1.Illegal GMO Rice Widely Available in Hubei
2.Genetically modified foods need a sieve
3.China's Elite Eat All-Organic
EXTRACTS: Though many farmers [in Hubei Province] plant [illegal] GMO rice, they are cautious about eating it themselves. Villager Hu from Tangtu village said that he sold all three mu of the pest-resistant rice to private rice factories or the Grain Bureau, and his neighbors fed all the unsold rice to their chickens. He also planted two mu of traditional rice crops for his own family's consumption. (item 1)
As for rice [for China's elite], some comes from the northeast... It "has a very small output. It tastes very good. And it doesn't involve genetic engineering". (item 3)
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1.Illegal GMO Rice Widely Available in Hubei Province
Epoch Times, April 6 2010
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/32848/
On April 1, China Newsweek reported widespread cultivation of illegal genetically modified pest-resistant rice in Hubei Province.
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture had approved the genetically modified organism (GMO) security certificate for two types of rice and one type of corn for experimental use only in August 2009.
Greenpeace, however, discovered that the GMO rice was being sold in 19 supermarkets in eight Chinese cities in Hunan and Hubei Provinces in October and November, 2009.
On March 2, an official from the GMO Safety Management Office of the Ministry of Agriculture stated that making the GMO security certificate available does not mean that commercialized production is permitted.
He also further stressed that a genetically modified seed strain has to go through strict regional and production testing to receive a seed-strain certificate before it can be used for mass production and sales. In other words, any sales and commercial cultivation of GMO rice is illegal, according to China Newsweek’s article.
Villager Dong Kejiang and his neighbors in the town of Tuditang, Jiangxia district, in Wuhan,know that it is illegal to plant GMO rice crops. But they have long been familiar with these "crops that don't need pesticides."
He was interviewed by China Newsweek in late March. He said, "Our village has been planting them for three years; someone can always purchase them." Villager Hu of Tangtu village, in the town of Wulijie, told China Newsweek that their town has been planting the pest-resistant crops since 2004.
Around 2005, a species of pest-resistant and high-yielding GMO rice appeared in Hubei Province. The farmers in these areas were enthusiastic; however, Mr. Dong said they didn't know that this was the GMO rice, and thought it was a hybrid rice that the government was promoting.
"The seed company said the seeds were pest-resistant and high-yielding, so many people tried them out," Dong said. This Bt-transgenic rice was created by the addition of a new gene into the rice, thus creating Bt proteins. The protein causes intestinal paralysis in rice borers, killing them. This special pest-resistant ability reduces the amount of pesticides used and results in high crop yields.
"Seed companies with agricultural technical stations and private seed companies are all selling these seeds," Dong said. The seed packages are not labeled as GMO crops, but are marked with Hubei’s secret GMO code””the picture of a little bug.
"It started with a few families, but gradually everyone began pursuing these seeds." Many villagers in Mr. Dong’s town have been planting these pest-resistant crops. Villager Hu told China Newsweek that in 2004, he planted three mu (about half an acre) of the pest-resistant rice himself. "At first, we didn't know that this rice crop was illegal; the seed company said that it was developed by the government."
Farmers Won't Eat Them
Though many farmers plant GMO rice, they are cautious about eating it themselves. Villager Hu from Tangtu village said that he sold all three mu of the pest-resistant rice to private rice factories or the Grain Bureau, and his neighbors fed all the unsold rice to their chickens. He also planted two mu of traditional rice crops for his own family's consumption.
According to Greenpeace's investigative reports, "Xiaogan, Xianning, and Jiangxia districts in Hubei have all planted GMO rice widely; these crops have been sent from Hubei to cities such as Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Shunde, and Zhuhai in Guangdong Province."
In the Dec. 20, 2004 issue of Newsweek, Zhang Qifa, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a professor at the Huazhong Agricultural University, and the recipient of the 2009 Bt GMO rice security certificate, said, "In Wuhan, the center of China's greatest GMO rice experiment, a seed company has accessed GMO seeds and has been selling them to local farmers; over 100 hectares (250 acres) have been planted."
On March 2, 2010, however, the Ministry of Agriculture had this response to reporters’ questions regarding GMO technology and biological safety: "As of now, the Ministry of Agriculture has not approved the commercialization of any GMO crops, and there are no GMO crops planted in China."
Though the world has not come to a unanimous decision about the safety of GMO crops, Hsien Ping (Larry) Lang, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has shared the following information on genetically modified crops:
In 2007, a French scientist proved that Monsanto, the world's biggest seed company, had produced GMO corn that is toxic to the human liver and kidneys. In 2008, a United States scientist discovered that feeding GMO corn to white mice harms their immune system. The latest data was made public on Dec. 22, 2009, when the French Biotechnology Council announced that the harmful effects of consuming GMO corn outweighed the benefits.
