Vandana Shiva | ‘Golden Rice’ no miracle cure

Navdanya, the “nine seeds”

Moderator’s Note: We just received this from Vandana Shiva through the
GMO Activist listserv where an intense scientific discussion is under way
regarding transgenic Golden Rice, a genetically-engineered crop that proponents
swear will help avert the millions of cases of childhood blindness and other
maladies associated with a Vitamin A deficiency that is currently widespread in
Southeast Asia – for reasons that the proponents are unwilling to acknowledge
or address, not the least of which is the destruction of more diverse native
diets in the countries now facing this health problem.

According to Shiva, Golden Rice is part of the monoculture production
systems that have displaced indigenous crops and undermined the diversity of native
diets, resulting in widespread nutrient deficiencies and therefore malnutrition.
As she concludes:

The real solution to malnutrition and nutrient
deficiencies is the growing and eating of biodiversity.  Biodiversity intensification increases “Health
per Acre” and makes diverse nutrients available where they are needed most. “Gardens
of Hope” everywhere, in villages and cities, in backyards and rooftops, in
schools and communities are the answer to Vit A and other nutrient
deficiencies. By blocking these alternatives that increase nutrition and
promote seed freedom and food democracy Golden rice will make worsen the crisis
of malnutrition.

I
will be covering the Golden Rice controversy throughout the year, as it is a
central skirmish in contemporary social movements confronting the abusive and
socially unnecessary commercial agricultural biotechnologies. This will include
the review of some of the scientific studies and debates tat are currently
unfolding. In my estimation this is significant because the right to food must
be based on access to culturally appropriate crops and ingredients and farming
systems that do not destroy our planet and instead regenerate living organisms,
crops, soils, and ecosystems – which are after all is said and done our life
support systems.

Golden rice. Photo credit: nationofchange

Golden
Rice: Myth, not Miracle

Vandana Shiva | Dehra Dun, India | January 15, 2014

You
cannot solve a problem with the same mindset that has created it.

             
                                          - Einstein

The Problem

1
billion people in the world are victims of hunger. 2 billion are victims of
diseases related to food that is nutritionally imbalanced and deficient.

The Monoculture of the Mind promotes Diseases
linked to Malnutrition

The
problem of hunger and malnutrition are rooted in an obsolete and destructive food
and agriculture system that is blind to the need for diversity, quality and
nutrition of food for a balanced diet. The reductionist mechanistic paradigm that
I have called the Monoculture of the
Mind promotes Monocultures, and only focuses on the yield of a few
commodities.

Monocultures. Credit: netmeister

As
a result of this Monoculture model, the human diet has been reduced from the
diversity of nearly 8500 species providing a diversity of nutrients that the
human body needs to just 8 crops, largely producing carbohydrates. Not only are
these monocultures of carbohydrate rich crops deficient in most essential
micronutrients, through industrial breeding they are introducing new
deficiencies that are leading to killer diseases.  

Diets
based primarily on carbohydrates like industrial rice are not just leading to
micronutrient deficiencies, they are leading to a diabetes epidemic. New
industrial varieties of rice have a high glycemic index, aggravating the risk
of diabetes.

According
to the World
Health Organisation (WHO):

• 347
  million people worldwide have diabetes.


• In 2004,
  an estimated 3.4 million people died due to diabetes.


• More
  than 80% of diabetes deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

As
the example of diabetes shows, imbalanced monoculture diets are killing people.
The solution to diseases like diabetes requires introducing more diversity in farming
and food systems.

Industrially
bred wheat varieties are leading to gluten allergies. 15 percent of the
population is now sensitive to gluten. Doctors estimate that
1 percent of the population has Celiac Disease, which is damage to the small
intestine caused by a severe allergic reaction to wheat gluten. Gluten is a
protein found in wheat and wheat products. But not all wheat is the same. We
had to fight Monsanto when it engaged in biopiracy of a traditional Indian wheat
variety, which did not lead to gluten allergies. Monsanto was forced to
withdraw its biopiracy patent on this wheat.

Industrially
produced rice monocultures are one example of the monoculture thinking that has
led to large-scale micronutrient deficiencies including deficiencies of iron,
zinc, calcium, magnesium, and vitamin (β-carotene).

Iron
deficiency is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency worldwide. It is a
major public health problem with adverse consequences particularly for women of
reproductive age and for young children.

