And the 2016 World Food Prize goes to ...

Biofortified
Sweet Potatoes

Biofortification: Empowering and Self-sustaining

The 2016 World Food Prize has been awarded to the group of scientists who have tirelessly worked
on breeding and introducing orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to Africa and thus benefitting millions of
people, especially children, who are most susceptible to a lack of provitamin A. The World Food
Prize thus once again recognises efforts to increase the quality and quantity of available food to the
most vulnerable populations in the world.

Three of the 2016 laureates - Drs Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga and Jan Low are from the
CGIAR International Potato Center (CIP). The fourth winner, Dr Howard Bouis, is the founder of
HarvestPlus at the CGIAR International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and is being
recognised for his work over 25 years to ensure biofortification was developed into an international
plant breeding strategy across more than 40 countries.

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is considered to be one of the most harmful forms of malnutrition in the
developing world. It can cause blindness, limit growth, and weaken the body's immune system,
thereby increasing morbidity and mortality. The condition affects more than 140 million pre-school
children in 118 nations, and more than seven million pregnant women. It is probably the leading
cause of child blindness in developing countries.

Biofortification seeks to improve nutritional quality of food crops through agronomic practices,
conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology, as in the case of Golden Rice. The approach
of providing farmers with biofortified crops, indepedently of the technology used to achieve it, is thus
the most efficient way of creating a self-sustaining and virtuous cycle of nutritional independence
and life quality improvement.

In the case of sweet potatoes, breeders utilise the fact that varieties producing and storing high
levels of beta-carotene (=provitamin A) are available in the Andean region of South America and
thus can use these for breeding purposes and create new orange-fleshed varieties acceptable to
regional taste preferences in Africa. Unfortunately, such genetic variability is not available for every
crop, thus requiring the use of laternative approaches to generate the new, desirable trait.

Before the introduction of orange-fleshed varieties people in Africa had a preference for white-
fleshed varieties, something which is changing thanks to the work of the WFP 2016 laureates and
their colleagues at various international organizations. That goes once more to prove that
preferences can evolve, especially when consumers can be convinced of the benefits to their
children.
And more than that, the example of the orange-fleshed sweet potato has proven that the matrix of
biofortified crops are perfectly suited as a conduit to carry the much needed micronutrient, in this
case is provitamin A. The outcome of this project calls for rapid introduction and adoption of a
number of biofortified crops, like Golden Rice, biofortified bananas, cassava, sorghum, and other
crops rich in other micronutrients like iron and zinc, which would address other major, widely spread
nutritional deficiencies.

121 Nobel laureates (updated Nov 2016) sign letter

blasting Greenpeace over GMOs

from the Washington Post - June 2016

More than 100 Nobel laureates have signed a letter urging Greenpeace to end its opposition to
genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The letter asks Greenpeace to cease its efforts to block
introduction of a genetically engineered strain of rice that supporters say could reduce Vitamin-A
deficiencies causing blindness and death in children in the developing world.

By all standards, Nobel Prize laureates are usually considered the finest intellects that humanity
has to offer, notwithstanding the fact that tens of thousands of other fine scientific minds and many
other serious thinkers are supportive of biotechnology in agriculture. Add to that the simple fact that
we all have been eating the biotechnology-derived products for the last twenty years without a
single case of adverse effects linked to the biotechnological intervention as such, and non-experts
should be able to arrive at the same conclusions that these fine minds have arrived at. And that is
that biotechnology has already become part of the standard toolset used in plant breeding in
combination with all other technologies developed and used since the inception of agriculture as we
know it.
Here's a link to the press briefing by Sir Richard Roberts FRS and two other Nobel Laureates on the
topic: Nobel Laureates Press Conference - 30 June 2016

Here is the full text of the article 107 Nobel laureates sign letter blasting Greenpeace over
GMOs

