GMW: BREAKING NEWS - Illegal GMO rice spreads across China

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GMW: BREAKING NEWS - Illegal GMO rice spreads across China

 

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:03:21 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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1.Illegal GMO rice spreads across China - REUTERS

2.Signs of altered rice around China - NEW YORK TIMES

3.Genetically modified rice spreads to S. China - SOUTH CHINA POST

 

" We are now facing the contamination of the most important staple crop

in the whole world. "

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1.Illegal GMO rice spreads across China - Greenpeace

13 Jun 2005 09:08:44 GMT

 

Source: Reuters

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK13745.htm

 

BEIJING, June 13 (Reuters) - The discovery of genetically modified rice

being illegally sold in a booming southern Chinese city shows the grain

is spreading across China and could enter markets overseas, Greenpeace

said on Monday.

 

The environmental group said genetically engineered rice had been found

at grain wholesalers in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, even though such

rice had not gone through safety testing or been approved by the

Chinese government.

 

Greenpeace in April announced it had found genetically engineered rice

at markets in central Hubei province.

 

" We are sure that people are consuming it unknowingly, " Greenpeace

campaigner Sze Pang Cheung said at a news conference in Beijing,

referring

to rice that had been modified to contain the bacteria Bacillus

thuringiensis (Bt), which produces a toxin that kills pest.

 

" We are now facing the contamination of the most important staple crop

in the whole world, " Sze said.

 

Pressure to launch GMO rice in China comes at a time when the country

is facing a tough task in raising urban grain output and narrowing the

income gap between farmers and urban citizens.

 

Proponents of genetically modified crops say they will improve yield

and reduce plants' vulnerability to pests. Opponents say pests will

develop greater resistance to the modified crops, and that the techniques

undermine biodiversity and could prove dangerous for human consumption.

 

GMO APPROVAL

 

China, the world's largest producer and consumer of rice, is testing

several strains of genetically modified rice and is expected to grant

approval for the commercialisation of such rice as early as this year.

 

China, one of the world's largest importers of GMO crops, said last

month it had ratified a U.N. treaty that aims for more transparency and

control over trade in genetically modified foods.

 

" China is sending a strong message to the world that it is no dumping

ground for GM crops, " Sze said at the time.

 

Chinese genetically engineered rice may have already made its way into

exports of rice or rice-based products, Sze said on Monday.

 

But he acknowledged Greenpeace had no direct evidence of Bt rice

leaving China.

 

Greenpeace estimated that up to 29 tonnes of genetically modified Bt

rice seeds, capable of producing as much as 14,500 tonnes of rice, were

illegally sold in Hubei this year.

 

" We think it is unacceptable and irresponsible that they are not taking

this issue seriously because rice is the most important staple in

China, " Sze said.

 

The group called on the government to ban planting and sales of

genetically engineered rice, recall and destroy all modified seeds on the

market and punish people involved.

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2.Signs of altered rice around China

By David Barboza

The New York Times, JUNE 14, 2005

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/13/business/chrice.php

 

SHANGHAI Genetically altered rice, which has not been approved for

human consumption anywhere in the world, has been found in the food

supply

in one of China's biggest cities, Greenpeace charged on Monday.

 

Researchers for the environmentalist group said bags of rice that were

purchased in April and May in Guangzhou had been tested by an

independent laboratory and found to contain genetically altered rice,

which it

is illegal to sell on the open market in China.

 

The findings suggested that China may have inadvertently become the

first country where humans are consuming genetically modified rice even

though safety testing has not yet been completed.

 

Two months ago, the Ministry of Agriculture said it would investigate

charges by Greenpeace that genetically altered rice was being illegally

planted and sold in Hubei Province, which contains one of China's

biggest rice-growing regions.

 

The ministry's findings have not been released.

 

Now Greenpeace says that rice that has been genetically altered to

resist pests has spread from experimental plots in Hubei to wholesale

rice

markets in Guangzhou, a city of seven million people that is 145

kilometers, or 90 miles, north of Hong Kong.

 

" This illegal and unapproved rice has spread out of Hubei Province, and

it is reaching other parts of the country, " said Sze Pang Cheung, a

Greenpeace researcher in Beijing.

 

Sze said Greenpeace had purchased the rice from a wholesaler in

Guangzhou who buys from Hubei and then resells about 60 tons of rice a

day,

much of it to restaurants or food shops in Guangzhou.

