Safe Food_ Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle [99]
Greenpeace took the scientists’ figures and compared them to recommended levels of vitamin A intake for the U.S. population. By U.S. standards, 300 grams (11 ounces) of Golden Rice provides one-third the recommended level of daily intake of vitamin A for a child aged one to three years, one-seventh the level recommended for an adult woman, and one-ninth the level for an adult man. By such standards, young children would need to eat nearly 33 ounces of raw rice per day, which, when cooked, would amount to 99 ounces, or about 6 pounds—an absurdly large amount. If the Golden Rice scientists had used the higher U.S. conversion ratio, that quantity doubles to an even more absurd 12 pounds.26
It must be understood that the U.S. standard is deliberately set high to meet the nutritional needs of about 98% of the population; people with average requirements can prevent vitamin A deficiency at much lower levels of intake.27 Nevertheless, to meet just 10% of the U.S. standard, young children would still need to eat more than a pound of cooked rice a day. The Greenpeace analysis made it clear that on quantitative grounds alone, Golden Rice would constitute—at best—a partial solution to health problems caused by vitamin A deficiency.
As might be anticipated, the Greenpeace estimations elicited outraged arguments from scientists and the industry. As a nutritionist, I particularly appreciated the arguments because they raged around the kinds of basic questions my colleagues and I like to discuss in nutrition science courses: What standards are appropriate for the intake of nutrients by individuals and populations? How much beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A in the body? How much vitamin A is required to prevent or alleviate the symptoms or consequences of deficiency? The arguments also dealt with an important question in applied nutrition: Should nutritional standards for developing countries be the same as or lower than those for industrialized countries? This question is political rather than scientific because of its implications: lower nutrient standards make populations appear to be better nourished. They also make Golden Rice appear to be more effective.
Dr. Potrykus acknowledged: “Greenpeace has identified a weak point in the strategy of using Golden Rice for reducing vitamin A deficiency.” He then countered with new calculations based on standards less “luxurious” than those of the United States—those of India, for example. He said, “Golden Rice is not supposed to provide 100% of the vitamin A–supply, but to . . . [be] complementing other dietary components.” On this basis, he estimated that 50% of the standard for a child in India could be met by about 100 grams of Golden Rice per day (a quite reasonable 9 ounces, cooked), and that this amount could be reduced even further if his group could bioengineer the rice to contain higher levels of beta-carotene. Although he still viewed the Greenpeace objections as morally irresponsible, he said he shared “Greenpeace’s disgrace about the heavy PR campaign of some agbiotech [agricultural biotechnology] companies using results from our experiments. . . . I stressed, however, also, that I am grateful to all those companies, which donated free licenses . . . to allow for the humanitarian use of Golden Rice in developing countries.”28
The president of the Rockefeller Foundation, Gordon Conway, also agreed that the industry was overselling the promise of Golden Rice:
The food industry . . . has featured the golden grains as part of a $50 [million] campaign to promote GM foods. The message is that GM is not just about profits, it can save children’s lives. All of this hype is premature and dangerous.