You may also want to read Adrian Dubock's (Executive Secretary, Golden Rice Humanitarian
Board) comments on how Greenpeace and other GMO critics misrepresent the Golden Rice
Humanitarian Project at the Genetic Literacy Project site: "Disembedding grain: Golden Rice,
The Green Revolution, and heirloom seeds in the Philippines"

Are you aware of the very important Support Precision Agriculture Initiative? If you're interested
in reading about the pro GMO campaign and learn more about agricultural biotechnology follow the
link provided with the initiative's name, and if you like and agree with the content please Please sign
on at the following page: Join Us!and do share with your colleagues"

The Golden Rice project wins the Patents for Humanity

Award 2015

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO) have announced the winners of the 2015 recipients of the Patents for Humanity
Award, among them the Golden Rice Project.

Patents for Humanity is a USPTO program that recognizes patent owners and licensees working to
improve global health and living standards for underserved populations. The program advances the
President's global development agenda by recognizing private sector leaders who bring life-saving
technologies to those in need, while showing how patents are an integral part of tackling the world's
challenges.
The award has been bestowed upon the Golden Rice Project, in particular to Prof Ingo
Potrykus, Prof Peter Beyer, and Dr Adrian Dubock. The latter attended the official award
ceremony on 20 April 2015, accompanied by Dr Rob Russell, a member of the Golden Rice
Humanitarian Board.

Back in 2001, in a ground-breaking humanitarian licensing arrangement, the three applicants

(with Dubock then working for Syngenta) arranged in a cashless transaction for the defined
commercial rights in US patent US 7,838,749 (and related patents) to be transferred to Syngenta.
The inventors retained rights to the carefully and generously defined humanitarian applications.
Syngenta, in return for its commercial options acquired, became obligated to support the
humanitarian and non-profit vision of the inventors, and the inventors public sector licensees, rights
to exploit any improvement, including as exemplified by patent application US20120042417 A1.
Syngenta stated in 2004 that it had no continuing interest in commercial exploitation of the
technology. Nevertheless, Syngentas obligations to support the inventors and their Golden Rice
humanitarian project remain in place.

Dr Adrian Dubock (front left) collected the award at the White House on 20 April 2015 together with Prof Rob Russell, Golden Rice
Humanitarian Board member(rear left).

These arrangements demonstrate that patents have a very useful role, even for projects involving
developing countries, where the protection of intellectual property rights may be less well
developed. Without the inventors having applied for patents, it would not have been possible to
discuss and develop the above mutually beneficial arrangements between the private and public
sectors. Moreover, having the Golden Rice patent in place was crucial to obtaining access to the
supporting technology package from other inventors.

GOLDEN RICE NOW!

Showing the dark side of the anti GM campaigners

This initiative, led by Dr Patrick Moore, co-founder and 15 years leader of Greenpeace and longtime
adviser to government and industries on sustainability and the environment, conducts protests and
forums with the aim to end the active blocking of Golden Rice by environmental organizations who
claim that it is either of no value or that it is a detriment to human health and the environment.
The ALLOW GOLDEN RICE NOW! Society plans to achieve this through direct public action,
media communications and coalition-building.

Visit the ALLOW GOLDEN RICE NOW! Society website to find out more about dates, locations
and activities.

BBC Interview with Prof Hans-Jrg Jacobsen and Vandana Shiva, 20 April 2015.

People Pope Blesses Golden Rice

ASPB NEWS | VOLUME 41, NUMBER 1

BY TYRONE SPADY ASPB

Legislative and Public Affairs Director

On November 7, 2013, Pope Francis gave his personal blessing to Golden Rice (GR). Why is this
significant? Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is responsible for 500,000 cases of irreversible blindness
and up to 2 million deaths each year. Particularly susceptible are pregnant women and children.
Across the globe, an estimated 19 million pregnant women and 190 million children suffer from the
condition. The good news, however, is that dietary supplementation of vitamin A can eliminate VAD.
One way that holds particular promise is the administration via GR, which had been engineered to
produce large amounts of vitamin A. A 2012 study by Tang et al. (http://bit.ly/1bc6FJx) published in
the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that 100-150 g of cooked GR provided 60% of the
Chinese Recommended Intake of vitamin A. Estimates suggest that supplementing GR for 20% of
the diet of children and 10% for pregnant women and mothers will be enough to combat the effects
of VAD.

