The Ministry of Agriculture is studying whether the GM labeling system needs to be revised.

The Ministry of Agriculture is studying whether the GM labeling system needs to be modified. He Yibing, director of the Department of Science and Education of the Ministry of Agriculture, revealed this situation at the fourth genetically modified workshop for media reporters yesterday afternoon. He also stressed that GM labeling has nothing to do with GM safety, and that GM products on the market are safe.

He Yibing introduced at the meeting that the safety of genetically modified foods has long been an international conclusion. The safety of GMOs should be decided by professional authorities.

Whether the transgenic labeling system should be modified or not is currently under study.

"genetically modified genes are a world trend." He Yibing said that at present, the United States ranks first in the world in terms of GM research and development, cultivation and consumption. In terms of acreage, Brazil, Argentina and other countries followed the United States, while China ranked sixth from fourth before. However, the growth rate of China's grain production is not as fast as that of grain demand, and the food security situation is still grim.

Data show that in 2014, China's total grain output exceeded 600 million tons, but its consumption reached 640 million tons. Grain imports are on the increase. There is an objective demand for China to develop transgenic technology.

With regard to the issue of GM labeling of public concern, he Yibing said that the Ministry of Agriculture is studying whether the GM labeling system needs to be modified.

At present, only China in the world has adopted mandatory qualitative identification, which can be said to be the most stringent. Other countries have adopted quantitative labeling, that is, setting a threshold for genetically modified ingredients, such as the European Union, where genetically modified ingredients are identified only if they exceed 0.9%.

He Yibing stressed that the GM logo only provides people with the right to choose and the right to know, and has nothing to do with the safety of GM. However, there is a cost to label GMOs. The current view is that companies will eventually pass on this cost to consumers.

As an official in charge of the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the Ministry of Agriculture, he Yibing has also found that public awareness and debate about GMOs have become increasingly rational in the past two years.

It is reported that due to the increase in public attention to GM-related information, the Ministry of Agriculture has been in court twice as a "defendant" and three times this year. 'Public supervision is welcome,'he Yibing said.

Americans only grow and don't eat GM?

Earlier, it was reported on the Internet that although Americans produce genetically modified crops, they do not eat them.

At this seminar, Professor Zhu Health, academician of the American Academy of Sciences, said that although he personally did not count how many Americans eat genetically modified foods, judging from the figures, even though most of the genetically modified crops are used as feed, human beings have to eat chicken and beef. Exposure to GM is inevitable.

A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily noted that the US Embassy in China clarified this through its official Wechat in October this year, calling the above claim a rumor. In fact, genetically modified crops have been widely and safely consumed in the United States for more than 20 years. In a typical American grocery store, about 2/3 of products contain genetically modified ingredients. Moreover, most of the GM crops grown in the United States are used for domestic consumption.

Sweet potato is the first natural genetically modified crop.

At the meeting, Professor Zhu introduced the latest findings made by foreign scientists this year: sweet potatoes contain the gene of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. This means that the first GM crop was produced under natural conditions at least thousands of years ago, and the Agrobacterium tumefaciens gene infects the genome of wild sweet potatoes. Sweet potato is a natural genetically modified crop. It is understood that the findings were published in the May 5, 2015 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and scientists studied 291 sweet potato varieties.

"if you have a natural fear of genetically modified genes, do you have to worry more about eating sweet potatoes in the future?" Zhu Health said.