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Fighting hunger with flood-tolerant rice
If every scientist hopes to make at least one important discovery in her career, then University of California-Davis professor Pamela Ronald and her colleagues may have hit the jackpot.
Scientists have bred a new strain of flood-tolerant rice that could help feed millions.
Scientists have bred a new strain of flood-tolerant rice that could help feed millions.
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Ronald's team works with rice, a grain most Americans take for granted, but which is a matter of life and death to much of the world. Thanks to their efforts to breed a new, hardier variety of rice, millions of people may not go hungry.
About half the world's population eats rice as a staple. Two-thirds of the diet of subsistence farmers in India and Bangladesh is made up entirely of rice. If rice crops suffer, it can mean starvation for millions.
"People [in the United States] think, well, if I don't have enough rice, I'll go to the store," said Ronald, a professor of plant pathology at UC-Davis. "That's not the situation in these villages. They're mostly subsistence farmers. They don't have cars."
As sea levels rise and world weather patterns worsen, flooding has become a major cause of rice crop loss. Scientists estimate 4 million tons of rice are lost every year because of flooding. That's enough rice to feed 30 million people.
Rice is grown in flooded fields, usually to kill weeds. But rice plants do not like it when they are submerged in water for long periods, Ronald said.
"They don't get enough carbon dioxide, they don't get enough light and their entire metabolic processes are thrown off. The rice plant tries to grow out of the flood, but when it does, it depletes its sugar reserves. It starts to break down its chlorophyll, important for photosynthesis. It grows really quickly, and then when the flood recedes, it just dies. It's out of gas."
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Normal rice dies after three days of complete flooding. Researchers know of at least one rice variety that can tolerate flooding for longer periods, but conventional breeding failed to create a strain that was acceptable to farmers.
So Ronald and her colleagues -- David Mackill, senior scientist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and Julia Bailey-Serres, professor of genetics at the University of California-Riverside -- spent the last decade working to find a rice strain that could survive flooding for longer periods.
Mackill identified a flood-resistant gene 13 years ago in a low-yielding traditional Indian rice variety. He passed along the information to Ronald, who isolated the gene, called Sub1, and introduced it into normal rice varieties, generating rice that could withstand being submerged in water for 17 days.
The team relied on something called precision breeding, the ability to introduce very specific genes into plants without the associated baggage of other genes that might tag along in conventional breeding.
"This can be a problem for farmers," Ronald said. "The varieties that were developed from conventional breeding were rejected by farmers because they didn't yield well or taste good."
Using precision breeding, scientists introduced the Sub1 gene three years ago into test fields in Bangladesh and India. The subsequent rice harvests were a resounding success.
"The results were really terrific," said Ronald. "The farmers found three- to five-fold increases in yield due to flood tolerance. They can plant the normal way. They can harvest the normal way and it tastes the same. Farmers had more food for their families and they also had additional rice they could sell to bring a little bit of money into the household."
"The potential for impact is huge," agreed Mackill in a statement on the IRRI Web site. "In Bangladesh, for example, 20 percent of the rice land is flood prone and the country typically suffers several major floods each year. Submergence-tolerant varieties could make major inroads into Bangladesh's annual rice shortfall."
The researchers anticipate that the flood-tolerant rice plants will be available to farmers in Bangladesh and India within two years. Because the plants are the product of precision breeding, rather than genetic modification, they are not subject to the same regulatory testing that can delay release of genetically modified crops.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture conferred one of its highest research awards last December on Ronald, Mackill and Bailey-Serres for their work on submergence-tolerant rice.
But Ronald has no plans to rest on her laurels.
"I feel a great sense of gratitude that I was able to contribute in this way," she said. "But the farmers have asked us, 'Can you develop varieties that are drought tolerant, salt tolerant? Can you develop varieties that are insect resistant?' There are always more things to work on."
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Dangerous Chemicals in Food
Did you know that some of the foods we are ingesting are actually harmful to us? Lots of food we eat are loaded with potentially harmful chemical additives, preservatives and other dangerous substances.
A good rule of thumb to follow is that if you have to eat anything with these food additives in them, make sure you do so in moderation.
BHA and BHT
BHA and BHT stands for Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). These are food additives that are used as a preservative to keep food from spoilage. BHA and BHT can be found in butter, meats, chewing gum, snack foods, dehydrated potatoes, and even beer. These additives are approved by the FDA as safe for human consumption. However, they are proven carcinogens. There is proof that some people have difficulty metabolizing BHA and this can result in health and behavioral changes.
Saccharin
Sweet n Low is a common brand name of saccharin. It is a sugar substitute. Its purpose is to give a no-calorie substitute for sugar. The problem is that it is proven to cause cancer of the bladder, uterus, and even cancer of the blood vessels.
