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Comment by tjawirklich | Hacker News Reader

For all the promises mentioned around this crop, this was surprising to read in the article:

/quote

As Stone and Glover point out, it is still unknown if the beta carotene in Golden Rice can even be converted to Vitamin A in the bodies of badly undernourished children.

/endquote

Given the advertising as a solution to the issue and all the surrounding hullabaloo, the fact that it is still not proven to do what it espouses--is pretty damning.

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I looked it up and this was the first result

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c911/5ad056fc1bb4f257fa6109...

http://www.goldenrice.org/PDFs/Dubock-The_present_status_of_...

> "In conclusion, each of the studies discussed regarding the effectiveness of golden rice concluded that it was indeed effective at providing vitamin A. "

Stone and Glover are saying that the current studies which prove Vitamin A are effective aren't comprehensive enough. However as far as I can tell all the research so far points to golden rice being effective.

Stone and Glover later wrote: "IRRI’s own assessment that the rice may augment the already successful nutrition and breastfeeding programs, at least in some ‘‘difficult to reach’’ areas, is plausible."

Sound like they are critical of it for many reasons but accept it working as a possibility.

https://pages.wustl.edu/files/pages/imce/stone/stone_glover_...

The studies concluded that it was effective at providing vitamin A as part of a well-balanced diet that wasn't overly reliant on rice. The controversy is over its effectiveness in severely malnourished kids whose diet is mostly rice, since there's reason to believe its effectiveness - and indeed that of supplementation in general - in providing vitamin A ia heavily dependant on the quality of the rest of the diet.

To put it bluntly, proponents of golden rice have been arguing that it's worthwhile because it's just not realistic for poor families to include vegetables in their diets because of expense and logistical difficulties, whilst pointing to a study in which the participants were fed meat (amongst other ingredients) along with their golden rice to prove it works.

IIRC its effectiveness was connected to the availability of fat in the rest of the diet, without which vitamin A was not metabolized effectively.

Then wouldn't the most effective help for these people be a shipment of butter and multivitamins?

A single shipment is not very effective at anything. They need structural access to better food.

Vitamin A deficiency is also effectively combated by low cost supplements (which is why groups like the WHO focus on this as well as dietary solutions)[1]. Though people who talk about golden rice claim that they're very concerned about vitamin A deficiency, it's telling that they never talk about other much more successful efforts that have had great effect in combating this deficiency (this article is no exception). It seems like a lot of people have put reason aside and become enamored with the idea of a technological silver bullet.

Also worth pointing out that the problems with making golden rice viable have little to do with anti-GMO activists, and more with the problems in creating a viable product[2].

[1] https://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/vitamin-a-deficiency... [2] https://source.wustl.edu/2016/06/genetically-modified-golden...

The original version of golden rice was even worse - that very definitely didn't have sufficient beta carotine to be effective. Some weird and subtle compatibility issue between the particular gene they used and the way they were trying to get it to be expressed that I'm not sure anyone fully understands. That unfortunately hasn't stopped GMO advocates from accusing opponents of GM foods of causing massive deaths and childhood blindness by blocking the rollout of that first version.

(In)effectiveness of rice needs to be proven on it's own merits

I can imagine the group of malnourished children, ready for controlled scientific testing (meaning knowingly not giving this rice to some kids while giving it to others) is not large and so we have to do for now with the evidence that it works in normally nourished children.

There are apparently plenty of children not receiving it at all. Just start providing it to some, and observe the difference.

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