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China’s evolving stance on GM crops
DOMESTIC HESITATION “Though China was the first country to grow GM crops commercially, starting with virus-resistant tobacco plants in 1988,
32 | SUMMER 2022
China could plant up to 33 million hectares with GM corn. HUA’AN SECURITIES VIA REUTERS
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n recent months, China has been moving to clarify and adjust rules regarding genetically modified (GM) crops, particularly regarding the growth of such crops domestically. April 2022 saw the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announce plans to approve two GM corn varieties, following on from three which received a similar green light late last year. All five of these varieties were developed by Chinese businesses or institutions. The Chinese government also said in 2021 that it wants to support biotech to boost food security while also preventing infringement of intellectual property. It aims to bolster the country’s innovation capacity in agricultural science and technology and help minimise the country’s dependence on major agricultural exporters — particularly the US. All this is part of a planned regulatory overhaul for the Chinese seed industry, details of which were published in November 2021 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in a draft document. The move is in line with a fiveyear development guideline of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). “It’s a big step,” Liu Shi, Vice President of Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co Ltd, told Reuters in November 2021. According to Reuters, Dabeinong has several GM traits approved as safe and is expected to be one of the first firms to commercialise GM corn in China. Insight in January from Gro Intelligence, an agricultural data platform, said that as a result of this changing regulatory environment, GM corn could be planted in China “as early as 2023”.
it has lagged behind other nations in adopting new crops,” claims the Alliance for Science, an independent non-profit research institute affiliated with Cornell University. “GM corn and rice varieties were granted biosafety certificates over a decade ago, but never achieved commercialization, partly due to consumer opposition. Cotton is the only GM crop that is widely grown.” The country does allow GM crops to be imported for use in animal feed. Moreover, it has also been alleged that GM crops are indeed being grown in China in secret; the Alliance for Science said in 2017 that it was an “open secret that huge areas” within China were being cultivated with rice and corn which had been modified for insect resistance, and a recent Nikkei Asia article referenced “foreign nongovernmental organisations and media outlets” which had made similar claims. It is understood there is strong resistance from consumers against GM products, in part due to lack of knowledge
and understanding of GM technologies and to anti-GMO campaigns seeking to influence public sentiment, often propagated through social media. Beyond the historically less-thansupportive regulatory environment and the consumer resistance, there may be yet another obstacle to widespread commercialisation; Nikkei Asia also mentions the decline of the profit margin seen in China’s seed industry for the past few years. Contributing to this trend are small and mid-sized players which slightly modify existing seed varieties and sell them as their own.
IMPACTS OF THE CHANGE China could plant up to 33 million hectares with GM corn, estimates securities brokerage consulting firm Hua’an Securities in a November 2021 note cited by Reuters. The new GM regulations are anticipated to be approved in time for domestic seed companies to ramp up their breeding and seed production activities in
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