A Chinese company is seeking Argentine approval for a genetically modified soybean strain that would be grown in South America and exported back to China. This appears to be a gambit to break down Chinese consumers' resistance to commercializing GM crops in China. By demonstrating that foreign scientists think GM seeds are safe, Chinese government and industry leaders hope consumers will give up their resistance to allowing GM food crops to be grown in China.
According to Science and Technology Daily, Da Bei Nong (also known as DBN) Group, a feed, seed and crop protection company based in Beijing, has spent three years seeking Argentine approval to commercialize a GMO soybean variety that is resistant to both glyphosate and glufinosate--two common herbicides. DBN is working with Argentine company Bioceres to gain the approval and eventually develop marketing channels for the seed in Argentina. This has also been reported by an international organization ISAAA.
The Science and Technology Daily article describes the expected approval as validating DBN's own intellectual property and allowing the company to compete with "multinational companies such as Bayer and Dow-Dupont" whose seeds dominate soybean production in Latin America. The main thrust of the article, however, seems to highlight foreign approvals of Chinese GMO crops to assure Chinese readers that scientists in foreign countries think these crops are safe. The article also hypes the "safety-type" approval by the U.S. FDA and EPA of a Chinese GMO pest-resistant rice strain "Hua Hui No. 1" developed by Central China Agricultural University. "FDA" appears five times in the article. One of the headings in the article is "Safety is not a problem." The article also says China was the first to develop a genetically modified fast-growing carp during the 1980s and notes that a GM disease-resistant type of tobacco grown widely in Henan Province was exported to the United States during the 1980s and '90s.
Science and Technology Daily also highlights an "embarrassing" situation in which Chinese farmers are not permitted to benefit from GMO crop varieties developed by Chinese companies; instead farmers in Argentina will benefit from growing the soybeans and export most of them to China, the article said. The soybean variety will have to go through a Chinese approval process before the soybeans can be imported to China.
No major genetically modified food crops have been approved for commercial production in China. Cotton is the only major GM crop commercially grown there. For years Chinese consumers have been blasted with propaganda about the dangers of American genetically modified soybeans--that they cause cancer and/or sterility--that Americans do not eat genetically modified foods themselves, and that imported GM soybeans are wiping out the Chinese soybean industry. "Genetically modified" and "American" were often used as near-synonyms in past years, but that rhetoric has now vanished from Chinese news media.
The Chinese leadership's 2016-2020 five-year plan for science and technology endorsed production of GM crops--including herbicide-tolerant soybeans--as a major project. Xi Jinping gave a personal endorsement of GM crops--insisting that China remain on the forefront of an important area of science while maintaining the "strictest" policy of testing and evaluating the crops. A scientist quoted by Science and Technology Daily refers to the five-year plan and describes GM crops as having social benefits by meeting consumer demand with greater efficiency.
According to Science and Technology Daily, Da Bei Nong (also known as DBN) Group, a feed, seed and crop protection company based in Beijing, has spent three years seeking Argentine approval to commercialize a GMO soybean variety that is resistant to both glyphosate and glufinosate--two common herbicides. DBN is working with Argentine company Bioceres to gain the approval and eventually develop marketing channels for the seed in Argentina. This has also been reported by an international organization ISAAA.
The Science and Technology Daily article describes the expected approval as validating DBN's own intellectual property and allowing the company to compete with "multinational companies such as Bayer and Dow-Dupont" whose seeds dominate soybean production in Latin America. The main thrust of the article, however, seems to highlight foreign approvals of Chinese GMO crops to assure Chinese readers that scientists in foreign countries think these crops are safe. The article also hypes the "safety-type" approval by the U.S. FDA and EPA of a Chinese GMO pest-resistant rice strain "Hua Hui No. 1" developed by Central China Agricultural University. "FDA" appears five times in the article. One of the headings in the article is "Safety is not a problem." The article also says China was the first to develop a genetically modified fast-growing carp during the 1980s and notes that a GM disease-resistant type of tobacco grown widely in Henan Province was exported to the United States during the 1980s and '90s.
Science and Technology Daily also highlights an "embarrassing" situation in which Chinese farmers are not permitted to benefit from GMO crop varieties developed by Chinese companies; instead farmers in Argentina will benefit from growing the soybeans and export most of them to China, the article said. The soybean variety will have to go through a Chinese approval process before the soybeans can be imported to China.
No major genetically modified food crops have been approved for commercial production in China. Cotton is the only major GM crop commercially grown there. For years Chinese consumers have been blasted with propaganda about the dangers of American genetically modified soybeans--that they cause cancer and/or sterility--that Americans do not eat genetically modified foods themselves, and that imported GM soybeans are wiping out the Chinese soybean industry. "Genetically modified" and "American" were often used as near-synonyms in past years, but that rhetoric has now vanished from Chinese news media.
The Chinese leadership's 2016-2020 five-year plan for science and technology endorsed production of GM crops--including herbicide-tolerant soybeans--as a major project. Xi Jinping gave a personal endorsement of GM crops--insisting that China remain on the forefront of an important area of science while maintaining the "strictest" policy of testing and evaluating the crops. A scientist quoted by Science and Technology Daily refers to the five-year plan and describes GM crops as having social benefits by meeting consumer demand with greater efficiency.
Comments
Such sneaky behavior would be highly unlikely, given that the Chinese government is the most trusted government on earth and is anxious to stay that way.