1:57

Patricus

2:00

talking to the BBC back in 2013.

2:03

He was 11 years old when his father,

2:05

a doctor in a military hospital,

2:08

died in the last days of the war.

2:10

Ingo and his siblings were forced to leave

2:13

their home and he remembers

2:15

experiencing severe hunger and

2:17

having to beg for food.

2:19

It was at the time

2:21

when I was between 11 to 14 years

2:26

old. You can remember this

2:28

time very well if you

2:30

have experienced it at this age.

2:32

This experience led Ingo to try and solve

2:34

a problem that affects millions of children

2:37

around

2:37

the world. The anguish of a two

2:39

month old baby in Nepal, hungry

2:42

and malnourished. Because of

2:44

a lack of fruit and vegetables containing vitamin

2:46

A, the children here could become blind

2:49

and they're certainly more vulnerable to disease.

2:52

Vitamin A deficiency is a problem

2:54

experienced in over half of the countries across

2:56

the world, particularly in Africa

2:59

and Southeast Asia. The World

3:01

Health Organisation estimates that every

3:03

year as many as 500,000 children

3:05

become blind due to the lack of vitamin

3:08

A and that half of them die

3:10

within 12 months of losing their sight.

3:13

But this is where our problem solvers

3:15

come in. They came up with a clever

3:18

way to get this vitamin to children.

3:22

One of the staple foods for people living in

3:24

developing countries is rice. But

3:27

rice does not contain a key nutrient

3:29

called beta keratin, which our

3:31

bodies convert into

3:32

vitamin A.

3:33

But Ingo and his collaborator,

3:35

Peter Bayer, realised that they could use

3:38

genetic modification to change rice

3:40

so that it contains this nutrient. They

3:43

took genes from maize, which contains

3:45

beta keratin and introduced them

3:47

into rice. After years

3:49

of experiments in 2000, they announced that

3:52

they had cracked it. They'd

3:54

made rice containing beta keratin,

3:56

which is golden yellow in colour, which

3:59

meant kids who'd eat that rice would be able

4:01

to get the vitamin A they need so

4:03

that they don't use their site.

4:05

It became known as golden

4:07

rice. The success of this experiment

4:11

has fulfilled a dream which I'm dreaming

4:13

since 25 years. I always wanted

4:15

to use science to help

4:18

poor people in developing countries. And here

4:20

we have a case where everybody

4:22

clearly sees the enormous

4:24

potential behind.

4:26

By 2013, the first

4:28

rice was being grown by farmers in the Philippines.

4:31

It was licensed by the US and Canada

4:33

as safe to consume in 2018. In 2022,

4:35

Filipino farmers collected their

4:39

first proper harvest of nearly 70 tons. But then...

4:43

The Supreme Court has issued a writ of

4:46

Calicassan to stop the commercial propagation

4:48

of genetically modified rice and eggplant

4:51

products.

4:52

The Supreme Court in Manila

4:54

issued a temporary ban of the exportation

4:57

and commercial selling of golden rice.

5:00

It was instigated by environmental groups

5:02

who were concerned about the impact

5:04

that this genetically modified product could

5:06

have on humans and the environment.

5:10

After years of research, the future

5:13

of golden rice still isn't clear.

5:15

I'm an optimist

5:17

and I'm looking forward

5:20

to see golden rice growing in the fields

5:22

in not only the Philippines

5:24

but Bangladesh and

5:26

India and China and Indonesia and

5:29

many more countries.

5:32

The story of golden rice shows us both

5:34

the great potential and the great big

5:37

problem with genetic modification. So

5:39

you can make rice that could stop kids from

5:42

going blind, and

5:44

then not be able to get anyone to eat it. Despite

5:47

all these complexities, scientists around

5:50

the world continue to use genetic modification

5:52

to try and solve some very real

5:54

problems. Lizzie McNeil has been

5:57

looking into other ways that this is being done,

5:59

and she joins us. joins me now in studio.

6:01

It's great to see you as always, Lizzie. Hi,

6:03

Mara. Great to see you too. Well, we've

6:05

certainly picked a divisive topic this week, but

6:08

we're going to focus on what GM is trying to solve

6:11

rather than the debate around it. I mean,

6:13

the subject of genetic modification on

6:15

crops and the impact it can have

6:17

on our health or the environment is

6:19

still something that's very controversial. Yep.