Unfortunately, public misconceptions about genetically modified (GM) organisms have prevented
GR from being available to the countries most affected by VAD. One such country is the
Philippines, where more than 80% of the population identifies as Roman Catholic and field trials of
GR are nearing completion. An official blessing of the church, therefore, could do a great deal to
build support, allowing the Philippines to serve as a model for many of its neighbors on the potential
health impacts of widespread availability and consumption of the golden grain.
Regrettably, the church did not provide an official endorsement. It turns out that there is quite a
distinction between the pope's personal blessing and an official statement of support from the
Vatican. To understand the nature of that distinction, we turned to the person who elicited the
blessing, GR coinventor and ASPB member Ingo Potrykus. At the time of the blessing, Ingo, a
member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, had been attending a meeting at the Vatican on the
interaction of nutrition and brain development. At the end of the meeting, he was able to meet Pope
Francis and took the opportunity to share a packet of GR. In response, the pope offered his
personal blessing. (If an official blessing of the Holy See was given, it would come from the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.) From Ingo's perspective, the pope is concerned that
genetic modification technology primarily benefits big business and not the poor.
The most immediate hurdle to the usage of GR, according to Ingo, is the impending deregulation by
the Philippine Department of Agriculture. Although no damage has been reported from the recent
typhoon (Haiyan) that struck this part of the world, the fields had already been harvested. Philippine
officials have been following GR development and field trials for several years, and Ingo believes
that the government will ultimately give "the green light." He expects that deregulation will occur in
two phases: first consumption, then planting. The consumption phase will require a two-year study
of the impacts of GR consumption on VAD in Philippine children. The study will be conducted by the
Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education (http://bit. ly/1bXh9AX), which has expertise in
VAD and blindness. Only after the study will farmers be allowed to plant GR, said Ingo.

GR distribution will be carried out by existing small-scale operations. Further, it will be sold at the
same price as conventional cultivars. It is believed that this will help to facilitate adoption. In addition
to vitamin A production, Ingo believes that other agronomic improvements, such as increased pest
resistance and yield, will further increase the attractiveness of GR to farmers.

While not a full-throated endorsement of GR or GM, the pope's blessing is a step in the right
direction. It is also an important indicator of slowly shifting global attitudes regarding the role that
GM foods will play in the world's long-term food security.

Copyright for this article lies with ASPB News

Biofortified rice as a contribution to the alleviation of

life-threatening micronutrient deficiencies in developing
countries

A good start is a food start!

Dietary micronutrient deficiencies, such as the lack of vitamin A, iodine, iron or zinc, are a major
source of morbidity (increased susceptibility to disease) and mortality worldwide. These deficiencies
affect particularly children, impairing their immune system and normal development, causing
disease and ultimately death. The best way to avoid micronutrient deficiencies is by way of a varied
diet, rich in vegetables, fruits and animal products.

The second best approach, especially for those who cannot afford a balanced diet, is by way of
nutrient-dense staple crops. Sweet potatoes, for example, are available as varieties that are either
rich or poor in provitamin A. Those producing and accumulating provitamin A (orange-fleshed
sweetpotatoes) are called biofortified,* as opposed to the white-fleshed sweet potatoes, which do
not accumulate provitamin A. In this case, what needs to be done is to introduce the biofortified
varieties to people used to the white-fleshed varieties, as is happening at present in southern Africa
by introducing South American varieties of orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes.
Unfortunately, there are no natural provitamin A-containing rice varieties. In rice-based societies,
the absence of -carotene in rice grains manifests itself in a marked incidence of blindness and
susceptibility to disease, leading to an increased incidence of premature death of small children, the
weakest link in the chain.

