Advantages and Disadvantages to Golden Rice

     The golden rice's main goal is to battle Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD). It is a problem that has killed thousands of innocent children under the age of 5, and millions of people all over the world. The solution to battle VAD is very simple, it is to spread golden rice worldwide and specifically to areas that suffer poverty, food scarcity and VAD areas. Although the solution is very simple, to deploy golden rice worldwide. There are some advantages and disadvantages to deploying these golden rice around the world. In this post we will discuss about why we should spread the golden rice or why we shouldn't spread the golden rice.
     To start off the list of advantages to golden rice, we will start with how it will help in areas that are short in food and suffer poverty. Golden rice offers a high amount of Vitamin A compared to other sources of carbohydrate such as white rice. Golden rice will improve life in areas that are short in food, because if the golden rice was deployed people will not need to eat a carbohydrate such as white rice or potatoes and find another source of food which is rich. Now people can simply eat golden rice without worrying to find another source of Vitamin A.
     A disadvantage to that will affect the area if the amount of golden rice is too much or too little in an area that is scarce in food source is that there will be riots and problems between the people that suffer poverty and people who deployed the golden rice. Too much of the golden rice will result in a possible competition between the farmers around the area and the people who deployed the golden rice. Too little of the golden rice will result in people fighting over getting the golden rice grains. If the right amount of golden rice is deployed there will still be problems as some people might think there isn't enough golden rice for them and they will either fight with other individuals in the area or against the company who deployed the golden rice demanding for more.
     Here are some of the disadvantages and advantages of the Golden Rice taken from BBC. The first few disadvantages of the Golden Rice are that they fear that if we cross-breed wild rice with the genetics needed to make the golden rice, it will be feared that they will get contaminated. They also fear that it will harm people and worry that the beta carotene levels will not be high enough to make an impact. And lastly they fear that the GM organisms will be expensive and they will not be able to mass produce making them unable to make a worldwide impact.
     Now, here are some of the advantages that will be brought upon by the Golden Rice project. The Golden Rice includes GM insulin, and these GM insulins are able to create high quantities of insulin easier, it is also less likely to cause and adverse reaction, and it will be able to overcome ethical concerns from vegetarians and others. These are the advantages that will be brought upon by the Golden Rice according to BBC.
     Another list of pros and cons brought by the Golden Rice are written in an article that can be found in OccupyTheory. We will first start with the pros of the Golden Rice, according to OccupyTheory the golden rice is much more nutritious that the wild rice which will aid countries such as India and Vietnam who rely rice as they main food source. It will also improve economic status of most countries whose money had been lost due to illness and death. And finally it will also bring better Agricultural Advantages, instead of only making the Golden Rice superior to the wild rice, it will also provide higher crop yields and will decrease the pesticide on the farms. These are the pros according to OccupyTheory.
     To finish the list of cons brought by Golden Rice, the golden rice can potentially bring corruption and they fear it will bring corrupt leaders to power. They fear that due to government regulations, golden rice will be to expensive to buy for those who truly need them. And finally the health benefits might be counter productive because it might make people exaggerate the benefits of the Golden Rice and instead of getting better health condition, they might worsen as they will only eat golden rice as they main nutrition source instead of vegetables and fruits. Here are the cons of the Golden Rice according to OccupyTheory.