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Greenpeace: Illegal Cultivation of GM Corn Found in Liaoning Province
Feb. 16, 2016
On 6 Jan., 2016, Greenpeace released a survey, which said that illegal GM corn has been found in several major corn production areas in Liaoning Province, China, throughout seed sales, cultivation, market circulation and other segments of corn industry,
In May-Dec., 2015, the Greenpeace’s food and agriculture team went to Liaoning for crop field survey. Random sampling was launched in corn fields of 30 villages across Liaoning and a total of 45 corn samples were collected. The result showed that 42 samples contained genetically modified ingredients, accounting for 93% of all the samples.
In addition, the Greenpeace visited some private purchaser of corn and grains wholesale market to launch a random sampling and had 21 samples in total. The result showed that the genetically modified ingredients were detected in 20 samples.
From the above-mentioned samples collected by the Greenpeace, the Mon810, NK603, Bt11 and TC1507 were the major corn varieties in which genetically modified ingredients had been found. Among these varieties, some are insect-resistant, some are herbicide-tolerance while some are resistant to both. Therefore, the Greenpeace presumed that the GM corn seed may be stolen from the GM experimental plot and be sold illegally. However, there is no evidence to prove this conjecture.
As for the testing organization involved in the survey, the Greenpeace expressed its inconvenience to reveal the specific information, only emphasizing the testing organization is a qualified third-party laboratory.
After reading the public report by the Greenpeace on this issue, some experts from the Chinese Academy of Science and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science tend to believe that the conclusion from the Greenpeace is only based a non-standard and preliminary screening method and thus it may not be professional or standardized. Moreover, the Greenpeace did not reveal the detailed information of the third-part laboratory it chose, making it much less credible for the public.
Besides, some lawyers pointed out that the Greenpeace does not have the registration in the Ministry of Civil Affairs and thus it have no right to carry out such an investigation; and if the situation mentioned in the report is found untrue by the agricultural sector, the Greenpeace may be in violation of the Chinese law.
It is understood that all the GM corn in China were imported, mainly used as animal feed and prohibited from entering the food circulation. The domestically cultivated GM crops only include GM cotton and GM papaya; therefore, except what was mentioned above, any cultivation of non-test GM crops is illegal
Source: Think Real
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