What is Golden Rice? If you know the answer to that question chances are you have a strong opinion on it. That is because a lot of the rhetoric swirling around Golden Rice is heated, but many times ill informed.

Golden Rice is a technology that was developed in the 1990s to try to make the endosperm of rice contain beta-carotene. It’s been hailed as having nutritional possibilities that could, “save a million kids a year,” according to Time Magazine.

Yet, as Tom Philpott asks in his article for Mother Jones, “If golden rice is such a panacea, why does it flourish only in headlines, far from the farm fields where it’s intended to grow?”

In this edition of The Secret Ingredient we talk with Dr. Glenn Davis Stone. His research on environmental anthropology, political ecology, food studies, and science & technology studies, takes a deep look into the world of GMOs and the science behind them.

About the hosts:

Raj Patel is an award winning food writer, activist and academic. The author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, and his latest, The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times best-seller.

Tom Philpott is an award winning food writer for Mother Jones, who’s ground-breaking work on almonds exposed a myriad of environmental and ethical issues around almond production in California.

Rebecca McInroy is an executive producer and host for KUT Radio in Austin, Texas. She is the co-creator, producer and host of various podcasts and shows including, Views and Brews, Two Guys on Your Head, Liner Notes, The Write Up, and The Secret Ingredient.

In each episode we chose one food to investigate, and talk with the people who’s life’s work has been to understand the complex systems of production, distribution, marketing and impact, these foods have on our lives.

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