China's return of genetically modified corn threatens US agricultural exports

~ ~ March 19, 2014 09:31
china's return of genetically modified corn threatens US agricultural exports
HENRY I. MILLER
in November, China abruptly announced that it would return American corn Viptera with genetically modified ingredients. Since then, China has rejected nearly 1 million tons of U.S. corn, leaving U.S. agriculture in disarray and jeopardizing future crop variety innovation. Viptera can bring super insect resistance to crops and reduce the damage of mycotoxins.

The United States approved the cultivation of crops containing Viptera in 2010, and several other countries, including Canada, have subsequently approved the cultivation of crops containing the genetically modified ingredient. The European Union (European Union) and more than a dozen countries around the world approved the import of Viptera-containing crops in 2012.

But China will only start the approval process for GM crops after they are allowed to grow in exporting countries. The fastest is two years later. For Viptera, the two-year lag time has been delayed to four years, and when it will be approved seems to be far away.

China's decision to reject US GM corn has nothing to do with food safety. China only mentioned in its November notice that Viptera was not allowed to import, but earlier last year it also imported nearly 1 million tons of corn containing Viptera from the United States. China has also received Viptera-containing corn imports from Argentina.

China does not reject genetic engineering. China grows a large number of genetically modified plants such as cotton, papaya, poplar, tomatoes and sweet peppers, more than any other country except the United States.

So why is China rejecting crops containing Viptera? Some speculate that China is trying to buy time to "reverse engineer" the technology to copy and steal it. Others believe Beijing wants to use this as an excuse to renege on contracts signed last year when corn prices were higher. According to a report by Bloomberg (Bloomberg) earlier this month, Peng Yufa, chief scientist of the China Agricultural GMO Safety Committee, admitted that trade issues played a role in the Viptera approval process.

Regardless of China's motives, the rejection of U.S. genetically modified corn has shaken U.S. agriculture. Two major U.S. grain trade groups, the North American Export Grain Association and the National Grain and Feed Association, have asked agribusiness Syngenta (Syngenta) to immediately stop selling Viptera corn and another genetically modified corn Duracade, which was allowed to be grown in the United States last year.

It doesn't make any sense: Viptera the crop has been planted since 2011, it will take years to completely remove it from the supply chain. Worse, it would cause a pause in new planting techniques, essentially handing over the life and death of new planting techniques to China.

Without the possibility of commercialization, no company would be willing to spend $0.1 billion to develop new varieties of genetic engineering and accept heavy supervision. If American farmers are not allowed to grow crops with stronger vitality, higher yield and more profitable value, the company will be at a disadvantage in competition with foreign competitors.

Another incident also highlights the dangers faced by genetically modified agriculture in the United States. CGB, the grain processor, announced that it would not accept grain containing Duracade genes until China, Egypt and Turkey all had the green light. However, Turkey's biosafety agency is fraught with uncertainty, and agricultural biotech companies simply do not expect to be approved in the country. Egypt, on the other hand, is volatile, and the government has consistently lacked an operational regulatory system for import approvals.

Another grain trader has Gavilon reached an agreement with Syngenta, promising to buy Duracade-containing grains from farmers and treat them specially to ensure that they only reach approved markets. Other traders, however, seem to prefer a holistic distribution model in which all grains are mixed together indiscriminatingly. Specialized distribution channels can only do so. Countries that want to import staple grains at commodity prices will eventually have to cooperate to make the approval process predictable and reasonable. As a huge and increasingly demanding food importer, China will have a pivotal position.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack (Tom Vilsack) raised the impasse over the Viptera during his visit to China in December last year, but to no avail. Now, the U.S. trade representative and the White House need to take this issue as a top priority and put maximum pressure on Beijing. Writing in the Des Moines Register, former Agriculture Secretary John Block said innovation must move forward. He also wrote that innovators cannot allow the bad behavior of one country to hinder the progress of the entire world.

(Dr. HENRY I. MILLER is a physician and molecular biologist who is also a member of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Stanford. He is also the founding director of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Office of Biotechnology.)
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