Rice is the major staple in China. The public has criticized the regime for not communicating with people before granting the GMO rice certificates, for planting GMO rice crops behind closed doors, as well as for disregarding the food safety of billions of Chinese people, according to a report by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA).
During the "two sessions" in last March, some members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference proposed an objection to the commercial cultivation of GMO grains that have not gone through thorough food safety tests.
Despite strong objection and concern from the public, the Chinese government is expected to spend 24 billion yuan in the research of cultivating crops with new GMO strains in the next 10 years, according to China Newsweek's report.
So far only Hubei Province is reported to have cultivated commercial GMO rice. It is possible that GMO rice will be on the dining tables of billions of Chinese in the next three to five years.
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2.Genetically modified foods need a sieve
China Daily, April 7 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-04/07/c_13240263.htm
BEIJING - A review board of experts, transparent monitoring and accountability should be ready before crops land on our plates
In September 2009, the Ministry of Agriculture quietly issued bio-safety certificates for two strains of genetically modified (GM) rice and a GM corn strain, signs that China is expected to be the first country to commercialize GM rice planting.
For the first time, a major grain producer is endorsing the use of GM technology in a food staple, arousing great public concern and furious arguments among experts over its safety.
On the one hand, some agricultural experts and research centers have claimed that current studies do not prove that GM foods are harmful to the health and detrimental to national grain safety. On the other hand, some academics have argued that people have the right to know about the long-term risks of the technology.
There is no denying that the advancement of agricultural technology could impact traditional means of production and the varieties of grains. However, since food is the first necessity of people, the government should be scrupulous when it comes to the process of approving GM foods. Their decisions bear greatly on the health of the masses.
Though GM technology achieved great breakthroughs over the past five decades, its safety is still controversial. In fact, the United States, the homeland of GM rice, still has not issued bio-safety certificates guaranteeing GM rice. How then can some Chinese experts be so confident in justifying the safety of GM rice? How can they say there are no risks?
In 2008, France officially imposed a ban on a strain of GM corn produced by the US. The immune system of laboratory mice that ate the GM food was damaged, according to an article published in the Lancet, the world's leading independent medical journal.
It is extremely worrisome that only a team of experts has the lives of 1.3 billion people in their hands. The case is not a pure academic argument, but a controversy between huge business interests and academic conscience.
Therefore, the authorities should put more emphasis on food safety and establish stricter inspection on GM foods. They should also watch how GM foods are entering our food markets. When it comes to the safety of the nation and its people, the possible risks of widespread production of GM crops should be taken seriously.
First, under the leadership of the Leading Group of Product Quality and Food Safety with the State Council, the authorities should set up a review board to include experts from the fields of agriculture, medicine, law, environtology and food. This group should repeatedly conduct a systematic, scientific and rigorous verification over the commercial planting of GM crops. Medical tests on a large sample of GM foods should be conducted.
The potential risks of GM foods should be monitored over a long period of time. Even though right now there are no signs that prove GM foods are harmful to our health and to the environment, the promotion of GM crops should be limited. The proposal for a large-scale popularization of GM crops should be submitted to the National People's Congress for deliberation. Once they are in the market, GM foods should be clearly identified to show their safety uncertainty and remind consumers of their choices.
Second, the right to know the truth about GM foods and the right of choice should be respected and guaranteed. Before making a decision on major events concerning people's livelihoods, related information should be publicized in a comprehensive, accurate and factual way. Experts and officials should be held accountable for their recommendations or studies on GM foods. They should be punished if they make the wrong decisions that result in the loss of lives.
Third, strict management should be adopted by institutions and researchers engaging in GM food studies. Their scientific results should be examined and evaluated by the board of review set up by the State Council. A researcher who falsifies and doctors scientific experimentations or colludes with business groups to hide results from the public should be investigated according to the law.
The author is president of the Beijing Chaoyang Diabetes Hospital.
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3.Amid Milk Scare, China's Elite Eat All-Organic
Associated Press, March 31 2009
http://www.cornucopia.org/2009/03/amid-milk-scare-china%E2%80%99s-elite-eat-all-organic/
Government outlet provides safe, special food for the nation's leaders
BEIJING While China grapples with its latest tainted food crisis, the political elite are served the choicest, safest delicacies. They get hormone-free beef from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, organic tea from the foothills of Tibet and rice watered by melted mountain snow.
And it's all supplied by a special government outfit that provides all-organic goods from farms working under the strictest guidelines.
