ONE bright morning this month, 400 protesters smashed down
the high fences surrounding a field in the Bicol region of the Philippines and
uprooted the genetically modified rice plants growing inside.
Had the plants survived long enough to flower, they would
have betrayed a distinctly yellow tint in the otherwise white part of the
grain. That is because the rice is endowed with a gene from corn and another
from a bacterium, making it the only variety in existence to produce beta
carotene, the source of vitamin A. Its developers call it “Golden Rice.”