Govt kindergarten hypocritical about GM food?

(ECNS) – The Ministry of Agriculture has declared genetically modified (GM) food safe, yet a kindergarten affiliated with the ministry has promised not to use GM oil to prepare food for its students, according to China Business News.

The kindergarten's website emphasized that its canteen uses non-GM oil, causing an uproar among opponents of GM food. Some have said the kindergarten should use GM oil to support the ministry's declaration that GM food is safe.

Fu Zhongwen, a senior agronomist at the ministry, explained in an interview with People's Daily Online that staff at the kindergarten had posted the statement to satisfy some parents, but that they have since been "corrected."

"As normal members of society, we, of course, eat GM food," he added, but the ministry hasn't made an official response yet.

Some agricultural experts have said that edible oil made from GM soybeans or rapeseed barely contain any GM organisms.

But Greenpeace China, a non-governmental environmental organization, responded in a paper that researchers have detected a significant number of foreign gene segments in GM soybean oil.

An insider said it's improper to determine all GM food as safe or unsafe. "Each type of GM food should be evaluated individually."