Does the Chinese public really oppose GMOs as strongly as media suggest?

OPINION Biotech Crops Provide Food Security In Southeast Asia

The story line that pops up again and again from Googling “China” and “GMO” is that China’s citizens loathe genetic engineering with a unique passion. … Are the Chinese really so violently and uniquely anti-GMO?

For biotech agriculture, China is the future — the make-or-break country.  …[T]he government has made developing a biotech-ag industry a top priority. Whether it will succeed depends on whether it can overcome the purportedly ferocious resistance of the Chinese people.

. . . .

In a Chinese poll 84% considered GMOs unsafe….

Chinese fears of GMOs aren’t so deeply rooted that an authoritarian government determined to create an ag-biotechnology industry couldn’t allay them.

What is different in China is the public’s distrust of the safety of food generally. The 2008 contaminated-milk crisis is just one of many food scandals still fresh in people’s minds. These memories incline them to believe wild charges, like the rumor last year that KFC was serving genetically modified chickens with six wings and eight legs.

… China could end up five or ten years from now growing more of its own GMO soybeans and importing fewer from the U.S. and Brazil….

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: The Chinese Really Hate GMOs — Or Do They?

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