EXCERPTS: "There has been no agreement on any commercialization of [GM] rice," said Lu Baorong of Shanghai's Fudan University who is a member of the committee. "The requirements are getting harder."

Early last year China looked set to approve commercial production of a disease-resistant GMO rice, known as Xa21 rice, paving the way for the world's first large scale planting of a GMO crop for direct human consumption.

But Beijing has hit the brakes following reports of illegal sales of GMO rice in China. The reports also sounded alarm bells in China's top trading partners.

"It is still far from commercialization," said Dayuan Xue, a professor from the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences...
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Lid stays on modified rice
Nao Nakanishi
The Standard (Hong Kong), July 18 2006 http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=5&art_id=23072&sid=8887196&con_type=1

China, the world's top rice producer and consumer, is unlikely to give its nod for commercial production of genetically modified rice at least until next year with a government panel demanding more data to prove its safety.

Scientists in China said the biosafety committee - which examines the safety of genetically modified crops for the government - fell short of supporting large-scale production of insect resistant Bt rice at its biannual meeting last month.

Instead, the panel has recommended transgenic papaya, which could become the first GMO crop in seven years to pass Beijing's scrutiny for commercialization.

"There has been no agreement on any commercialization of rice," said Lu Baorong of Shanghai's Fudan University who is a member of the committee. "The requirements are getting harder."

Early last year China looked set to approve commercial production of a disease-resistant GMO rice, known as Xa21 rice, paving the way for the world's first large scale planting of a GMO crop for direct human consumption.

But Beijing has hit the brakes following reports of illegal sales of GMO rice in China. The reports also sounded alarm bells in China's top trading partners.

While more and more farmers around the world have shifted to GMO varieties in the past 10 years, cotton, corn, soybeans and rapeseed account for almost all of the transgenic crops currently grown commercially.

"It is still far from commercialization," said Dayuan Xue, a professor from the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, referring to transgenic rice. "It's not possible this year. Maybe they may consider it next year."

The mainland scientists said it will take a year or two to collect data that the committee had now asked for to decide if Bt rice is safe for the environment and human consumption.

Even then, the government might not go ahead immediately, especially if uncertainties remain about whether China's trading partners will accept the biotech crop, they said.

For the same reasons, US farmers have so far refrained from planting herbicide-resistant GMO rice, known as Liberty Link rice, for which Washington has given already the green light.

"The government takes different aspects into account, not just the biosafety data," said another scientist member of the committee, who declined to be indentified. "They also have to consider political, economic and trade matters. It is a complicated issue."

But the committee saw no safety problems for production of genetically modified papaya, resistant to ring spot virus that often causes devastation in the mainland as well as other producing areas, such as Thailand and Taiwan.

"They feel that it is relatively safe at this moment," Lu said, adding Beijing might approve its commercialization late this year or early in the next.

The scientists said that GMO papaya, developed in Guangdong, used a different technology from the variety developed and released in Hawaii since 1998.

Looking to the future of GMO rice in China, Angus Lam from Greenpeace said chances of Beijing approving the crop will rise if the European Union allowed imports of Liberty Link rice.

This will send a signal on the acceptability of transgenic rice in Europe.

"The decision will be made in a global context. Local scandals might be only a part of the consideration," he said, referring to illegal sales of Bt rice, which Greenpeace has said found its way into baby food manufactured in China.

The scientists said one of the biggest concerns for the biosafety committee is possible mutation of pests to develop resistance to the Bt toxin, originally derived from bacteria.

China is already the world's top grower of Bt cotton, which it introduced in 1997. About 70 percent of its cotton acreage this year is estimated to be of the transgenic variety.

"So far, we have not found insects developing resistance," said the scientist who did not want to be identified. "But we have to monitor this carefully in the future. The biosafety committee is seriously concerned about this problem."

REUTERS

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