Golden Rice and Beyond

The term "golden rice" was coined by a Thai busi- nessman who is active in initiatives aimed at reduc- ing the birth rate, a major cause of the food security problem. As it turned out, the term "golden rice" has proven to be enormously successful in piquing the interest of the public. (I gave up tallying its mention in the popular media after more than 30 television broadcasts and 300 newspaper articles, but I am still busy with requests for interviews every week.) It is difficult to estimate how much of its celebrity stems from its catchy moniker and how much is from the technological breakthrough it represents. Needless to say, we live in a society that is strongly influenced (not to say manipulated) by the media. As the pop- ular media live by selling news, "catchy" names are especially useful in attracting the interest of media consumers. The "story," however, must also be ac- companied by an important message, in this case, that the purely altruistic use of genetic engineering technology has potentially solved an urgent and pre- viously intractable health problem for the poor of the developing world. And this is my first message and my response to Chris Somerville's (2000) contribu- tion: I, too, believe in the power of education and rational discourse. However, after more then 10 years on the frontlines of the public debate concerning genetically modified organisms (GMOs), I have learned that even with the help of the media, rational arguments succeed in influencing only a small mi- nority of the public-at-large. In short, rational argu- ments are poor ammunition against the emotional appeals of the opposition. The GMO opposition, es- pecially in Europe, has been extraordinarily success- ful in channeling all negative emotions associated with the supposed dangers of all new technologies as well as economic "globalization" onto the alleged hazards presented by the release of GMOs into the food chain. This is one reason why the story of "gold-