China Concentrates On Transgenics
24 August 2010 Thus far, China’s stance on genetically modified foods has been varied. They grow a sizable amount of GM cotton, but no GM food crops are currently available. The Ministry of Agriculture made sure to make this fact clear earlier this year when news reports confused the country’s field trails of rice with commercialization.
“The Ministry of Agriculture has never approved any genetically modified grain seeds for planting in the country, and there are no GMO grain crops being planted within the country,” the China Ministry of Agriculture noted in a statement in March. Bt rice and corn are the first crops to get bio-safety approval, but they still require two years to three years of field trials.
However, which China’s heavy reliance on soybean imports, the Chinese do consume GM crops in the form of Roundup Ready soybean oil, according to a report in China Daily. Zhai Huqu, president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told the paper: “Apart from transgenic soybean oil, there should not be any GM crops on the market.”
Zhai, as well as other scientists, are calling for more rapid approval of GM crops, a more robust domestic R&D effort to develop the right seed varieties that will thrive in China and help the country to wean itself off reliance on foreign technologies.
Get The Newsletter Today!