When there is not enough iron
in the body, fewer red blood cells are produced. This reduces the capacity of
the blood to transport oxygen. As a result, symptoms, ranging from fatigue and
the inability to concentrate to impaired physical and cognitive development of
children can occur. Iron deficiency anaemia may also cause problems during
pregnancy particularly in developing countries, where it can increase the risk
of premature delivery, as well as the risk of maternal and foetal complications
and death.

Greed (detail). Credit: graphicanthropology

Zinc is
a component of more than 300 enzymes in the human body. It is active in
metabolism of protein and is required for synthesis of insulin and maintenance
of immunity. Deficiency of Zinc results in growth failure and sexual
infantilism in adolescents. It also causes loss of taste and delayed wound
healing. Zinc deficiency in pregnant mothers leads to spontaneous abortion and
congenital malformation. Zinc deficiency is also being identified as a major
problem in mental illnesses.

Vit A is
required for normal vision, for maintaining the integrity and normal
functioning of glandular and epithelial tissue, for skeletal growth, for
maintenance of immunity, and for protection against certain cancers such as
bronchial cancer. Deficiency of vitamin A causes Xerophthalmia which includes
ocular (eye) manifestations such as night blindness, conjunctival xerosis,
Bitot’s spot, Corneal Xerosis, and Keratomalacia. Deficiency of vitamin A also
causes follicular hyperkeratosis, anorexia, growth retardation, respiratory and
intestinal infections, and child mortality. Malnutrition and vitamin A
deficiency are a major cause of blindness in children. The WHO states that severe vit A deficiency that causes blindness is declining.

Golden
Rice: a False Solution that will worsen the malnutrition crisis

At
a time when all scientific knowledge is making us aware that diversity is the
answer to malnutrition, there is an intense propaganda machinery at work to
spread the myth of Golden Rice as  miracle cure for malnutrition. Those of us who promote more
effective, tested, safe and sustainable solutions to malnutrition are being
called  “killers of children”. Mr
Owen Paterson, the Secretary of Defra in UK, has called those questioning Golden
Rice, “wicked“.

Another
Ambassador of the Myth of Golden Rice is Patrick Moore has accused those
who point out that golden Rice is as ineffective of engaging in “crimes
against humanity.” About Greenpeace he states: “The organization’s scientific
blindness has led to the actual blindness of 8 million people, mostly children.”

But
it is those promoting Golden Rice as a miracle who are blind. It is a myth that
it will solve the problem of nutritional deficiencies. I have called it a Blind
approach to Blindness prevention because it is blind to alternatives that are superior,
not just for vit A deficiency, but all micronutrient deficiencies.

By
focusing on only one crop, rice, which by itself does not provide all the
nutrients we need, while eclipsing the alternative of diverse crops providing
diverse nutrients including higher quantities of vit A than Golden Rice, the Golden
Rice pushers are in fact worsening the crisis of hunger and malnutrition.
Promoters of Golden Rice are blind to diversity and hence are promoters of
blindness both metaphorically and nutritionally.

Golden
rice is an example of using the same mindset of the Monoculture of the Mind to
solve the malnutrition problem, which created nutrient deficiencies in the
first place. Golden rice will make the malnutrition crisis worse-it will kill
more people through intensifying diabetes, and deficiencies of vit A, zinc,
iron. Golden Rice is a killer of Biodiversity, and a killer of alternatives because
it extends the food and agriculture model that is depriving people of the
diversity that is vital to removing nutritional deficiencies .

Golden Rice is 3500% less
efficient than available alternatives

The
 promoters of Golden
rice admit that it produces only 35 micrograms per 100 mg of rice. Biodiversity and ecological
agriculture offers us alternatives that are 3500 percent richer in Vit A than
Golden Rice. Golden Rice will actually decrease Vit A availability, compared to
the alternatives.

The table below lists some of the sources
rich in vit. A commonly used in Indian foods. Every culture has similarly rich
sources of vit A in its biodiversity and food.

Sources rich in vitamin A  (β-carotene) used
commonly in Indian foods.

Source	Hindi name	Content (microgram/100g)
Amaranth leaves	Chauli saag	266-1,166
Coriander leaves	Dhania	1,166-1,333
Cabbage	Bandh gobi	217
Curry leave	Curry patta	1,333
Drumstick leaves	Saijan patta	1,283
Fenugreek leaves	Methi-ka-saag	450
Radish leaves	Mooli-ka-saag	750
Mint	Pudhina	300
Spinach	Palak saag	600
Carrot	Gajar	217-434
Pumpkin (yellow)	Kaddu	100-120
Mango (ripe)	Aam	500
Jackfruit	Kathal	54
Orange	Santra	35
Tomato (ripe)	Tamatar	32
Milk (cow, buffalo)	Doodh	50-60
Butter	Makkhan	720-1,200
Egg (hen)	Anda	300-400
Liver (Goat, sheep)	Kalegi	6,600–10,000
Cod liver oil		10,000–100,000

Maximising “Health per Acre” and
creating Gardens of Hope everywhere, is the real solution to malnutrition

The
lower cost, accessible and safer alternative to genetically engineered rice is
to increase biodiversity in agriculture. Further, since those who suffer from
vitamin A deficiency suffer from other forms of malnutrition, a reductionist
approach to one aspect of malnutrition, and that too an ineffective approach
compared to alternatives, is a nutrition myth. 

