The Chinese government will carefully promote technology related to genetically modified (GM) organisms with tighter supervision, ensuring the public's right to know and choose GM food at their own will, agricultural regulators said Thursday.
Easing control on GM technology would be a forward step by the agricultural authorities, experts said, as the previous "No.1 document," an annual agricultural policy paper, refrained from talking about promoting GM products.
Addressing reporters at a Thursday press conference, Han Jun, deputy head of the office for the central leading group on agricultural work, said that China has had a consistent policy on GM technology and would guarantee the public's right to know and right to choose with mandatory labeling of GM food.
"China should not lag behind in agricultural biological technology … We must master the [GM] technology," Han said, adding that all GM products in commercial cultivation have gone through many safety assessments.
Any GM food authorized to be sold is as safe as traditional food, the deputy head stressed. He also urged local authorities to tighten up supervision on GM food, especially to curb GM seeds from entering the market without examination or approval.
"It's a positive sign that the nation will now promote GM food. The agriculture ministry should take advantage of this significant opportunity to issue related policies," Yan Jianbing, a professor specializing crop genetic improvement at Huazhong Agricultural University, told the Global Times.
Amid lingering doubts over the safety of GM food, China has been showing an increasingly encouraging attitude in promoting GM technology, as the nation has the urgency to use GM technology to guarantee food security and protect the environment, said Luo Yunbo, a professor at the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University.
Chinese public are suspicious about GM food. A survey in March 2014 on huanqiu.com showed that 72 percent of respondents thought GM food was unsafe and 22.5 percent said they were unsure about it. Only 4.8 percent of those polled believed GM food was safe.
Currently, only papayas and cotton have received clearance for commercial GM production in China.
