutions became vulnerable to anti-GE crop bias (Dubock, 2014). Quite unexpectedly, on July 29 2015 the publisher retracted the article and gave three reasons (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2015). First, the authors failed to provide sufficient evidence that the study had been approved by a local ethics committee in China in a manner fully consistent with National Institutes of Health guidelines. Second, they failed to substantiate the full consent of parents of the children involved in the study through documentary evidence. Third, specific eligibility issues were questioned for two subjects in the study. Additionally, Tufts University, the affiliated institution of the principal investigator, issued a statement that the research failed to meet full compliance with the university's Institutional Review Board and the federal regulations, while affirming that the study data were validated and no health or safety concerns were identified (Enserink, 2013 September 18). The GE rice in this study, also called Golden Rice (GR), was one of the rice (Oryza sativa) varieties under development. 51

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