China Plans Massive $3.5 Billion GM Crops Push
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 09. 6.08
Image from Klobetime
Driven by the increasingly pressing need to provide a stable food supply for its surging population (1.3 billion and growing), China has decided to engineer its own "Green Revolution" by embarking on a massive $3.5 billion GM crops R&D initiative, reports Science's Richard Stone. With this new biotechnology infrastructure in place, the Chinese hope to discover and patent their own genes "of great value" -- engaging in direct competition with the likes of Monsanto and ADM -- and to help their farms evolve "from high-input and extensive cultivation" to "high-tech and intensive cultivation."
Image from Haldini
The Chinese government had previously adopted a much more cautious wait-and-see approach to GM crops, granting approvals for only 6 species -- cotton, petunia, tomato, sweet pepper, poplar trees and papaya -- over the past decade. It had very explicitly rejected the commercialization of GM versions of staples like rice and corn. Unlike some of the other countries that were embracing these crops at the time, China, which had one of the world's largest numbers of farming communities (and still does, of course), had decided that safety and contamination concerns trumped any potential benefits.
The tide seems to have finally changed. The government, which is much more concerned now with environmental degradation, growing land use issues and chronic water shortages (among other problems), is drastically stepping up its research and commercialization efforts. So far, the country has largely focused on developing new GM versions equipped with genes that confer tolerance to herbicides and resistance to pests; government scientists will soon start working on developing varieties with better yields. Stone writes that the commercialization of GM rice, arguably the biggest prize of them all, is still a touchy subject (past efforts, such as the one by Arcadia Biosciences to develop a variety that requires less fertilizer, seem to have made little inroads):
Three years ago, Huang Jikun, director of CAS's Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy in Beijing, and colleagues reported that field trials of GM rice in China were going well--boosting yields and reducing pesticide use on plots--and predicted that the varieties were on the threshold of commercialization. But the Chinese government is reluctant to tinker with the country's most important crop and has put off commercialization. The new initiative might break the logjam, says Huang Jikun. "I hope the commercialization of GM rice will come within a couple of years," he says.Although the central government has not released a budget figure for the new initiative, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture told Science that it would cost $3.5 billion over 13 years. Half is expected to come from local governments on whose land GM crops will be grown and from agricultural biotechnology companies. "It's a new way to support a big science project in China," says Huang Dafang. Another departure from other R&D initiatives, he says, is that each funded program is expected to produce an economic payoff.
Although the Chinese population remains largely wary of GM technology, the government's strong backing will likely ensure that any opposition or protest movements are short-lived. While China may derive some benefits from this transgenic push over the long-term, it's also true that the potential risks could be significant -- especially given the program's scale. Let's just hope they don't rush into this.
Via ::Science: China Plans $3.5 Billion GM Crops Initiative (news website)
More about China and GM crops
::Genetically Modified Rice to Fight Global Warming in China
::Do You Know What You Eat? Greenpeace's Ads Against Genetically Modified Organisms
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Genetically modified plants for food is not a big deal to me. We (particularly in the US) have been doing this for many decades. Mostly the method is cross breeding the same type plant, like two different varities of corn to get one that is disease resistent, higher yield and can propogate in dryer soil with less fertilizer. Even things as simple as watermelons without pits are GM derived.
If we are going to continue to grow our global population, we will have to find ways to increase our food production. We have no choice.
John T
I can't believe you are so naive (?) :
-GMO's include genes by other species (not plants), viruses and antibiotics so good luck finding a traditional farmer who goes by seed selection and grafting that does the equivalent. GMO have been made sterile (the 3rd world suicide crops) and toxic deliberatly to insects, not exactly resistant, how natural is THAT?
-GMO's patents actually mean you can own strands of genes i.e. life itself. The fact that many crops pollinize through wind, insects, etc. means that right now, if you live in the USA, Monsanto can sue you for copyright infringment on the plants you have in your backyard (they've done it hundreds of times). FYI the Constitution Article 1 says you can't patent life "because it is immoral".
-Where have you been in the last 5 years where every expert on agriculture, international aid, economy,etc concluded that world hunger is not a problem of production but of access and distribution?
America is already contaminated (soon Latin America) China is anxious to be, Africa will accept what is given to her and be also contaminated.
I thank god I'm an European, where this garbage is banned and there are some natural barriers to this disaster.
PS. "John", if you are a Monsanto-paid drone whose job is to spread this non-information on large internet sites like Treehugger (sounds paranoid but is actually increasingly common) you may ignore all I said and keep your garbage to yourself.
http://www.thefutureoffood.com/
Thanks for the mention(s); very useful, informative and comprehensive.
This is hardly the same thing as crossbreeding. People have never before been able to swap genes among species.
Could be a great technology, but it comes with some very serious consequences that have not been worked out. When you create something with a life of its own ...
Monsanto - No Food Shall Be Grown that we don't Own.
This is just another way to consolidate power into a few hands.
Sorry, cross breeding is not the same as GM, as noted by a previous poster. The fact that companies don't want GM modified labeled shows that they want no traceability if it turns out that some folks are allergic to a GM-food product. And with highly mixed, processed components, it makes it easier to blame adverse effects on something else they ate or some other ingredient.
Optimizing for yield is what got us in trouble in the first place. Now we have empty calories and crap food that can only be refined to simple sugars and put into a processed foods or fed to our sick cows in a feedlot.
Feeding people is about whole systems design in nature, and finding our place within that system. It is not about desertifying land by exploitation nor turning land into a ecological parking lots (monocultures) in the interested of "scale". Feeding people effectively can only be done from the bottom of the pyramid up, teaching local people how to design permaculture systems and not rely on extractive and unsustainable methods. We also need to pay the people who grow our food. Not fertilizer suppliers, not those who supply roundup, not oil companies (fertilizers & insect/herbicides are oil intensive), not the patenters of life. Instead, we've disincentivized intelligence.