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China will strive to keep abreast with efforts geared toward the development of transgenic technology worldwide while upholding strict standards for genetically modified food and giving consumers relevant information on the said food.
While responding to queries from China Daily at a news conference, the central government's senior rural planner said that China has to continually endeavor to be at par with the world leaders in the field of research.
China being a vast agricultural nation cannot trail behind other nations in the area of molecular-scale seed breeding technology which spearheads life science, according to Chen Xiwen, deputy chief of the Central Rural Work Leading Group. He added that China's having the second or third largest land area planted with genetically modified crops has been the subject of controversy worldwide.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, some of the genetically modified crops including certain types of cotton, rice, corn and papaya had been given biosafety certificates in China with just papaya and cotton given the approval to be grown for commercial purposes. GM produce like soybeans, corn, rapeseed, cotton and beets had been given import certificates, giving them a pass to be shipped to other countries where they will be used as raw materials for local processing, according to the Ministry.
Chen however believes that China will most likely not push the planting of GM rice on a commercial scale since further research still has to be done in this area. GM products go through stringent tests to confirm that they are safe for human consumption before they can be made available to consumers, Chen said.
Any agricultural product with a GM component must be properly and correctly labeled as such. Chen added, they strictly implement two requirements for GM food-rigid safety evaluation and control and adequate consumer information.