That secure food supply stands in stark contrast to the frustrations of ordinary citizens who have faced recurring food scandals vegetables with harmful pesticide residue, fish tainted with a cancer-causing chemical, eggs colored with industrial dye, fake liquor causing blindness or death, holiday pastries with bacteria-laden filling.
Now that the country's most reputable dairies have been found selling baby formula and other milk products tainted with an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and kidney failure, many Chinese don’t know what to buy. Tens of thousands of children have been sickened and four babies have died.
Citizens' outrage
Knowing that their leaders do not face these problems has made some people angry.
"Food safety is a high priority for children and families of government officials, so are normal citizens less entitled to safe food?" asked Zhong Lixun, feeding her 7-month-old grandson baby formula after he got checked for kidney stones at Beijing Children's Hospital.
The State Council Central Government Offices Special Food Supply Center is specifically designed to avoid the problems troubling the general population.
"We all know that average production facilities use large quantities of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Antibiotics and hormones are commonly used in raising livestock and poultry. Farmed aquatic products are contaminated by various kinds of water pollution," the center's director, Zhu Yonglan, said in a speech earlier this year.
"It goes without saying that these are harmful when consumed by humans," Zhu told executives at supplier Shandong Ke'er Biological Medical Technology Development Co., which posted it on its Web site.
Zhu's speech has been widely circulated by Chinese Internet users on blogs and forums in recent days, with many expressing outrage that top government officials have a separate and safer food supply than the public.
The special food center enforces strict standards on suppliers like Shandong Ke'er, which makes health supplements designed to boost immunity and energy. Foods must be organic, not genetically modified and meet international food standards, said a manager in the center's product department, who only gave her surname, Zhang.
The reason: its A-list clientele of government officials and retirees of vice minister rank or higher.
It's not unusual for China's leadership to have a special food supply; the practice stretches back thousands of years to farms providing ingredients for lavish imperial meals or the greasy, spicy dishes favored by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong.
'Nation A' vs. everyone else
The former Soviet Union's ruling classes also ate food that was unavailable to the masses. In North Korea, where withering famines have seen tens of thousands starve over the past 13 years, leader Kim Jong Il is a gourmet known for his love of lobster, shark's fin soup and sushi. His former private chef has said Kim keeps an extensive collection of vintage French wines.
Set up in 2004, China's Special Food Supply Center is almost as secretive as its high-end clientele, whose precise number is unclear, but includes hundreds of top political leaders, their families and retired cadres. Much of the information on its Web site was removed after media inquiries and interview requests this week.
Goods deemed to meet the highest standards are stamped with the label "Nation A," which stands for "top end, irreplaceable, the best," according to the Web site. Those products are for senior politicians or government offices and not released to the general consumer market, said a customer service agent surnamed Dong.
Rice fed by melted snow from Mt. Changbai, which straddles the China-North Korean border, gets a "Nation A" rating, according to the Web site.
The center scours the country for purveyors in places famous for a particular product, said Zhang, the manager.
These include fish from Hubei province known traditionally as the "land of fish and rice" tea from mountainous Yunnan province abutting Tibet, and beef and mutton from the Inner Mongolian steppes, according to Zhu's speech.
As for rice, some comes from the northeast, grown from seeds specially cultivated by experts from the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said sales manager Wu Honghua of Chifeng Heiyupaozi Organic Agropastoral Development Co.
It "has a very small output. It tastes very good. And it doesn't involve genetic engineering," said Wu.
Wu said 90 percent of the rice goes to the Beidaihe Sanitorium a seaside resort for retired party cadres. The remainder is sold on the market, he said, at $4 a pound a price five times higher than regular organic rice and 15 times more than the price of ordinary rice.
A brand of organic tea supplied to the center sells for $187 a pound. "It's fresh and tender, smells good and has a bright color," said Xia Dan, an employee of the Huiming Tea Co. in eastern Zhejiang province.
The latest food safety scandal began with tainted baby formula from one company, but widened to include products from 22 of China's dairies. Countries as far away as Kenya and Colombia have banned or recalled Chinese dairy imports, while cakes, candies and other products made with milk products have come under suspicion.
Since the scandal broke earlier this month, sales of Chinese milk have plummeted after top dairies Mengniu Dairy Group Co. and Yili Industrial Group Co. were found to have sold contaminated milk.
Chinese looking for reassurance have turned to one company not named in any recalls Sanyuan Foods Ltd.
It proudly advertises that its milk is used for state banquets at the Great Hall of the People and has seen its sales triple in Beijing, while demand has outstripped supply in at least one province. And that's despite the fact that its price about $1.60 a quart is 25 percent higher than other brands.