Sodium Nitrite and Sodium Nitrate
This food additive is commonly used in hotdogs and cold-cuts to preserve their color and flavor. They are also used to prevent botulism, which is a fatal disease that comes from food.
The problem with sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate is they are known to cause cancer. They cause nitrosamines to form in our intestines, and that are definitely a culprit for cancer.
Acesulfamfe-K
Acesulfame-K, much like saccharin, is a sugar substitute. It is commonly used in chewing gum, gelatin dessert, baked goods, and soft drinks. It may also cause cancer, as it has been found in laboratory studies with rats. Acesulfame-K breaks down into acetoacetamide, which causes thyroid problems in rats, rabbits and dogs.
Olestra
Olestra is a fat substitute that makes fattening foods fat-free. It is not absorbed by the body so it causes digestion problems, such as diarrhea and loose stools. It hinders the body’s ability to absorb beneficial nutrients as well.
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'Made in China' proving bad for health
ROGER BATE
Brand China has taken a severe beating this year. Some of its fakes were amusing, notably Olympic Ceremony sleights of hand, with fake fireworks and a miming singer, but product contamination has killed hundreds and harmed unknown tens of thousands.
It started with 95 dying in America from a contaminated blood-thinning drug, then in September came the deaths of four babies in China from contaminated milk powder that made thousands of others ill. The latest news is that the melamine found in that milk powder may be present throughout the food chain via animal feed, having reached eggs in Hong Kong.
China could learn some brand management from other manufacturing economies - more than 100 years ago.
Take Britain, where food contamination was a major problem in the 19th century: 15 people died in London when a sweet-making mould contained arsenic; three people died in Nottingham from eating a bright green blancmange laced with copper arsenite; hundreds around the country fell ill from copper sulphate in beer.
These problems only ended when manufacturers put safety above short-term profit. Among the first was Crosse & Blackwell, which gave up coppering pickles in 1855. This initially cut sales because the public were used to bright green pickles but, since the less lurid pickles were safer and tasted as good, Crosse & Blackwell quickly became the trusted brand, driving less safety-conscious competitors out of the market or into compliance.
Over the next few decades, wider brand competition continued to drive out dangerous additives. Later, litigation and regulation made it the rare occurrence it is today.
Although concern about additives has probably increased over the past 40 years in the West, food has become safer all the time.
But is China likely to allow brand competition, with advertising veracity scrutinised by the media, and will litigation by victims be allowed?
The evidence is mixed, especially over the latest melamine milk contamination. Over 30 officials and dairy industry workers have been arrested and the head of the national quality watchdog agency, Li Changjiang, has been fired.
Thousands of inspectors are scurrying around measuring food for contamination and officials from the president downwards have vowed to remedy the situation.
But action came after months of delay. The company at the heart of the milk scandal, Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group, tried to cover up the case when it first came to light, over six months ago. It sought government support and got a media blackout.
A Chinese reporter wanted to blow the whistle on the melamine milk disaster before the Olympics but was unable to do so, the Wall Street Journal Asia reported.
He fell victim to a directive from the Propaganda Department forbidding negative reporting on food safety ahead of the Olympics.
This episode shows how China's media controls make it impossible for the press to serve as an effective watchdog. Since the milk scandal erupted, Beijing has grown more restrictive, not less.
On the other hand, reporting freedoms are being extended - but only to foreign journalists. Beijing has said the relaxed rules brought in for the Olympics would continue indefinitely.
Foreign journalists will be able to travel and report without seeking permission from provincial officials. Chinese reporters, however, will not be afforded such freedom, even if they work for foreign news services.
Nor can the Chinese people expect more than minimal protection in law. Lawyers for families of many of the poisoned children, including one of the dead, have filed three cases against Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group. So far, the cases have not been accepted by the courts and, even if they are, the most the families can expect is compensation for medical expenses.
When companies like Sanlu continue to enjoy such protection, there is no incentive to improve safety in the future.
The solutions are anathema to the political class and the business community - openness to media scrutiny and accountability through independent courts.
If Beijing wants to prevent future scandals it has to encourage corporate integrity driven by competition. The present system leaves Chinese children with less protection and value than American pets: thousands of US pet owners are close to a US$32 million settlement over last year's Chinese pet-food contamination case.
To motivate businesses to ensure product safety and thus encourage durable growth, China must allow free news media and courts that uphold the law instead of the status quo: regulation alone has not worked, while more regulation will just stifle legitimate business and provide cheats with opportunities for corruption.
Roger Bate is a Resident Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute think-tank. His co-authored paper on drug standards, "Quantity and Quality," was published in September by AEI.
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