6:22

In fact, research by the Pew Foundation,

6:24

that's an American nonpartisan think

6:26

tank, found that in

6:29

the US, 90% of scientists are confident in GM

6:31

products versus 30% of the public.

6:33

So there's clearly this huge divide

6:36

between public opinion on what the science tells

6:38

us. Right. Now, this skepticism does

6:40

actually have its benefit in that it means that

6:42

most GM work is really closely monitored

6:45

and very highly regulated. Now, Golden

6:47

Rice has been around for about 23 years

6:49

and it's still not hit the shelves. But it

6:52

might surprise people to know that there are other

6:54

GM products that have been around for a while.

6:57

So stuff like some varieties of

6:59

potatoes and maize. Yeah, they've

7:01

been around for much longer than we realize. I mean,

7:03

for example, you know, some people who have diabetes

7:06

need to take insulin. This used

7:08

to be taken from pigs but has been

7:10

genetically modified from bacteria and human

7:13

genes since 1978. GM

7:15

is such a hot topic.

7:17

I mean, in many countries in Africa, for example,

7:20

let's take South Africa, Burkina Faso

7:22

and even my home country, Kenya, there

7:25

are some GM products that have already

7:27

been approved and are commercialized.

7:30

These crops tend to be altered to be more

7:32

pest resistant and in some cases, also

7:35

more tolerant to extreme weather. So for

7:37

example,

7:37

drought. But

7:39

every time they're introduced in these countries, there's

7:42

always lots of protest. Yeah,

7:44

it's a really emotional subject for some people.

7:46

Part of it is the worry that monopoly

7:49

overseas. So they're making huge

7:51

profits from selling pharmacies that they can't cultivate

7:54

themselves. Other people think that

7:56

it's interfering with nature. But many

7:58

scientists point out that humans have been tinkering with nature. with

8:00

genes before we even knew what genes were. Think

8:02

about stuff like selected breeding. And

8:05

a lot of that breeding was also to improve

8:07

the taste of food, right? Yeah, or trying

8:09

to make a plant produce more of something. Well,

8:12

that's the thing here because food security is

8:14

one of the biggest problems we're facing today.

8:16

So we need to explore different ways to

8:18

produce more food. And Lizzie,

8:20

in some places, people are actually warming

8:23

it to this. In fact, in the EU, they

8:25

recently announced that they were relaxing restrictions

8:27

to allow some types of genetically modified

8:30

crops to be grown. Yeah, and as you said,

8:32

GM crops are already consumed in America,

8:34

Africa and China. So there's a

8:36

sense that opinion is slowly shifting in

8:39

some areas. Well, that brings us to our

8:41

next solution because you've been talking to

8:43

scientists who are trying to supercharge

8:46

plants. I have. So

8:48

we start with an evolutionary quirk.

8:51

Photosynthesis is really a victim of its own success?

8:54

That's Amanda Kavanagh, lecturer at

8:56

the University of Essex and part of the Ripe

8:58

Project. She specialises in trying

9:00

to genetically modify plants to make

9:02

them better at photosynthesising. Now,

9:05

most of us have learnt about

9:05

photosynthesis at school. Photosynthesis.

9:08

It's just a chemical reaction and there are four

9:11

things that we need for it to happen. Water,

9:13

CO2 and a light source. And four

9:15

for a relevant reaction, of course. Sounds

9:17

good, right? Well, there's a slight

9:20

hitch. It's a bit sloppy. It's

9:22

not doing the job very fast or very

9:24

efficiently.

9:25

It's sloppy due to an enzyme called Robisco.

9:28

To put it incredibly simply, Robisco

9:31

works inside a leaf to grab carbon

9:33

dioxide out of the air so the plant

9:35

can turn it into sugar, which is the energy plants

9:38

need to grow. The only problem

9:40

is this process is old, like really

9:43

old. Actually,

9:48

it's older than the dinosaurs.