Rice plants produce -carotene (provitamin A) in green tissues but not in the endosperm (the edible
part of the seed). The outer coat of the dehusked grainsthe so-called aleurone layercontains a
number of valuable nutrients, e.g. vitamin B and nutritious fats, but no provitamin A. These nutrients
are lost with the bran fraction in the process of milling and polishing. While it would be desirable to
keep those nutrients with the grain, the fatty components are affected by oxidative processes that
make the grain turn rancid when exposed to air. Thus, unprocessed ricealso known as brown
riceis not apt for long-term storage.

Even though all required genes to produce provitamin A are present in the grain, some of them are
turned off during development. This is where the ingenuity of the Golden Rice inventors, Profs Ingo
Potrykus (formerly ETH Zurich) and Peter Beyer (University of Freiburg) comes into play. They
figured out how to turn on this complex pathway again with a minor intervention.

The shocking fact is that, far from reaching the envisaged Millenium Development Goals, more than
10 million children under the age of five are still dying every year. A high proportion of those
children die victims of common diseases that could be prevented through a better nutrition. This
number has been equated with a Nutritional Holocaust . It is unfortunate that the world is not
embracing more readily a number of approaches wih the potential to substantially reduce the
number of deaths. It has been calculated that the life of 25 percent of those children could be
spared by providing them with diets that included crops biofortified with provitamin A (beta-
carotene) and zinc. Golden Rice is such a biofortified crop. Those involved in the project are
hopeful that in a near future Golden Rice will be growing in farmers' fields and helping to improve
the diets of millions of people.
Golden Rice grains are easily recognisable by their yellow to orange colour. The stronger the colour
the more -carotene. While a yellow rice is still unfamiliar to most of us, it is hoped that the pleasant
colour will help promote its adoption. Would you believe that once upon a time carrots were white or
purple? Orange-coloured carrots are the product of a mutation selected by a Dutch horticulturist a
few hundred years ago, because it was the colour of the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau!

*Welch RM and Graham RD (2004) Breeding for micronutrients in staple food crops from a human nutrition
perspective. J Exp Bot 55:353-364.

Quantum leap:

Golden Rice accumulates provitamin A (-carotene) in the grain

Rice produces -carotene in the leaves but not in the grain, where the biosynthetic pathway is
turned off during plant development. In Golden Rice two genes have been inserted into the rice
genome by genetic engineering, to restart the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway leading to the
production and accumulation of -carotene in the grains. Both genes are naturally involved in
carotene biosynthesis. The difference here is that the reconstructed pathway is not subject to
downregulation, as usually happens in the grain.

Since a prototype of Golden Rice was developed in the year 2000, new lines with higher -carotene
content have been generated. The intensity of the golden colour is a visual indicator of the
concentration of -carotene in the endosperm.Our goal is to make sure that people living in rice-
based societies get a full complement of provitamin A from their traditional diets. This would apply
to countries such as India, Vietnam, Bangladesh. the Philippines, and Indonesia. Golden Rice could
still be a valuable complement to children's diets in many countries by contributing to the reduction
of clinical and sub-clinical vitamin A deficiency-related diseases.

Many people are aware that vitamin A has something to do with vision, especially at night. But
many are not aware of the central role it plays in maintaining the integrity of the immune system.
According to the World Health Organization, dietary vitamin A deficiency (VAD) compromises the
immune systems of approximately 40 percent of children under the age of five in the developing
world, greatly increasing the risk of severe illnesses from common childhood infections, thus
causing hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths among them.

