一“米”之争――全球转基因食品 大论战.docVIP

一“米”之争――全球转基因食品 大论战 　　Order rice in a restaurant， and the server may ask if you want white or brown. Here’s another choice which could become available to people in some parts of the world： yellow rice. It’s promoters call it golden rice， and it’s been genetically modified to contain beta carotene. That’s the source of vitamin A. Millions of people in Asia and Africa don’t get enough vitamin A， so this rice tests a controversial idea that genetically engineered crops can improve the lives of the poor. 　　There’s a raging， global debate over genetically modified crops， and golden rice is now caught up in it. But the story of this rice starts long before that debate ever got going. It started with a conversation in 1984. 　　Gary Toenniessen was in charge of the 2）Rockefeller Foundation’s biotech program at the time. There were no genetically engineered crops yet. Scientists were just figuring out how to find genes and move them around. But the Rockefeller Foundation thought maybe these techniques could be used to give farmers in poor countries a bigger harvest. 　　It set up a meeting at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines to talk about it. But a lot of people at this meeting were skeptical. They came to a breeder named Peter Jennings， a kind of legendary figure in these circles. 　　Toenniessen： And he said yellow 3）endosperm. 　　Jennings explained that yellow signals the presence of beta-carotene， the source of vitamin A. There are yellow kinds of corn or 4）sorghum， and he’d been looking for varieties of rice with naturally yellow grain， too， because regular white rice does not provide this vital nutrient， and it’s a big problem. 　　Toenniessen： When children are weaned， they’re often weaned on a rice 5）gruel. And if they don’t have any betacarotene or vitamin A during that period， they can be harmed for the rest of their lives. 　　So the Rockefeller Foundation started a program trying to create， with biotechnology， what Jennings could no