9:52

Plants evolved disability billions

9:54

of years ago before oxygen was

9:56

a big plus for our atmosphere and this

9:59

has caused a big

9:59

of a problem. What we have is an

10:02

enzyme that's really good at grabbing gases,

10:04

but it's not very good at discerning

10:06

between different gases. And

10:08

so, in I think our current

10:10

atmosphere, about 20% of

10:13

the time, so every one out of five reactions, it

10:15

will grab an oxygen instead of a carbon dioxide.

10:18

Plants can't use the oxygen molecules

10:20

and have to get rid of them. This causes

10:22

wasted energy and even ends up being

10:25

toxic to the plant. The plants

10:27

that have this sloppier version are called C3 photosynthesises.

10:31

Most of our food, I think 80% of

10:34

our crop species, are C3s. And

10:36

so they're all plagued with this same

10:38

problem, this evolutionary glitch of

10:40

the fact that their rubisco can't fully distinguish

10:43

between it.

10:44

So if you can somehow fix this glitch,

10:46

then you can make plants more productive, which

10:49

means more food for everyone. And it turns

10:51

out that some plants have evolved a clever

10:53

workaround, which means they don't make this

10:56

mistake. They're called C4

10:58

photosynthesises. Now, the process

11:00

is too complicated to explain right now, but

11:02

by genetically engineering C3 plants

11:04

to do this same trick, they've had remarkable

11:07

results. So we saw consistent increases

11:10

of over 20 to 40% when

11:12

we were growing them, and so it was really exciting.

11:15

Plants growing 20 to 40% more.

11:18

The teams are now trying to use this technique

11:20

on crops such as soybeans. Offspring

11:23

of these crops would also possess the more efficient

11:25

photosynthesising abilities, so the team

11:27

plan to make this technology freely available

11:30

to anyone who wants to use it. We

11:32

have inserted genes into

11:34

parts

11:35

of the plant genome that it will pass on to its

11:37

offspring, and their offspring should be able to

11:39

pass on to future

11:41

generations. You also want to make sure that

11:44

farmers in parts of the world that really need this stuff

11:46

can save their seeds.

11:50

You're listening to People Fixing the World from

11:52

the BBC World Service, and this week

11:54

we're finding out how scientists are trying

11:56

to genetically modify plants to help

11:59

us deal with certain

13:35

center

14:00

of the plot. Like for instance we expect

14:02

to have elevated concentrations of

14:04

carbon dioxide in the future so these

14:06

CO2 is released and then blown into the plot and

14:09

we get higher CO2 in those plots

14:11

compared to the surrounding environment.

14:13

The scientists don't just increase the amount of

14:16

carbon dioxide, they also have areas

14:18

where they can change the temperature.

14:20

Yeah and so I guess they could move in

14:22

closer. There are these infrared heaters over

14:24

the crops. They basically warm the crops

14:27

up to a certain set point

14:29

and so if you look at the crops outside of this

14:31

plot this is just what's natural

14:34

and then as you move over here we're adding temperature

14:36

up to three five degrees celsius on

14:39

top of the background.

14:41

That allows the scientists to grow crops outside

14:43

but in artificial temperatures ones

14:46

we might see in the future. And

14:47

so we've used these heating arrays in a variety of different

14:49

contexts including you know imposing

14:52

short-term high intensity heat waves as

14:54

well as like what we're seeing here is this is one of the plots where we're

14:56

looking at season-long temperature increases.

14:59

It

14:59

also helps test out theories. For example

15:01

it helped test out Amanda's work with photosynthesis.

15:04

You might think that elevated CO2 levels

15:07

would be good for plants as it would help them

15:09

grow more. However scientists have

15:11

found that temperature rise linked with more

15:13

CO2 in the atmosphere actually causes

15:15

photosynthesis to happen more slowly making

15:18

the need for Amanda's project even greater.

15:20

So

15:20

they're they're planting these things in

15:22

our current conditions and we've identified

15:24

things that look like they work but we want to make

15:27

sure that they work in what we expect for the future

15:29

so higher temperatures higher CO2 concentrations

15:32

in order to ensure that the things that we're implementing

15:34

today are still going to be useful 10

15:38

to 50 years from now.

