Lifesaving “Golden Rice” is once again under attack from vested interests like old-fashioned environmental groups, powerful politicians and some farmers. What do they all have in common? They promote falsehoods on the safety of golden rice and reject the evidence that it will revolutionise children’s health across swathes of the global south.
Rice-heavy diets often lack enough vitamin A, resulting in blindness and sometimes deaths in children.
“Golden rice” has been enhanced with a gene that infuses the grain with beta carotene, a type of vitamin A. This vital nutrient transforms ordinary white rice into a much-needed source of vitamin A, capable of preventing blindness and death in undernourished children in the world’s most disadvantaged communities.
Yet again, science is under attack, and this time its children across the global south that will pay the price.
Will you pledge to stand up for science?