In remote rural areas Golden Rice could constitute a major contribution towards sustainable vitamin
A delivery. To achieve this goal a strong, concerted, and interdisciplinary effort is needed. This
effort must include scientists, breeders, farmers, regulators, policy-makers, and extensionists. The
latter will play a central role in educating farmers and consumers as to their available options. While
the most desirable option woud be a varied and adequate diet, this goal is not always achievable, at
least not in the short term. The reasons are manifold, ranging from tradition to geographical and
economical limitations. Golden Rice is a step in the right direction in that it does not create new
dependencies or displace traditional foodstuff.

Golden Rice, the real thing

Who is behind Golden Rice

Golden Rice is the brainchild of Profs Ingo Potrykus (ETH Zurich) and Peter Beyer (Univ of
Freiburg), who in a collaborative effort were able to show that production of -carotene could be
turned on in rice grains using a minimum set of transgenes. From the beginning Golden Rice was
conceived as a public-good project under the guidance of the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board.
The initial prototype (Science 2000) was further improved in terms of provitamin A (-carotene)
content by a research team at Syngenta (Nature Biotechnology 2005). From 2005 to 2010 the
project dealt mainly with breeding the novel trait into locally adapted rice varieties. Along its way the
project has been funded by a number of donors, including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation (Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative), USAID, the Philippine
Department of Agriculture, HarvestPlus, the European Commission, Swiss Federal Funding, and
the Syngenta Foundation. Several companies have provided free access to their patented
technologies necessary to generate Golden Rice . Current breeding and field trialling work is being
carried out by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines together with
PhilRice, the Philippine Rice Research Institute. PhilRice is preparing a submission to the
regulatory authority of the Philippines in 2013, which could lead to initial releases to farmers in
2014. And the work doesn't stop there. If the first hurdles are taken successfully, then Golden
Rice will be heading towards China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Vietnam. In those countries
national programs are already involved in laying out the necessary groundwork.

Helen Keller International

 Helen Keller
International (HKI) has been working to address vitamin A deficiency (VAD) for well over 30 years
and continues to work with local partners to deliver vitamin A to those in need through
implementation of complementary interventions including vitamin A supplementation, promotion of
optimal breastfeeding, dietary diversification and food fortification. HKI considers that Golden
Rice may have the potential to be another complementary vehicle to combat vitamin A deficiency,
particularly among those who are not reached by other mechanisms. Hence, HKI is working on
determining the efficacy of Golden Rice to improve the vitamin A status in deficient individuals. If
proved efficacious and once approved by the regulatory bodies, HKI would proceed to
include Golden Rice in their VAD combatting toolbox. According to HKI 190 million pre-school
children and 19 million pregnant women are currently vitamin A deficient. Each year, an estimated
670,000 children will die from VAD, and 350,000 will go blind. In the Philippines, approximately 1.7
million children aged 6 months to 5 years and an additional three out of every ten school-aged
children have VAD, as do one out of every five pregnant and lactating mothers. In Bangladesh, one
in every five of pre-school aged children are estimated to have VAD. In these, as almost in all
developing countries, effective distribution systems for vitamin A supplementation are not in place to
reach all people in need adequately and consistently. Supplementation programs incur high logistic
costs that not every region can afford.

Golden Rice will reach those who need it at no

additional cost

Growers will be able to reuse their seed as they please

Those most in need of this new seed-based technology are those who can least afford buying an
adequate diet, rich in essential nutrients. This has been taken into consideration by the creators
of Golden Rice, Profs Peter Beyer and Ingo Portrykus, and the crop protection company Syngenta,
who have worked together to make the latest, improved version of Golden Rice available for
humanitarian use in developing countries, free of charge.

The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board encourages further research to determine how the
technology may play a part in the ongoing global effort to fight Vitamin A Deficiency in poor
countries. While Golden Rice is an exciting development, it is important to keep in mind that
malnutrition is to a great extent rooted in political, economic and cultural issues that will not be
solved by a technical fix. Yet Golden Rice offers people in developing countries a valuable and
affordable choice in the fight against the scourge of malnutrition.

This site is maintained by the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board for the purpose of providing
information on the background and progress of the Golden Rice Humanitarian Project.