15:40

By knowing how future conditions will affect

15:42

the crops we use today the team are

15:44

working to create the plants of the future. By

15:47

figuring out what works and what doesn't they

15:49

can modify plants to make sure that we can still

15:51

feed our growing population.

15:56

Let's get into our last

15:58

solution today and this is our last solution. This one is trying

16:00

to reduce the use of something crops

16:02

need to grow. I'm talking about

16:05

Fertilizer. Across the world,

16:07

many farmers rely on synthetic nitrogen

16:10

fertilizers to be able to grow the great

16:12

amounts of crops we need to sustain populations.

16:16

But this comes with its downsides. It

16:18

can end up in our water supplies and harm

16:20

marine life. Also, making nitrogen

16:22

fertilizer is very energy intensive.

16:25

Plus, once it's spread on fields,

16:27

it produces a powerful greenhouse gas,

16:30

nitrous

16:30

oxide.

16:32

Now, there are lots of organic

16:34

farming practices globally that use various

16:36

traditional methods such as cow manure

16:39

to try and replace synthetic fertilizer. However,

16:42

this hasn't always gone according to

16:44

plan. In fact, last year,

16:46

Sri Lanka was thrown into turmoil

16:49

after then President Scottabaya Rajapaska banned

16:52

the use of nitrogen fertilizer. Reactive

16:54

nitrogen generated by

16:57

human activity

16:59

and releasing to ecosystems

17:02

worsened climate change. Overuse

17:04

of nitrogen, specially in fertilizers,

17:08

has adverse impact

17:10

on soil,

17:11

water, air.

17:14

As soon as it happened, as soon as they

17:16

announced it, we were all like, oh no,

17:18

this is going to be terrible. And

17:21

that's exactly how it turned out to be.

17:23

That's Sri Lankan journalist Anya

17:25

Wipula Sena speaking last year

17:28

to our friends from the BBC's The

17:30

Climate Question. And sometimes when

17:32

we go to the market, there weren't enough rice

17:34

to buy. Some shops had to ration

17:37

rice also. Prices have increased

17:40

so much. Like, it's almost a price

17:43

that we paid early last year. The

17:46

ban was too swift. Farmers

17:48

weren't able to prepare. The food shortage,

17:50

coupled with other economic issues,

17:53

caused chaos.

18:00

Many experts believe in order to

18:02

support the current global population,

18:05

we need to keep using nitrogen fertilizer. In

18:07

fact, many say that without it,

18:10

we won't be able to feed half of

18:12

the current world's population. The

18:14

problem is the methods we use to farm

18:17

are very intense for the soils. So

18:19

let me paint a picture for you. Imagine

18:22

that the soil is a big bank and

18:24

it has a currency called nutrients

18:26

that plants need to survive. In

18:29

many parts of the world, we're making big

18:31

withdrawals from this bank to feed our

18:33

crops. But we aren't

18:35

putting anything back into it. So

18:38

soils are becoming depleted and

18:40

farmers are struggling to produce enough crops.

18:43

Plus, fertilizer is also pretty

18:46

expensive. But Lizzie,

18:48

you've found another solution that's

18:50

come up with a smart way to deal with this.

18:53

Yep, so just like with photosynthesis, some

18:56

plants are able to get nitrogen from the soil

18:58

and use it to feed themselves. And scientists are

19:00

now trying to harness this. So

19:04

my name is Magali Gilabear and

19:06

I'm the vice president and

19:09

the head of the agriculture

19:11

department at Ginko

19:13

by Orcs. So we are getting inspired

19:15

by nature. We are using microbes

19:18

that we find in the soil. And

19:20

we are studying how those

19:22

microbes are going to interact with the corn.

19:26

Magali and the team at the US-based

19:28

Ginko Bioworks are working with Swiss company

19:30

Bayer to develop a solution once

19:32

again inspired by how one type of plant functions.

19:35

So you have plants that can

19:38

naturally fix nitrogen.

19:40

Legumes, that's beans to you and me, have

19:43

a symbiotic relationship with certain microbes

19:46

that help fix nitrogen. This

19:48

basically means that unlike most plants,

19:50

they can access nitrates. They're trapped

19:53

in air pockets in the soil and turn it

19:55

into food for plants to eat. When

19:57

the plant dies, this nitrogen then goes into the

19:59

soil. circle

20:00

of life.

