On July 31, 2000, Time magazine, a hugely influential newsmagazine based in the United States with four international editions and a weekly circulation of 4.1 million, published a cover story titled “This Rice Could Save A Million Kids A Year”.
The cover story was about two Swiss scientists, Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer, who used new genetic editing techniques to insert a gene from daffodils into rice to create beta-carotene, which normally does not occur in the endosperm of rice. Due to its distinctive color, new rice variety was called Golden Rice.
The new rice had big implications for the Philippines.
Beta-carotene is used by the human body to make Vitamin A, a micronutrient essential for child development. Vitamin A Deficiency, or VAD, is a significant contributor to childhood stunting, blindness, disease and death in underdeveloped nations, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
Beginning in 2005, subsequent versions of Golden Rice used a gene from corn rather than fromdaffodils.
Scientists Potrykus and Beyer were not in this for the money. They intended to make the rice available for free to poor farmers in developing nations.
The World Health Organization estimates that, worldwide, VAD affects more than 190 million children under the age of five. The Philippines has about 11 million children under the age of 5, and 20-30 percent experience childhood stunting. (Catanduanes Tribune, May 7, 2025.)
Rice in Southeast Asia is a staple food and a cultural cornerstone, so the region became the focal point for Golden Rice adoption. Field trials began in the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, and Indonesia, with the Philippines taking the lead.
The field trials in the Philippines were not without controversy. In 2013, an experimental plot was uprooted by environmentalists in Camarines Sur.
By 2021, after years of research and biosafety assessments, the Philippines became the first country to grant approval for the commercial cultivation of Golden Rice. The variety, called Malusog Rice in the Philippines, was developed in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute and the Philippine Rice Research Institute.
The trials revealed that there was only a small amount of gene transfer from Malusog Rice to conventional varieties planted in adjacent plots, and the yields were similar — 4.0-6.5 metric tons per hectare. The price of the new variety would be approximately PHP41-50, competitive with the price of common varieties. And the new rice was “inbred”, meaning that farmers would not have to buy fresh seed every year but could save seed during harvest for planting in subsequent seasons.
Perhaps most important, the research showed that a single cup of Malusog Rice a day would provide 50 percent of the Vitamin A needed for a child less than 5 years old.
In 2022, Catanduanes — due to the province’s high incidence of malnutrition — was selected as one of seven pilot provinces for the initial deployment of Malusog Rice. Farmers in Viga and Virac grew several hundred kilograms of the new rice and noted the crop’s robust growth and resistance to pests and diseases. (Catanduanes Tribune, Jan. 11, 2023.)
Nationwide, 70 tons of Malusog Rice were harvested without controversy.
Enter “the precautionary principle”.
The precautionary principle was a major outcome of the Cartagena Protocol on Biodiversity, adopted in January 2000 in the old colonial city of Cartagena, Colombia, and eventually signed by 170 nations. The main purposes of the protocol were to protect biodiversity and insure the safe handling of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.
The precautionary principle specifically allows countries to restrict or ban imports of GMOs if there is insufficient scientific evidence about their safety.
From the outset, the international environmental organization Greenpeace was opposed to the new genetically modified rice.
When it became evident that Greenpeace would be challenging the adoption of Golden Rice in court, 107 Nobel laureates wrote to Greenpeace asking them to desist from pursuing the case, but to no avail.
The case against Malusog Rice was filed by a coalition of environmental and farmers’ groups, including MASIPAG and Greenpeace, seeking a writ of kalikasan and a writ of continuing mandamus to halt the commercial propagation of genetically modified crops, specifically Golden Rice and Bt Eggplant.
MASIPAG is “Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agricultura” – Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Agricultural Development.
A writ of kalikasan is a legal procedure for the protection of the constitutional right to a healthy and balanced environment. Adopted in 2010 by the Supreme Court as a means of procedure in environmental cases, the writ gives Filipinos the right to hold polluters accountable in court.
On April 18, 2023, the Supreme Court issued a writ of kalikasan, effectively revoking the biosafety permit for Malusog Rice.
Today the hopes and promises of Golden Rice languish in filing cabinets and on flash drives in the palatial offices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in Ermita — Case No. CA-G.R. SP No. 00038, “MASIPAG, et al. v. Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, et al.
The Philippine Rice Research Institute is currently appealing the Supreme Court for reversal of the decision, but there has been no court action since 2023.
Other Asian nations also fell in line with Greenpeace on the Cartagena Protocol.
In Bangladesh, although regulatory bodies had previously approved Golden Rice for cultivation, concerns over public opposition and legal ambiguities led to a halt in its adoption. As of 2025, Bangladesh has not proceeded with commercial planting.
India and Indonesia also have not granted commercial approval.
It is banned in the European Union and almost everywhere else.
The rice presumably can be grown legally in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, but there is no domestic market for it, and it cannot be exported.
In a 2019 book titled “Golden Rice”, Dr. Ingo Potrykus, now age 91 and retired, was quoted as saying, “Had I known what the pursuit would entail, perhaps I would not have started.”
As for those “million kids a year” who could have been saved annually by eating Golden Rice? More than 20 years have elapsed since then. Do the math.
Bryce McIntyre, PhD, resides in San Andres. He holds a doctoral degree from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA.