Illegal GM rice on sale: report

Experimental genetically modified (GM) rice is being sold on the local Wuhan market despite being unlicensed for commercial use, Greenpeace claimed in a report on Tuesday.

Greenpeace volunteers bought 15 random samples from a chain supermarket and a grocery market and sent them to a qualified independent institution for testing in November 2013, the report said.

Four samples contained a GM ingredient, while three out of four contained Bt 63, an ingredient from a GM rice string named Bt Shanyou 63 developed by Wuhan-based Huazhong Agricultural University.

The Ministry of Agriculture issued the only two production safety certificates for the GM rice string to the university on August 17, 2009. Commercial use was not approved.

"We don't recognize the report and request Greenpeace release more information including the credentials and location of the test institution," Fan Jingqun, deputy director of the university's biological science media center, told the Global Times. "Meanwhile, how did they secure the proprietary intellectual property rights to our seed?"

The university strictly follows GM regulations, Fan said, and Greenpeace should raise the issue with the agriculture ministry if they have doubts.

Greenpeace did report the issue to the agriculture ministry but have not yet received a reply, said Wang Jing, Greenpeace food and agricultural senior campaigner

The Beijing-based test institution is "recognized by authorities," Wang told the Global Times, but declined to reveal further information, citing a confidentiality agreement.

Greenpeace chose Wuhan as GM rice products have frequently been found in the local market, Wang said. Greenpeace "assumed" the rice samples were planted locally, she said, and did not ask the vendor for the source.

Greenpeace first claimed GM rice products were circulating in Wuhan in 2005. Both the agriculture ministry and Hubei provincial agriculture department denied the allegations.

Hubei punished three companies in 2005, including one affiliated to the university, for "illegally expanding seed production." The department then issued subsidies to farmers and removed hundreds of hectares of illegally planted GM rice.

A series of media reports about illegal plantation of GM rice have appeared during the past decade, but the source of the seed is unconfirmed.

The university previously reported to local police that it had stopped Greenpeace members from stealing seeds from an experimental field at their Hainan GM rice base in April, leading to a circular issued by the agriculture ministry on May 4 that scientific institutions should beef up security and management.

The police had not yet filed a case, but the university will reserve the right to pursue legal measures, Fan said.

A staff member at Wuhan Zhongshang Supermarket Yangjiawan branch, the chainstore where Greenpeace took their samples, told the Global Times that all rice products were distributed from headquarters under strict supervision, and they never heard about GM rice being sold.