Word: potrykus
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...first, the grains of rice that Ingo Potrykus sifted through his fingers did not seem at all special. But once their dark, crinkly husks were stripped away and the interiors polished to a glossy sheen, Potrykus could behold the seeds' golden secret. At their core, these grains were not the pearly white of ordinary rice but a very pale yellow?courtesy of beta-carotene, the nutrient that serves as a building block for vitamin...
...Potrykus was elated. For more than a decade he had dreamed of creating a golden rice that would improve the lives of millions of the world's poorest people. At least 1 million children, weakened by vitamin-A deficiency, die every year and an additional 350,000 go blind. Potrykus saw his rice as the modest start of a new green revolution: bananas that wouldn't rot on the way to market; corn that could supply its own fertilizer; wheat that could thrive in drought-ridden soil...
...heroic efforts of biotechnologist Ingo Potrykus and his colleagues in developing beta-carotene-enhanced rice will save the lives of millions [SCIENCE, July 31]. Protesters who demand that this brilliantly humane enterprise be stopped should have their motives questioned. Their protest is nothing but the mindless hand waving of Luddites. Do they want the poor who live in Asia and elsewhere to starve? People must not succumb to the thinly veiled racism of so-called environmental activists. HOWARD R. OLSON Walnut Creek, Calif...
...sooner had the deal been made than the critics of agricultural biotechnology erupted. "A rip-off of the public trust," grumbled the Rural Advancement Foundation International, an advocacy group based in Winnipeg, Canada. "Asian farmers get (unproved) genetically modified rice, and AstraZeneca gets the 'gold.'" Potrykus was dismayed by such negative reaction. "It would be irresponsible," he exclaimed, "not to say immoral, not to use biotechnology to try to solve this problem!" But such expressions of good intentions would not be enough to allay his opponents' fears...
...course, these particular breakthroughs have not happened yet. But as the genomes of major crops are ever more finely mapped, and as the tools for transferring genes become ever more precise, the possibility for tinkering with complex biochemical pathways can be expected to expand rapidly. As Potrykus sees it, there is no question that agricultural biotechnology can be harnessed for the good of humankind. The only question is whether there is the collective will to do so. And the answer may well emerge as the people of the world weigh the future of golden rice...