GM foods: Golden Rice A genetically modified rice plant that produces beta carotene and other carotenoids, the pre-cursors to vitamin A is developed by the professor Ingo Potrykus of the Institute for Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, and Dr.Peter Beyer of the Centre for Applied Biosciences, University of Freiburg, Germany. Golden Rice contains the anti-oxidant beta-carotene, which has been shown to play a role in the fight against cancer and coronary disease. The genetically modified golden rice is developed by employing biotechnology, the common rice plant, was genetically modified to incorporate certain genes from the daffodil plant and bacteria. It facilitates the rice plant to modify certain metabolic pathways in its cells to produce the precursors to Vitamin A, which was hitherto not possible. The inventors will distribute the rice free to government–run breeding centers and agriculture institutes in India, China and other rice–dependent Asian nations. It is a boon for the farmers in Asia to be cultivating new breeds of this golden rice with a distinct yellow orange hue to it as early as year ’03. |
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