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[SANET-MG] testing German rice in Louisiana



I cannot find any application for testing enhanced golden rice on the Aphis website or the http://www.nbiap.vt.edu/cfdocs/fieldtests1.cfm site . The enhanced rice has more beta carotene than the original golden rice. The problem is that too much vitamin A or beta carotene may cause birth defects in humans. If people are eating vitamin A rich foods the addition of super enriched rice may be too much. At any rate there should be notification and public input on such tests in USA, at least I think there should. Commercial rice and organic rice producers in Louisiana should have been made aware of such tests because there is the enhanced beta carotene production genes but also a number of regulatory genes tagging along in the genetic construction. Of course it was awfully nice of USDA to take on the testing of food crops that have been rejected as dangerous in a number of other countries. It was not so nice to keep the Louisiana rice farmers in the dark about the tests.

Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, May 2, 2005, Volume 33, Number 28
Jorge Mayer, a plant scientist with Campus Technologies in Freiburg, Germany, described frustrations faced by developers of the vitamin A-rich Golden Rice variety as they seek field trials and commercialization in developing countries. He noted that regulatory delays prevented field trials of Golden Rice in Asia, with the result that the trials are being conducted in Louisiana.

Noting that a new strain of Golden Rice has 23 times the beta-carotene content of the original variety, Mayer said, “We’re confident that it’s bioavailable, but that has to be proved. There will be trials this year in August.”

Greenpeace and other biotech critics have targeted the lack of bioavailability data for Golden Rice (see PTCN April 4, Page 11). Mayer said the development team has been unable until now to grow enough of the rice under field conditions to conduct bioavailability studies.

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