In rice-based societies, the absence of β-carotene in rice grains manifests itself in a marked incidence of blindness and susceptibility to disease, leading to a greater incidence of premature death of the small children, the weakest link in the chain”. ("The Golden Rice Project"). Surprisingly, rice plants produce provitamin A, but only in the inedible part of the grain. Golden Rice overcomes this problem by genetically modifying the grain, thus allowing the edible grain to accumulate provitamin A ("The Golden Rice Project"). Genetic modification of organisms is far from a recent endeavor. Guiding and reshaping animals and plants to make them more desirable has been an aspect of humanity for more than 14,000 years (Kingsbury). The very act that forever changed the human race, our transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers and herders, was a form of genetic manipulation. The domestication of plants and animals is the simplest form of controlled remodeling of an organism's genes, through artificial selection. This means that individuals who had similar traits were bred together to propagate and emphasize the desired characteristics. However, genetic engineering, understood as the direct manipulation of an organism using biotechnology, was first achieved by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen in 1973 (Arnold). All they did was insert a gene into a bacterium to make it resistant to a particular antibiotic. Little did they know that their microscopic act would instigate the whole controversial issue of GMOs or genetically modified organisms (Genome News