Golden Rice For this assignment you are to assume the role of ‘Cindy’ the new aide to the Senator. She is told to prepare a brief on the Pros and Cons of Golden Rice and recommend how the Senator should vote on the issue. Do NOT use this article as a source: “9 Essential Pros and Cons of Golden Rice.” NLCATP. nlcatp.com The information is not accurate.I need help on creating a sort of a research essay in regards about the pros and cons of Golden Rice. make it as a 1200 wording with at least 10 references on both pros and cons.All That Glitters May Not Be Gold:
A Troublesome Case of Transgenic Rice
by
Gerald F. Combs, Jr.
Division of Nutritional Sciences
Cornell University
It had taken some time for this self-described country girl to become comfortable with the 50-minute
metro commute to work each day, but as she signed in at Longworth Building security desk, Cindy
Stacey realized she was starting to feel at home in Washington. Quite a long way from Fargo, she
mused, in so many ways.
Cindy had come to her present position a bit by chance, although others might not have seen it that
way. She was a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in Bangladesh when, as her tour was coming to
a close, a friend at the U.S. embassy told her about a job posting on the Internet. A congressman’s
office was looking for someone with a background in agriculture and international development. She
attributed the positive response to her initial query to the fact that the congressman in question was Carl
Pomerantz of North Dakota, her home state. But when she had finally interviewed with Campbell
Hurst, Rep. Pomerantz’s executive assistant, she saw that they were genuinely impressed by her Peace
Corps experience.
At any rate, here she was, in the most interesting job she could imagine. It had taken her a few weeks to
learn the ropes, but Campbell was giving her more and more responsibility, and she no longer felt quite
as much like a “go-for.”
Rep. Pomerantz was now in his fourth term. He had the anomalous distinction of being a popular urban
Democrat in an overwhelmingly conservative Republican agricultural state. His background was in the
insurance industry, and his expertise in agricultural insurance had landed him a seat on the House
Agriculture Committee, on which he was now the ranking minority member. He also sat on the Risk
Management, Specialty Crops and Research Subcommittee, as well as the House International
Relations Committee. He seemed to get along very well with the other members of Congress.
Cindy had met Mr. Pomerantz once before, at a reception in Fargo when she had been home on a
winter break from Cornell University, but she was certain that he had not remembered her. She now
found him to be considerate of his staff and committed to his job. She liked him very much.
Cindy’s feelings for Campbell Hurst were not quite as warm. She realized that his job was to make sure
that Mr. Pomerantz had the information he needed when he needed it, which required that he be
mindful of the congressman’s political agenda. Still, she couldn’t help but see personal ambition in this.
After all, his career future was tied to Mr. Pomerantz’s political success. She suspected that was why he
tried to steer the congressman into the most politically safe decisions whenever he could.
2
Two days ago, Campbell had given Cindy her first meaty assignment: to draft a review of the needs and
opportunities in agricultural research with relevance to international markets. This was to be used as part of
Mr. Pomerantz’s work on the new House agriculture bill. In fact, Mr. Pomerantz had asked her specifically
to look into issues surrounding what he had called “hidden hunger,” micronutrient malnutrition, since he
was interested in redirecting funds now being spent on U.S. surplus commodities under PL480. Campbell
had added that she should look through the current activities of the USDA Agricultural Research Service
related to GMOs (genetically modified organisms) that might offer potential to increase international
markets for American agricultural commodities. It was also clear to her that Campbell would not want to
hear much about direct research needs concerning micronutrients since he was very sensitive to what he
saw as political liabilities in the use of USDA budgetary support to address non-domestic problems.
But Cindy knew that Campbell had never seen those problems. Neither had she, until she went to
Bangladesh. In the poor villages where she had lived, outside of the port city of Chittagong, she had been
shocked at the blindness and bone deformities, the goiter and diarrhea she saw. She was also amazed at the
number of kids who suffered from stunting and the crippling, brittle bones of old women, both of which
were so prevalent that they became an accepted part of the lives of these very porr people. Cindy didn’t like
the term “hidden hunger” for something that had slapped her in the face. But she was very pleased that Mr.
Pomerantz wanted to address. That, in fact, had been the major reason she had taken this job.
Though she had never discussed the matter with the congressman, Cindy suspected that his interest was
connected to the fact that his daughter had cerebral palsy. One couldn’t miss the passion with which he
talked about “hidden hunger,” referring to it as a “preventable source of disability.” Others in the office
dated his interest in this area to an official trip he had made to Mozambique in his second term.
Cindy suspected that for Campbell, on the other hand, “hidden hunger” remained something abstract.
For the last two days, Cindy practically lived at the Library of Congress. She poured over everything she
could find, which came mainly from UNICEF and FAO publications as well as some recent research in the
plant breeding area. She called one of her old professors at Cornell and talked to a friend at the Beltsville
Agricultural Research Center of ARS. During this process, she had come across Golden RiceTM, the
transgenic rice into which a beta-carotene gene had been added from another plant species. This foodstuff
was being promoted as the solution to global vitamin A deficiency by its developers at the International
Rice Research Institute.
Golden Rice fascinated Cindy. She was aware of its politically sensitive GMO status but saw enormous
opportunities for products of this type to help millions of children. In fact, Golden Rice seemed to be the
only micronutrient-enhanced staple being developed by any means, conventional or otherwise. Cindy
wondered whether its development might really be sufficient to address the malnutrition in places where
rice was the major staple. She wondered whether it might carry any of the risks being suggested for other
transgenic crops. She wondered what kind of political resistance it might face. Even if it were effective, she
wondered whether somehow its efficacy might be used as an excuse not to fund other international efforts
related to food, agriculture, and market development. In short, she was coming up with more questions than
answers.
The elevator door opened on the third floor and Cindy stepped out, heading down the long corridor toward
Mr. Pomerantz’s offices. Campbell asked her to present her initial findings to Mr. Pomerantz after lunch, so
she planned to spend the morning preparing her synopsis. Until she finished her research, however, even
she didn’t yet know what her final conclusions would be.
Date Posted: 10/05/01 nas
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