There were lingering concerns about the safety and efficacy of vitamin A supplementation and about safe dosage levels for various age groups. Capsule supplementation and food fortification are among the cost-effective, safe and sustainable ways to improve children's health and chances of survival. Yet these measures are being taken in far too few countries, and many countries have not yet realised they have a VAD problem.

Dietary diversification

The logical solution to vitamin A deficiency is to increase the consumption of natural dietary sources of vitamin A, which can be achieved through traditional food sources, particularly those available to poor, rural, high-risk populations.

Vulnerable children can consume sufficient quantities of dark-green leafy vegetables to normalise their vitamin A status.

Adults may be able to obtain sufficient vitamin A by consuming larger amounts of vegetables and fruits than what children consume through diet diversification.

Golden rice

Golden rice, the product of genetic modification of rice is claimed to be developed to address the VAD problem of the developing world. Golden rice contains betacarotene. It has created lot of hopes and hypes across the globe and there is criticism about its efficacy and ability to serve the said purpose.

For golden rice to hit the market,

According to Rockefeller Foundation (RFF), "Golden rice'' promises to be a major breakthrough in the prevention of childhood blindness, and to reverse this alarming trend in global health. The primary aim of its inventors, Profs Ingo Protrykus and Peter Beyer, was to produce rice with enhanced beta-carotene and other carotenoids the body uses to convert into vitamin A. This is critical, as unmilled brown rice contains a negligible amount of betacarotene. Advances in biotechnology ensure that golden rice will be available to deliver these vital, life-saving nutrients. From the outset, its inventors were determined to see that this technology reached those who needed it most, quickly, safely and efficiently. At the same time, Syngenta will explore commercial opportunities for sale of golden rice into the expanding market for healthy foods in more developed countries, with particular focus on Japan and North America. Syngenta will also be providing regulatory, advisory and research expertises to assist in making golden rice readily available among developing nations. As many experts agree, from researchers to health-care and nutrition specialists, golden rice is an exciting and potentially revolutionary development, one that could make a lasting difference for literally millions of malnourished, children across the globe.

A decade ago, the public health organisations recognised to improve the vitamin A status of young children throughout the developing world. Although more than 70 countries have embraced the global goal of eliminating VAD as a public health problem, progress has been slow, largely because of the costs and logistical challenges to changing diets, delivering large-dose supplements regularly, and fortifying traditional dietary items. A number of bilateral and international agencies recently recommitted themselves to these efforts, even as continuing research expands the implications of deficiency. New tools such as genetically modified staple crops could provide important strategies and stimulate these global efforts.

Biotechnology has often been criticised for only benefiting farmers and not the people who actually eat the food.

But a new product — golden rice — has the potential to change that. Adding nutrient to rice has the potential to save millions of lives. Green revolution lifted millions of farmers from poverty and brought reasonable food security despite the massive population increase during this period. But still there are millions of hungry people in the world. Golden rice and other biotech products can provide an additional choice for the willing consumers and help millions of marginalised people and farmers without much extra cost.

There is nothing as 100 per cent safe food, and it never has been. Trace levels of thousands of toxicants and chemicals are present in everything we eat, which are shown to be carcinogenic or hazardous with huge doses.

Anxiety over this GM food is understandable, which includes consumer unfamiliarity, lack of reliable information on the biosafety concerns, a steady negative opinion in the media, opposition by activist groups, growing mistrust of industry and lack of awareness on food production systems. The scientific community has neither adequately addressed public concerns about GM foods nor effectively communicated the value of this technology.

If biotech products have met the highly rigorous and stringent standards of FDA, EPA and USDA in the US, and elsewhere, how can it be more riskier and hazardous in the developing countries, where food safety standards are relatively much less? Clearly, societal acceptance is pivotal to the continued development and application of biotechnology in food and agriculture. It is common to generate an exaggerated fear of new innovations while perceiving older or 'natural' products as always more benign.

There are claims that agricultural biotechnological advancements and products are only for profit and monopoly by MNC. But can anybody say that it will not benefit the farmer or customer? Though golden rice is not the only solution to malnutrition, it should be considered as an attempt to benefit the mankind and society as whole.

(The author is with Nagarjuna Agricultural Research and Development Institute, Hyderabad. His views are personal.)

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