They're likely to hamstring Indian biotech into the near foreseeable future. China is the one country in the world with the scientific power to carrybiotechnology forward in agriculture, the urgent need for massive amounts ofadditional food and feed and no need to allow unfounded food scares to bepublished in its newspapers. China already has over 1 million farmers growing genetically modifiedcotton, corn and soybeans because of lower costs. Anyone who doubts China'sability to carry forward good science is ignoring the country's fabuloushistory and its recent ballistic missile tests. Asian women are at high risk of birth complications because of iron deficiency due to the phytate in the rice they eat.
Golden rice counteracts the phytate and provides ample dietary iron.
It also contains plenty of Vitamin A, also lacking in many rice-culture diets. The International Rice Research Institute is already breeding golden rice genes into popular rice varieties for the people of Asia and Africa. Every vitamin and mineral needed by the human body could be engineered into our foods, saving consumers billions of dollars in food supplements. When First World consumers find out about such goodies, China can export them or charge farmers in other countries a fee to grow them. The biotech crops will also feature sharply higher yields, especially on marginal farmlands where drought and acid soils currently limit production.