China to completely shut down GM rice
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China drafts legal proposal to completely shut down GE rice
Monica Tan
Greenpeace, 22 February 2012
greenpeace.org/eastasia/news/b...log/39139/
We're ecstatic to announce a new legal initiative in China that's set to keep GE away from the country's staple food.
"This is actually a world-first initiative that deals with GE food legislation at state law level," said Fang Lifeng, the Food and Agriculture campaigner of Greenpeace.
The State Council has released the draft proposal of a grain law that establishes legislation restricting research, field trials, production, sale, import and export of genetically engineered grain seeds. The draft stipulates that no organization or person can employ GE technology in any major food product in China.
"There are currently too many loopholes and weak control over GE food and technology in China. This law needs to clarify what 'relevant laws and regulations' can be applied to regulate GE crops. We urge legislators to accelerate the legislation of Genetically Engineered Organisms Bio-safety Law, and also to enhance the supervision of GE food and other products. Otherwise, this law will only be lip service," Fang said.
According to a Greenpeace investigation, over the last 20 years investment on GE technology has been 30 times that on ecological agriculture. "This is a big obstacle for the development of modern sustainable agriculture in China", Fang continued, "China's money must be spent on supporting food that is safe for human consumption and the production of which has taken into account environmental impacts. And GE technology has clearly failed to do either."
"No country should go down the path of GE crop commercialization. Instead every country should reduce the financial support on GE technology and put more investment on agricultural technology that has proved to be safe and effective. This includes ecological agriculture, green technology to control pests and disease, molecular marker-assisted selection, etc."
The announcement comes after a highly successful seven year slog from Greenpeace campaigners to keep GE rice out of the country's food market.
greenpeace.org/eastasia/specials/gpm01/
I see your point but China is the country that sells fake eggs, fake meat, toxic metal in little girls' jewelry, fillers in milk powder that cause liver damage, bad vaccines, tainted blood products, lead in toys, toxic additives in pet food, factories poison farm land leaving villages with no choice but to still farm there or die of starvation. THe list goes on. Do you really think this is a country that could police it's GM industry when it can't or wont police any other industry? I would fear any Gm product from China but I would not know it was from China as they would just export it to Vietnam or Thailand and then sell it to the world as a Thai or Vietnam product.
ReplyDeleteI lived in China for a year and a half, and it really is a country full of contradictions, which I think you will find in any complex system.
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