Advocacy groups like Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists have already declared war on poor people and kids with their militant, anti-science hysteria against Golden Rice but actual scientists continue to work toward the common good.
There is more good news for kids on another front. A cow has been cloned and genetically engineered with a modification of its gene for producing beta-lactoglobulin, a protein which isn't in human milk and causes allergies in 2-3% of children. Potential benefit: a "hypoallergenic" milk that doesn't taste terrible, thanks to biology and scary 21st century science that freaks out progressive cranks.
Why wasn't the cloning or the RNA interference (RNAi) used for "knocking out" the cow's gene for beta-lactoglobulin done in America? For starters, the Obama administration bans somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) for human applications despite the fact that most scientists are in favor of it and would like to use it in federally funded research. Well, 'ban' may be the wrong word. They actually simply refuse to fund it, but when the Bush administration limited funding for similarly controversial human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, it was called a ban and all Republicans were declared anti-science, so we should call SCNT a ban since it is, you know, actually a ban, even when a Democrat does it. The milk is also higher in other kinds of milk proteins, making it healthier in various ways.
RNAi is the next big thing for producing novel traits, like ones that can make animals naturally resistant to infections that currently require the medicines everyone complains about. If they produce cows that burp less methane and cure global warming too, we are going to have a true anti-science hippie meltdown on our hands.
Nothing science can do to cure that.
Citation: Anower Jabed, Stefan Wagner, Judi McCracken, David N. Wells, and Goetz Laible, 'Targeted microRNA expression in dairy cattle directs production of {beta}-lactoglobulin-free, high-casein milk', PNAS October 1, 2012, doi:10.1073/pnas.1210057109
