NEWS: GM crops find friends in China

From: J Corbally (icorb@indigo.ie)
Date: Thu Jan 24 2002 - 16:28:27 MST


Looks like Europe's chance to play a leading role in GM research is fast
disappearing;

>GM crops find friends in China
>
>Evidence is emerging that China is taking the potential of genetically
>modified (GM) crops seriously.
>Researchers found that China accounts for more than half the developing
>world's expenditure on plant biotechnology

>What is happening in China appears to be at odds with the widespread
>rejection of GM technology in many other - particularly European - countries.

>"Small farmers in China have begun to aggressively adopt GM crops when
>permitted to do so."

>The authors say: "Response by China's poor farmers to the introduction of
>Bt cotton eliminates any doubt that GM crops can play a role in poor
>countries.

If this goes as well as they are saying it should, it may make it harder
and harder for environmentalists to maintain their claims that GM is bad
for the small farmers of Africa. After all, can a billion Chinese men be
wrong?

The argument that if we didn't carry out this research, someone else
somewhere else in the world would comes to mind.

James....

"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and
crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures
to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."
-Q, Star Trek:TNG episode 'Q Who'



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