Vintage aryuvedic health chart from India. Credit: womensnewsnetwork

As the Navdanya Study “Health per
Acre” shows, a biodiverse farming system in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand
produces 2540mg of Beta Carotene per Acre, compared to only 24mg per Acre in a
monoculture of rice.  Intensifying biodiversity thus has the potential to
contribute to 10000% increase in Vit A availability. One acre of farmland
converted from rice monocultures to biodiverse intense farming with nutrient
rich foods can produce enough carotene to fulfil vitamin A requirements for 900
adults. On a national scale in India we can produce 164106 metric tons of
retinol equivalent( I unit of beta carotene=0.167 unit of RE)more than produced
by rice monocultures which would meet the daily requirement of vit A of 1.5
billion adults. (Health per Acre,
Navdanya)

A
major deficiency of genetically engineered Golden rice to reduce Vit A
deficiency is the eclipsing of alternatives offered by Biodiverse ecological
agriculture. As Mr. Pinstrup Anderson, Head of the International Rice Research
Institute has said that Vitamin A rice is necessary for the poor in Asia,
because “we cannot reach very many of the malnourished in the world with pills”.
However, there are many alternatives to pills for Vitamin A supply. Vitamin A
is provided by liver, egg yolk, chicken, meat, milk, butter. Beta-carotene, the
vitamin A precursor is provided by coriander, curry leaves, dark green leafy
vegetables, spinach, carrot, pumpkin, mango and drumstick.

Women
farmers in Bengal use more than 100 plants for green leafy vegetables. Regions
in India where biodiversity in fields and diversity in diets has not been
destroyed by Green Revolution monocultures such as Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram,  Nagaland, Manipur,Sikkim, Tripura,
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshwadweep 
have much lower occurrence of vit A deficiency than Green Revolution
areas.

The
Green Revolution led to massive genetic erosion in farmers fields and
knowledge, erosion among farming communities, besides leading to large scale
environmental pollution due to use of toxic agrichemicals and wasteful use of
water. Genetically engineered rice as part of the second Green Revolution is
repeating the mistakes of the Green Revolution, intensifying the deficiencies
that are killing people, while adding new hazards in terms of ecological and
health risks. A far more efficient route to removing vit. A deficiency
than pushing Golden Rice is biodiversity conservation and propagation of plants
naturally rich vit. A and other nutrients in agriculture and food.

The
“selling” of Vitamin A rice as a miracle cure for blindness is based on
blindness to alternatives for removing vitamin A deficiency and blindness to
the unknown risks of producing Vitamin A through genetic engineering.

There
are no real biosafety assessments of Golden Rice. But the debate about Golden
rice is not just about its safety. Even assuming it is safe, it is still stupid
to promote Golden Rice, which is 3500 percent less efficient than alternatives.

Food sovereignty. Credit: CIS|Chicago

Stupidity
is trumping intelligence at the level of solving the problems of malnutrition
because Golden rice is about superprofits from royalty collection in the long
run.

In
spite of all the talk of “Philanthropy”, the 80 patents linked to Golden Rice,
have not been given up.

Seed
sovereignty and food sovereignty in women’s hands is the most effective way to
get rid of deficiencies of Vit A and other micronutrients. The biotech industry,
and Golden Rice promoters are deliberately blind to this alternative because for
them Golden Rice is a Trojan Horse to introduce GMOs, and GMOS are a Trojan
horse to introduce Intellectual property Rights on seeds of rice.

The real solution to
malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies is the growing and eating of biodiversity.
 Biodiversity intensification increases
“Health per Acre” and makes diverse nutrients available where they are needed
most. “Gardens of Hope” everywhere, in villages and cities, in backyards and
rooftops, in schools and communities are the answer to Vit A and other nutrient
deficiencies. By blocking these alternatives that increase nutrition and
promote seed freedom and food democracy Golden rice will make worsen the crisis
of malnutrition.