Home » Health » Nutrition » Vitamins & Supplements » Vitamin A enriched rice, developed nearly 15 years ago, could have prevented hundreds of thousands of cases of childhood blindness. It has never been used due to concerns over GMO foods.
Golden Rice

Vitamin A enriched rice, developed nearly 15 years ago, could have prevented hundreds of thousands of cases of childhood blindness. It has never been used due to concerns over GMO foods.

The economic power of the Golden Rice opposition

Vitamin A enriched rice (Golden Rice) is a cost-efficient solution that can substantially reduce health costs. Despite Golden Rice being available since early 2000, this rice has not been introduced in any country. Governments must perceive additional costs that overcompensate the benefits of the technology to explain the delay in approval. We develop a real option model including irreversibility and uncertainty about perceived costs and arrival of new information to explain a delay in approval. The model has been applied to the case of India. Results show the annual perceived costs have to be at least US$199 million per year approximately for the last decade to explain the delay in approval of the technology. This is an indicator of the economic power of the opposition towards Golden Rice resulting in about 1.4 million life years lost over the past decade in India. Continue Reading (32 minute read)

Leave a Comment