"Meet the GMO that could feed one billion people: C4 rice explained in 7 minutes"

C4 rice (c4rice.irri.org) is a genetically modified crop projected to save one billion people by 2025. It'll give us up to 50% more rice "for free" - much more rice will be grown, for the people who most need it, without any extra resources being used up.
This video explains how C4 works and why it's able to make such an amazing improvement to rice, by doing a little tour of our research base at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI; irri.org) in Los Banos, Philippines.
We're very excited about C4 rice, and we hope you will be too! If you have any questions you can leave them below, or go on twitter and send them to either @RiceResearch or @hamishtodd1 (me!)
Image credits:
malnourished child:
www.savethechi...
population:
upload.wikimedi...
corn:
freebigpictures...
Sugarcane:
www.uppercrusti...
Kranz anatomy:
sydney.edu.au/s...
photosynthesis:
www.extremetech...
Purple sulfur bacteria:
www.microbiolog...
Archaebacteria:
upload.wikimedi...
ATP synthase:
www.mrc-mbu.cam...
Rubisco:
www.rcsb.org/pd...
entirity of time itself:
en.wikipedia.or...
Ball and stick molecular models by Jynto and Ben Mills on wikipedia:
commons.wikimed...
Rubisco animation:
lammps.sandia.g...
Poisoned rice plant
Robots with coffee:
www.hizook.com
www.telegraph.c...
Robot hug:
www.thesun.co....
Will Smith image from the film I, Robot, distributed by warner bros.
Baby-faced robot:
spectrum.ieee.o...
Guy fixing robotic arm:
www.abb.com/caw...
Plant phylogenetic tree:
genomevolution...
Sad cat:
ghcorps.org/app...
Images of leaves and cross section provided by the C4 rice project
Painting of fauna from 30 million years ago by Jay Matternes
"ONE BILLION" image from "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery"
Jerry World image:
twistedsifter.c...
Bill and Melinda Gates:
borgenproject.o...
Warren Buffett:
barbadosfreepr...

[@warrenlauzon5315]

Looking good - unless Greenpeace decides to do another search and destroy mission and tear up all the test plots again.

[@warrenlauzon5315]

Timothy Schmid Greenpeace are total nutcases on the subject of GMO's, of any and all types. Just Google Greenpeace GMO and/or Greenpeace crop destruction.

[@warrenlauzon5315]

Timothy Schmid Yup - Greenpeace claims that GMO's have not been tested, and then they do all they can to keep them from tested, even to the point of terrorism and test plot destruction.

[@formicsapien3591]

+Adam Chester When you look at the numbers of dead I'd rather have Islamist extremists about than greenpeace.

[@SylkaChan]

I think Golden Rice is pretty much legal in the West regardless of overall attitudes towards GMOs, hopefully.

[@Me1le]

Combine it with vitamin-A containing rice and you're golden.

[@Queenkz13]

haha

[@MrSNORHOOFD]

Nice job Hamish! And nice to see IRRI and your c4 again! Grtz your former neighboor.

[@Maeandel]

This deserves more attention

[@hijodelsoldeoriente]

How ironic that the IRRI is in Los Baños, Philippines yet we are one of the top importers of rice. Gone are the days that we are self-sufficient in terms of rice production. Anyways, I love these kind of videos. Please continue posting.

[@formicsapien3591]

This is the single greatest cause I've ever heard of. Likely the single greatest cause anyone has heard of.

[@neatodd]

A hugely important project - good luck! (but as for the humour, don't give up the day job).

[@14thSun]

Some of the most expensive coffee in the world is made from cat poo you know. For those interested en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

[@hamish_todd]

ONEEZE Hello, I made the video! Trivia for you: I *did* know about this kind of coffee, and the picture I got of "world's greatest coffee" is, in fact, the poo coffee!" ;D

[@agnelomascarenhas8990]

It is processed by civets just like coffee beans are processed on farms, but the end result is just coffee beans not poop. Processed by gut enzymes. Coffee berries are the seed of the berry/fruit, the fruit pulp has to be removed and is done by mechanical and microbial decomposition.

[@Ivan.A.Churlyuski]

I think it would be easier to convert it to CAM then from CAM to C4.

[@lt.boltzmann4116]

Wait... this is the official IRRI channel?? LOL

[@523101997]

Billions of years...funny considering land plants only evolved 450 mya

[@mygarden3538]

how to get these

[@djfremen]

If you guys get stuck, you'll have help soon... Quantum computing is here to be shortly followed by General A.I. Those technologies will chew through the data in no time. Just keep accurate data!

[@HarmonixHealing]

Monsanto is like The IRS.... or King Leopold II in The Congo.... ....saying, "Were only here to help you".

[@jedrorm]

+James Hopkins Apt simile. Tax collection is pretty much vital to every civilization we've seen in the history of this planet.

[@HarmonixHealing]

+bbqroast InDeed.... & it has always been used to reward friends & punish enemies.

[@sunyboy333]

Perhaps scientists working on these types of GMO's should make a more conscious effort to present the differences between this type of genetic manipulation and the potentially hazardous herbicide/insecticide resistant GMO's that currently represent the lion's share of the GMO market.

[@warrenlauzon5315]

sunyboy333 Why? If crops are not insect resistant, then you need to spray more pesticides, so not sure why that would be a good thing.

[@sunyboy333]

Warren Lauzon My mistake, what I meant was insecticide producing.

[@blacksuitco]

sunyboy333 And what exactly is wrong with insecticide producing crops? Other than weak claims? I'll grant you more research should be continued, but at this point in time there are no legitimate scientific reasons to dislike these crops, only speculation, and unfounded claims. Starlink is probably the best example of harm, but the adverse effects were found to be negligible. Though I agree it was the right choice to stop production for human consumption.

[@warrenlauzon5315]

"Potentially harmful" is a catch phrase with no real meaning. Pretty much anything is "potentially harmful". The difference is in the degree of risk, and you have failed to show any actual risk in using them correctly.

[@blacksuitco]

Timothy Schmid An insecticide-producing crop is very targeted, i.e. the plant only. Spraying is very inefficient and not precise, it falls on everything, this can kill insects you did not desire to kill, among other negatives. I assume you meant insecticide-producing, and not "pesticide-producing".