How much longer do we have to wait?

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) continues to be a major public health concern worldwide. It is estimated that 250,000–300,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, with half of them dying within a year after getting blind.

Here at home, not only are we not making progress, the problem is getting worse. VAD incidence among children increased from 15.2% in 2008 to 20.4% in 2013. According to the UNICEF study on the Economic Burden of Malnutrition in the Philippines (2016), there are 1,840 childhood deaths per year due to VAD.

Clearly our current programs to eliminate VAD by promoting production and consumption of vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, distribution of vitamin A capsule supplements and mandatory vitamin A fortification of vegetable cooking oil are not enough.

Another complementary way to increase vitamin A intake is by biofortification of foods vulnerable populations regularly consume. This is accomplished by enriching the beta carotene (pro-vitamin A) content of foods by conventional plant breeding and/or by use of modern transgenic methods (GMOs).

We eat a lot of rice but the rice endosperm is devoid of beta carotene. Unfortunately, there are no landraces nor related rice species which carry the genes for beta carotene in the grains. The recourse is to transfer the beta carotene genes from other species which do not normally interbreed with rice. After years of effort, scientists have succeeded in transferring such genes, first from the golden daffodil, and then later, from yellow corn.

Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) have incorporated these beta carotene genes from yellow corn into our popular varieties (baptized as Golden Rice). And now Golden Rice is ready for formal assessment for food and feed safety, for bio-efficacy, and finally for field testing in farmers’ fields. Applications are now pending since last year with the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

In the meantime, Golden Rice has passed the assessments of three other national regulatory agencies for food and feed safety, namely by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), Health Canada, and the US Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA).

Following are the exact quotes from the assessments of Golden Rice by these national regulatory bodies:

FSANZ:... “No potential public health and safety concerns have been identified in the assessment of GR2E (technical code for Golden Rice). On the basis of the data provided in the present Application, and other available information, food derived for GR2E is considered to be safe for human consumption as food derived from conventional rice varieties.”

Health Canada: “Changes made in this rice variety did not pose a greater risk to human health than rice varieties currently available in the Canadian market,... Further, GR2E would have no impact on allergies, and that there were no differences in the nutritional value of GR2E compared to other traditional rice varieties available for consumption except for increased levels of provitamin A.”

US-FDA: Concurred with the assessment of IRRI and declared that: “Based on the safety and nutritional assessment IRRI has conducted, it is our understanding that IRRI concludes that human and animal food from GR2E rice is not materially different in composition, safety, or other relevant parameters from rice-derived food currently on the market except for the intended beta carotene change in GR2E rice... We have no further questions concerning human or animal food derived from GR2E rice at this time.”

Needless to say, these competent national regulatory agencies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States, are as concerned with the safety of their citizens as all other national bodies. They conduct their assessments based on concepts and principles developed over more than two decades by international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO) of the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). What further assurances do we need!

We raised a furor over the alleged wrongful deaths from the mis-application of the Sanofi Dengvaxia vaccine against dengue (in the order of perhaps, less than a hundred). Should not we be even more concerned with the 1,840 needless deaths every year of poor Filipino children from vitamin A deficiency? How much longer do we have to wait until Golden Rice is made available as an economic, sustainable option to eliminate vitamin A deficiency?

UP singing ambassadors — proudly filipino

Last Wednesday, I had the fortune of attending one of the four farewell concerts “The Reason We Sing” of the UP Singing Ambassadors (UPSA) at the Ayala Museum together with former UP Regent Nelia Teodoro Gonzalez.

I was so moved by their musicality, harmony, choreography, and over-all stage presence so much so that when I was singled out in the crowd and asked to extemporaneously say a few words, all I could say was “You make us proud.”

Indeed as a collection of music-minded students from different colleges in UP Diliman, first organized by conductor Ed Lumbera Manguiat as a freshman choir at the Kalayaan Residence Hall, UPSA has gone a long way and conquered the world, figuratively.

Since then, UPSA has toured Europe and parts of the world many times; competed in 21 international choral competitions, and in the process garnered five grand prizes and 23 first prizes, bringing honor and fame to the country and to the University of the Philippines.

Among their Grand prizes were 1) 4th International Choir Festival. Sopot, Poland (May 2008); 2) Festival Choral International de Neuchatel. Neuchatel, Switzerland (August 2008); 3) 3rd International Choir Competition of Sacred Musi., Prague, Czech Republic (July 2005), and 4) 4th Concorso Polifonico “Guido d’Arezzo.” Arezzo, Italy (2001).

Locally, UPSA has excelled well. UPSA received the “Ani ng Dangal” award by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) “for achieving the highest levels of artistic excellence and bringing honor to the country,” in 2009 and 2012. UPSA was also adjudged Best Chorale Group at the annual ALIW AWARDS in 2002, 2010 and 2011, and had been elevated to the Aliw Hall of Fame.

UPSA’s amiable conductor, Dr. Ed Lumbera Manguiat, honoris causa, has the distinction of being the first Asian conductor to win the Grand Prize of the prestigious Concorso Polifonico choral competition in Arezzo, Italy, in 2001. He likewise was awarded the Conductor’s Award (Dirigentenpreis) at the second JOHANNES BRAHMS International Choir Competition in Germany in 2001. And the Special Prize for Excellent Conducting Performance at the BELA BARTOK International Choral Competition in Debrecen, Hungary in 2012.

You have to hear and see them to believe, and be proud of them as Filipinos. UPSA has two remaining concerts before they leave for their coming European tour to Berlin, Germany; Torrevieja, Spain; Florence, Italy and Arezzo, Italy. You can watch them at the UP Bahay ng Alumni in UP Diliman campus this Sunday, June 17 at 5 p.m. And on June 18 at the UP Film center at 6:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from R300 to R1,000. Students get 50% discount; seniors, the usual 20%.

***** Dr. Emil Q. Javier is a Member of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and also Chair of the Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines (CAMP).

For any feedback, email eqjavier@ yahoo.com.