China says it is ready to join the plant biotechnology revolution, opening its fields to the widespread cultivation of genetically modified soybean and corn crops in an effort to bolster domestic production, but it’s unclear if the transformation will benefit U.S. exports.
After years of sowing doubt about the safety of GM crops, while at the same time working to develop its own, the Chinese government is making a clear pitch to consumers and farmers that the country’s crops will need to be grown from biotech seeds, and that the food they produce is safe.
According to a four-page document published by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture last week, biotechnology “is a revolutionary technology in the field of breeding, a new field and new track that must be seized and is not optional … or dispensable. Agricultural transgenic technology has played an irreplaceable role in increasing crop yield, reducing loss (from pests and) weeds, reducing the use of chemical pesticides and saving labor costs.”
The ministry, in what it says is a published transcription of an interview between its officials and the Chinese publication Farmers Daily, stressed that nearly all of the cotton the country produces is genetically modified and that the technology now needs to be accepted for food and feed crops.
“The industry believes that if we continue to refuse to apply such revolutionary technology, it will be difficult for our agricultural science and technology level and industrial competitiveness to really rise, which will continue to widen the gap with foreign countries,” a translation of the conversation read.
China’s dramatic turn toward fully embracing biotech crops is a positive development when it comes to the furthering of global acceptance of the technology, said Nancy Travis, vice president of international affairs for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.
“We are excited to see China embracing science as they regulate biotech crops,” she told Agri-Pulse. “It’s something BIO has been urging them to do for many years. It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
But it’s still unclear if this apparent revolution will impact China’s practice of impeding U.S. exports of GM soybeans and corn.
Biotech seed companies need China’s approval for new traits before the products can be commercialized and introduced to the international market, but China’s biotech approval process is one of the slowest and most opaque in the world. China, unlike most major grain and oilseed importing countries, conducts an asynchronous approval process, meaning that it refuses to begin its review of a crop trait until after a cultivating country like the U.S. or Brazil first finishes the process.
Steve Censky, CEO of the American Soybean Association and a USDA deputy secretary during the Trump administration, told Agri-Pulse China’s shift is a positive one, but he’s unsure about the country making major reforms to its approval process for imports.
Steve Censky, American Soybean Association“It’s better to have the Chinese touting the benefits of biotechnology than not,” he said. But he stressed that China is “developing their own varieties and does that necessarily mean they are going to necessarily speed up their very slow and cumbersome biotech approvals for imported products? I don’t know that will be the case. That would be the hope, but we’ll have to see if this new attitude changes things.”
If China wants other countries to accept the safety of Chinese GM crops, China might indeed take a fresh look at its own lengthy approval process, said Sarah Lukie, vice president for trade policy and international affairs at CropLife International.
“While they’re producing products for Chinese domestic use, inevitably it ends up in export channels,” Lukie said. “If they’re looking ahead, they’re looking at the opportunities that exist on the export side and also the challenges there.”
Furthermore, she said China is amenable to assistance from foreign industry, which is willing to help.
“They are open to us talking to them about good stewardship and risk management and how to be good stewards of the technology,” she said. “Our companies have a lot of experience in that, obviously.”
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And China appears to be moving quickly.
While commercial farming operations are still not allowed to plant GM soybeans and corn, experimental farming projects are expanding fast in China with crops now being grown in five provinces and autonomous regions, according to the Chinese Agriculture Ministry, or MARA.
USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service estimates China will grow GM corn and soybeans on about 667,000 pilot acres this year, according to a report out of the agency’s Beijing bureau.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Agriculture Ministry is trying to convince the Chinese people that the negative things they’ve been hearing about GM crops are untrue.
When it comes to messages people may have heard that genetically modified food “causes cancer, infertility and affects offspring, it is all rumors,” MARA said in the document released last week.
The ministry goes on to rebut what it says are Chinese and French studies that have drawn links to cancer and fertility problems. Other “rumors” MARA addresses are behind the apparent beliefs that the U.S. only exports GM crops while Americans refuse to eat them or feed them to livestock.
And while the ministry notes China does require labeling for products like soybean oil that are made with GM crops, the ministry stresses “labeling has nothing to do with safety and genetically modified foods … are safe and the labeling system is adopted to protect consumers’ right to know.”
MARA has its own cafeteria, as does the USDA headquarters in Washington, and serves food made with GM ingredients to its employees.
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