Is the GMO labeling system in need of revision? The Ministry of Agriculture is studying it

The Ministry of Agriculture is studying the question of whether the GMO labeling system needs to be revised. Yesterday afternoon, at the fourth media reporters' GMO training workshop, He Yibing, director of the Science and Education Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, revealed this information, and he also stressed that GMO labeling has no connection whatsoever with GMO safety, and that all GMO products on the market are safe.

He Yibing said at the meeting that the safety of GMO foods was settled internationally long ago. The safety of GMOs should be determined by professional and authoritative institutions.

Does the GMO labeling system need to be revised? It is currently being studied

“GMOs are a global trend.” He Yibing said that at present, the United States ranks first in the world in GMO research and development, cultivation and consumption. In terms of cultivation area, countries such as Brazil and Argentina follow closely behind the United States, while China has fallen from 4th place previously to 6th place. Yet China's grain output growth rate is slower than the growth rate of grain demand, and the food security situation remains severe.

Data shows that in 2014, China's total grain output exceeded 600 million tons, but consumption had already reached 640 million tons. Grain imports have been continuously increasing. China has an objective need to develop GMO technology.

Regarding the GMO labeling issue that the public cares about, He Yibing said that the Ministry of Agriculture is studying the question of whether the GMO labeling system needs to be revised.

At present, only China in the whole world has adopted mandatory qualitative labeling, which can be said to be the strictest. Other countries all adopt quantitative labeling, that is, setting a threshold for GMO components; for example, in the European Union, labeling is required only when GMO components exceed 0.9%.

He Yibing stressed that GMO labeling only provides everyone with the right to choose and the right to know, and has nothing to do with GMO safety. However, labeling GMOs requires costs. The current view is that companies will ultimately pass this part of the cost on to consumers.

⟦NL> As an official of the Ministry of Agriculture in charge of GMO biosafety, He Yibing also found that in the past two years public understanding of and debate over GMOs has gradually become more rational.

It is reported that, due to increased public attention to GMO-related information, the Ministry of Agriculture has already appeared in court three times this year as a “defendant” in two cases. He Yibing said that public supervision is welcome.

Do Americans only grow GMOs but not eat them?

Previously, there were reports online saying that although Americans produce GMO crops, they themselves do not eat them.

At this workshop, Professor Zhu Jiankang, an academician of the US National Academy of Sciences, said that although he personally has not counted how many Americans eat GMO foods, looking at the numbers, even if most GMO crops are used as feed, people eat chicken and beef, so exposure to GMOs is unavoidable.

A reporter from Beiqing Daily noted that the US Embassy in China clarified this through its official WeChat account in October this year, saying that the above claim was a rumor. In fact, for more than 20 years, GMO crops have been widely and safely consumed in the United States. In a typical American grocery store, about two-thirds of products contain GMO components. Moreover, most GMO crops grown in the United States are used for domestic consumption.

Sweet potato is the first natural GMO crop

At the meeting, Professor Zhu Jiankang introduced the latest discovery by foreign scientists this year: sweet potato contains genes from Agrobacterium. This means that the first GMO crop was produced under natural conditions at least several thousand years ago, when Agrobacterium genes infected the genome of wild sweet potato. Sweet potato is a natural GMO crop. It is understood that the research results were published on May 5, 2015, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and the scientists studied 291 sweet potato varieties.

“If you have a natural fear of GMOs, then when you eat sweet potato in the future, should you also worry a little more?” Zhu Jiankang said.