The Economic Power of Golden Rice Opposition

Policy Summary

National governments have been reluctant to approve the introduction of Golden Rice (a GE crop to target Vitamin A deficiency). This paper shows the perceived costs by national governments (for example, India), are substantially larger than the costs of introducing Golden Rice, and has caused and continues to cause the death of thousands of children. Empirically, they find that the annual perceived costs have to be at least US $199 million per year for the last decade to explain the delay in technology approval, an economic indicator showing the economic power of the opposition which has resulted in 1.4 million life years lost in the past decade in India.

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