China Likely to Decide on GMO Rice in January
Date: 02-Dec-04
Country: CHINA
If approved, it would be the first major transgenic crop to be grown on a large scale for direct human consumption.
"We are evaluating some rice varieties," said an official at the agriculture ministry's GMO office. Another said it would take about a month for the ministry to come out with a final decision.
Greenpeace in Beijing said biosafety experts in the ministry were likely to give the go-ahead for commercialisation of insect-resistant GMO rice.
"If China moves ahead it will be the first country to genetically modify its main food crop, endangering the staple diet of 1.3 billion people," Greenpeace said in a statement.
GMO rice posted a danger because its pollen could contaminate wild and conventional rice varieties, it said. China has more than 60,000 varieties.
"Rice is often subject to only minimal processing before eating, and certain groups such as infants could be particularly at risk," Doreen Stabinsky, science adviser at Greenpeace International, told reporters.
While the world has seen a sharp growth in planting of GMO soybeans, corn and cotton, they are used mainly for food processing, animal feed or clothing.
Officials at the agriculture ministry confirmed the biosafety committee was holding a meeting to assess the safety of some GMO rice.
China, already the world's top grower of insect-resistant GMO cotton, has long been seen as the pioneer in GMO rice. It has conducted more than six years of field trials for insect- and disease-resistant GMO rice.
