China decides to accept genetically modified agriculture 04-21-2016

Among all the reasons for appealing to popularize GM technologies, economic factor is obviously the most direct and powerful one.

 


                                                                          

                                                                                 Source: Baidu

 

It has been a good 20 years for the commercial cultivation of GM crops in China. Among the past 20 years, Chinese government has gradually made its own choice on developing GM agricultural technologies. China’s principles towards GM technology—aggressive research, careful popularization and stringent regulation—is still unchanged, according to Ministry of Agriculture. However, in the recent three years, China has obviously changed its attitude on the issue. 

 

The turning point was when President Xi Jinping delivered his speech on the Rural Working Conference in 2013. President Xi asked the government to seize the commanding point of GM technology. However, it has not been revealed until 2014.

 

According to the CPC Central Committee’s No. 1 document of 2015, “the Chinese government has to strengthen research on agricultural GM biotechnology, to advance security management, and to popularize in a scientific way.” While in the No. 1 Document of 2016, it said that the Chinese government has to “strengthen the research, development, supervision and regulation on the agricultural GM technology, and then carefully promote the technology on the basis of ensuring security.” That’s to say, the policies on the GM technology have changed.

 

The reasons for the changing policies have remained the same. And the No. 1 Document of 2015 has summarized them as “dual squeezing” and “severe test”: “the domestic agricultural production cost has rapidly increased, and the domestic prices of the bulk farm-products were generally higher than that of the international market”.

 

The No. 1 document of 2016 clarified the reasons in a more specific way: “It’s a major challenge to plan and make use of both the domestic and international markets so as to improve our agricultural competitiveness and obtain the initiative of taking part in the international market competition in the background when the domestic market has been further influenced by the international agricultural products market.”

 

China has been the biggest food importing country all around the globe. The volume of China’s imported soybean is increasing, among which GM soybean accounted for overwhelming majority. Besides, China also largely imported GM corn and GM rape. With the development of China’s economy, the proportion of vegetable oil and meat in people’s diet structure is going up, so do the three imported GM foods mentioned above.

 

As the imported prices of soybean, corn and rape are lower than the domestic prices, the domestic corn has faced severe inventory pressure. If the unit cost of the domestic crop production keeps high, there would be no doubt for domestic crop to lose its international competitiveness. And among all the reasons for appealing to popularize GM technologies, economic factor is obviously the most direct and powerful one.

 

Just like what had happened in the Europe and US, China’s public also concerns the security issues on agricultural GM technology. China’s anti-GM group has not offered solid evidences that GM crops are harmful; however, anti-GM group in China has more audiences than that of Europe and US.

 

Whether people accept GM crops doesn’t depend on GM technology itself, but depends on how much people would trust on the proofs and conclusions made by food regulator. Generally speaking, the higher risks on food security of a country, people are less likely to accept GM technology; while in an area with better food security record, people are more likely to accept GM technology.

 

Considering that we are living in an era when new technologies occur without interruption, it is relatively easy to make the decision to accept the agricultural GM technology. The difficulty lies in wining trust and social consensus, which has been a challenge for both China and the rest of the world.

 

*This article is an edited and translated version by CCM. The original article comes from thepaper.cn.

 

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About CCM:

CCM is the leading market intelligence provider for China’s agriculture, chemicals, food & ingredients and life science markets. Founded in 2001, CCM offers a range of data and content solutions, from price and trade data to industry newsletters and customized market research reports. Our clients include Monsanto, DuPont, Shell, Bayer, and Syngenta.

 

For more information about CCM, please visit www.cnchemicals.com or get in touch with us directly by emailing econtact@cnchemicals.com or calling +86-20-37616606.

 


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