 

Greenpeace - which has strongly opposed the use of genetically altered

crops, citing health and safety concerns - said its findings had been

confirmed by Genescan, an independent testing laboratory in Germany.

 

Scientists around the world continue to debate the use of genetically

altered crops, but there has been little or no evidence so far that

genetically altered crops are harmful to human health.

 

In the United States, the planting of genetically altered corn and

soybeans is widespread. But since the late 1990s, European and U.S.

regulators have slowed the approval process because of health and safety

concerns, as well as consumer fears.

 

In China, the government has also been reluctant to approve the sale of

genetically altered food crops because of safety and health concerns.

 

But in recent years, Beijing has approved the use of experimental plots

to test whether genetically altered crops could help farmers by

improving yields or reducing pesticide use.

 

In April, Greenpeace said a group of " rogue scientists " in Hubei

Province had allowed genetically altered rice to seep into a corner of

the

food market by illegally selling it to farmers.

 

A journalist who went to Hubei Province a day after the Greenpeace

announcement was still able to purchase bags labeled as " anti-pest " rice

from local farmers and even from a government-owned seed market.

 

Those bags of rice were later tested with a home testing kit from

Envirologix, an American company. That rice was said to have tested

positive

for a strain of altered genes, while tests on rice purchased at a food

market in Shanghai were negative.

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3.Genetically modified rice spreads to S. China

By Qin Chuan (China Daily)

Updated: 2005-06-13 22:27

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-06/13/content_451058.htm

 

Greenpeace China claimed yesterday that the illegal sale of genetically

modified (GM) rice seed has spread to southern China.

 

The group now fears the rice, only supposed to be planted in closely

controlled scientific trials, could have spread across the country.

 

Ministry of Agriculture officials declined to comment on the situation

yesterday.

 

Greenpeace's food and agriculture campaign manager Sze Pang Cheung said

samples taken at a wholesale market in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong

Province, in April, included GM rice seed originating from Hubei

Province, Central China.

 

German testing company Genescan analysed the samples. Tests revealed

samples sold by a wholesaler in the Haizhu market for food and edible oil

were genetically modified.

 

The wholesaler, who shifts about 60 tons of rice a day, also sells rice

to buyers from other Guangdong cities such as Zhongshan and Shunde, Sze

said.

 

" This shows illegal genetically modified rice in Hubei has spread out

of the province. ... And since (it) has come to Guangzhou, it is

possible that cities in other provinces have genetically modified rice in

their markets as well, " Sze added.

 

Xue Dayuan, a biosafety researcher with the State Environmental

Protection Administration's Nanjing Institute of Environmental

Sciences, said:

" It is irresponsible for genetically modified rice to be sold, given

that it is unclear whether it can lead to health or environmental

problems. "

 

But Zhu Zhen, a scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences'

Institute of Genetics and the Development of Biology, said concerns

over the

negative impact of GM rice on human health and environment are " not

necessary " because the techniques involved are very advanced.

 

The discovery of GM rice in Guangzhou follows Greenpeace's mid-April

announcement that it had found GM rice seed being sold and planted in

Hubei.

 

Greenpeace's Sze said it was very likely GM rice seed sold in Hubei

came from Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, the provincial

capital, which is researching GM rice.

 

Seed found to be modified was labelled " Kangchong Shanyou 63 " , exactly

the type that the university has been experimenting with, Sze said.

 

He added it is also likely that the university has formed a network for

producing and selling the rice seed, including the Huihua Sannong

company, a seed production and sales company funded by the university in

partnership with a Hong Kong firm.

 

But Wu Zhonghua, an employee of the company, said it is not selling any

seed, let alone GM seed, because the operation was set up only three

months ago and has yet to start production.

 

Based on its recent investigations, Greenpeace estimates that 23,500 to

29,000 kilograms of GM rice seed have been sold in Hubei this year.

 

If no steps are taken to combat the problem, GM rice crops could total

1,566 to 1,933 hectares, producing up to 14,500 tons of GM rice.

 

Currently China does not permit the sale of GM rice because experiments

are still being carried out by universities and research institutes.

 

In April, after Greenpeace's announcement, the Ministry of Agriculture

said that it would look into the issue based on reports from Hubei's

agricultural authority.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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