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Moderated conference on GMOs in the pipeline, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2012

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Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:53:37 +0100
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This is the second message from Dominic Glover of Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

The moratorium on Bt brinjal in India has stimulated a lot of discussion in this conference, but I would also like to learn more about the reasons behind the continued non-commercialisation of Bt rice in China.

I have not followed this topic very closely and I am not an expert on China's biotechnology politics, so I would be interested to hear from others taking part in this conference who may have more insights to share.

Commercialisation of this transgenic food crop in China has been eagerly anticipated by many stakeholders for well over a decade, and an imminent approval was confidently predicted for many years, until recently, by organisations such as the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and CropLife International, among others.

In November 2009, it was reported that China had issued a biosafety clearance for a Bt rice variety and it was expected that the crop would be commercialised within two or three years, following pre-commercialisation field trials [1]. However, to my knowledge, a decision to formally release the crop into the market has still not been taken.

In fact, the latest news that I am aware of is from NGO sources, referring to reports in China's Economic Observer newspaper in September 2011, stating that the Chinese government had decided not to proceed with the commercialisation of transgenic rice [2]. Furthermore, in February 2012 Greenpeace East Asia claimed that the Chinese government was drafting legislation to restrict 'research, field trials, production, sale, import and export' of transgenic grains [3].

As is well known, Chinese policy making is obscure to outsiders, so the reasons for these decisions, if confirmed, are unclear. We know that some Chinese intellectuals and public officials protested against the biosafety clearance for Bt rice, but there was no reason to expect that these objections would prevent commercialisation [4].

One can speculate that the Chinese government may have been influenced by the EU's decision to impose stringent import checks on Chinese rice, after Chinese rice shipments to Europe were found to contain transgenic events that had not been approved by either the EU or China [5]. That news is not particularly surprising, since unapproved transgenic rice varieties are known to be spreading unlawfully in China [6].

I feel sure that other participants in this conference must have further insights into the current situation with transgenic rice in China and I hope they will be able to share them with us.

Dominic Glover 
Post-doctoral Fellow 
Technology and Agrarian Development Group 
Wageningen University
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)317 48 40 18 
Email: dominic.glover (at) wur.nl 
Skype: domglov
Personal website: http://www.tad.wur.nl/UK/People/Fellows/Dominic+Glover/ 
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicglover 

References:

[1] 'China gives safety approval to GM rice', Reuters, 27 November 2009, http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/11/27/idUSPEK37812  

[2] 'China suspends commercialisation of genetically engineered rice and wheat' Third World Network Biosafety Information Service / GMWatch, 6 October 2011, http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/13440-china-suspends-commercialisation-of-gm-rice-and-wheat ; 'China says "no" to genetically engineered rice', Greenpeace East Asia, 31 January 2012, http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/China-says-no-to-genetically-engineered-rice/ 

[3] 'China drafts legal proposal to completely shut down GE rice', Greenpeace East Asia, 22 February 2012, http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/news/blog/china-drafts-legal-proposal-to-completely-shu/blog/39139/ 

[4] 'Chinese green light for GM rice and maize prompts outcry', Nature Biotechnology 28, 390-1, 2010.

[5] 'EU imposes stiff controls to block Chinese GM rice', EU Observer, 15 November 2011, http://euobserver.com/885/114287 

[6] 'GM rice "spreading illegally in China"', SciDev.Net, 20 June 2011, http://www.scidev.net/en/news/gm-rice-spreading-illegally-in-china-.html 

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information on this FAO Biotechnology Forum, see http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/]

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