Module #10: Agricultural biotechnology and sustainability
Leaders: Nancy Creamer, NC State; and Paul Mueller, NC State
Members: Joe Garner, Purdue; Kristen Hessler, Iowa State; Jim Coors, Wisconsin; Dian Dooley, Hawaii; and Mary Smith, NC A&T.
A print module called “Golden Rice” was published by Kristen Hessler, Ross Whetten, Carol Loopstra, Karen Pesaresi Penner, Sharon Shriver, Robert Zeigler, Jacqueline Fletcher, Melanie Torrie, and Gary Comstock, and published in Comstock, ed., Life Science Ethics, Gary Comstock, ed. (Ames, IA: Iowa State Press, 2002). Our project will update this module by adding a description of the goals of sustainable agriculture and asking viewers to assess whether golden rice is compatible with those goals. Here follows a description of the module in its present form.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that vitamin A deficiency affects 230 million children around the world, and at least one million children per year are dying of diseases related to this deficiency. Ingo Potrykus and his research group, with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, developed a variety of rice that contains beta-carotene, the plan pigment that is the precursor of Vitamin A. This rice supplies enough beta-carotene in a typical serving to supply 10% of the daily requirement for Vitamin A. Potrykus and Rockefeller have provided this variety of rice to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Phillipines, which will breed improved rice varieties using their traditional rice breeding methods and make the seeds freely available to farmers in the developing world.
IRRI has been doing rice breeding for decades, and has been on the front lines of the Green Revolution, developing and releasing new rice varieties with improved productivity (and increased dependence on fertilizers and pesticides). Their services are provided without charge to the farmers they serve, and are supported by philanthropic foundations in the developed world (including the Rockefeller Foundation). Many people regard this development as an example of how biotechnology can be used to help developing nations, while others consider it a smokescreen to divert attention from the fact that biotechnology companies are trying to dominate the food supply.
There are several questions surrounding golden rice, including when, if ever, it will be ready for commercial use and whether it might have unpredictable, untoward, health effects on those who eat too much of it. For the purposes of the present activity, assume that golden rice is ready to be distributed and safe for consumption. That is, assume that toxicity from vitamin A is not a problem, nor is the production of sufficient tons of safe, effective, seed.
Your assignment
A charitable organization, Go Golden Rice (GGR) is trying to convince the WHO to allow the Rockefeller Foundation to release golden rice. GGR deciding it must secure the support of European countries, appeals to the President of Ireland to issue a press release defending this statement: “Golden Rice is ethically justifiable.” You are a member of the President’s cabinet, and you are asked to serve on a committee to decide whether to issue the press release. The President asks your committee to answer GGR.
Decide whether to issue the statement. If you decide that the President should agree with GGR’s position, draft the President’s press release.
The resulting module will be adapted for use with high school students and taught to high school science teachers by Dr. Hessler, director of the Iowa State University Agricultural Bioethics Outreach Program. (One of the authors of the original module, Melanie Torre, was a high school student who participated in one of Dr. Hessler’s workshops.)