20:01

However, many of our staple crops,

20:03

wheat, rice, maize, do not

20:06

have this ability. So Magalee's team

20:08

is genetically engineering microbes that

20:10

already live within these plants to

20:13

unlock their nitrogen-fixing potential.

20:15

We are studying how they can interact

20:18

with a plant, how they can help fixing

20:21

the nitrogen, and then

20:23

we are amplifying this

20:26

mechanism in order to

20:28

fix more nitrogen and therefore

20:30

decreasing the amount of synthetic

20:32

fertilizer. So the microbes that you're

20:34

looking at already have the potential to fix

20:37

nitrogen and you're just

20:39

unlocking it, like amplifying it? Yes.

20:42

They coat the seeds with this enhanced

20:45

microbe. So farmers are

20:47

buying seeds a year and

20:49

those seeds come in a bag

20:51

and

20:52

they already come with some

20:54

treatments on them. So the idea

20:56

would be to treat the seeds with this microbe

20:58

that would be very stable, so meaning

21:01

the microbe would be alive and would be able to do

21:03

a thing once the farmer

21:05

plants the seed in the soil.

21:08

If a plant can fix its own nitrogen,

21:10

then you do not need as much synthetic

21:12

fertilizer because the plants would be

21:14

able to get nitrogen from the air in the soil.

21:17

Their aim is to reduce the amount of synthetic

21:19

fertilizer used by 30% and

21:21

so far trials have been promising. However,

21:24

there's a long way to go. Ideally,

21:27

what we are looking for would be

21:29

for microbes that work

21:31

in every type of soil, right?

21:34

Because if you think about agriculture

21:36

and if you think about distribution system,

21:39

it would be extremely difficult to

21:41

be able to have very specific

21:44

microbes working for very specific

21:46

soil type. However,

21:48

we do a lot of work in terms of understanding

21:51

is there some soil and some conditions

21:53

that work better for the microbes

21:55

and the plants and others, but

21:58

ideally we would want to find

21:59

and mackerels or treatments

22:03

that will work, you know, at least for the

22:05

whole US, for example. It might be different

22:07

for Europe, right? But at least, you know,

22:09

we want to be able to have some

22:11

more global

22:11

distribution.

22:13

While the public might still be suspicious, our

22:15

problem solvers this week are trying to advance

22:17

our scientific understanding while solving

22:20

some problems we will certainly face in the

22:22

future. When people ask me about

22:24

my job, I say, look, I'm a mom

22:26

first, I'm a scientist as

22:28

well. So I have the luxury to

22:30

be able to understand, you know, what the science

22:33

does, and I want to make sure that, of course,

22:35

you know, my kids are fed,

22:37

you know, safe food, and that I live

22:39

in my sumpy shape, that

22:42

I live, like, a much better world for them than,

22:44

you know, what we have today. So,

22:47

Lujia, I guess it's really about rethinking

22:49

how we grow food now so that we have

22:51

better crops in the future. Definitely.

22:54

And, you know, GM and this type of science has got a

22:56

long way to go in terms of public approval, but

22:58

there are some really exciting solutions being worked

23:01

on out there. Food for thought for us

23:03

all. Thanks, Lizzie.

23:05

Thanks, Myra.

23:08

Well, that's all we have time for this week,

23:10

but if there are any problems

23:12

that you would like us to find solutions for,

23:15

all you need to do is email us on

23:17

peoplefixingtheworld at bbc.co.uk.

23:22

And I'll be back next week with

23:24

more great solutions. Until

23:26

then, thanks for listening.

23:29

Now that's the real FOOD.

23:33

It helps the family help fans succeed to produce

23:35

the right rip. I

23:39

love that this show has the scope to discuss both

23:42

emergent AI nuclear in Ghana and

23:46

also what those stringy bits are on a banana? And

23:49

joining the

23:49

dots between the global connections.

23:51

Nature does pack a lot of surprises for us. An

23:54

invisibility cloak in the acoustic domain.

23:56

The expected elements from the BBC World

23:58

Service.

23:59

wherever you get your BBC podcasts.