In January, the Chinese government specifically pledged to “promote the commercialization of new, domestically developed GM crops” in its annual agricultural policy plan for the first time. It was also reported that other than the two strains of GM rice and one strain of GM corn already approved, seven other varieties of GM rice developed by various Chinese research institutions were also pending approval.
Possible Backfire?
However, many opponents of the commercialization of GM crops doubt the effectiveness of the current national strategy in protecting China’s seed market, warning that the influx of multinationals may leave overseas companies the final beneficiaries of any commercialization of GM crops.
In a 2008 report, Greenpeace and the Third World Network (TWN) claimed that they have found that three breeds of GM rice including a variation of the one officially approved by the MOA, were protected by anything from five to 11 international patents belonging to overseas companies. The report warned that the covert involvement of multinational seed companies in domestic GM research will pose a serious threat to the food security and autonomy of China should GM rice be commercialized.
Despite denials from some researchers at the Central China Agricultural University responsible for the development of the two officially approved strains of GM rice, there are reports that others have admitted to foreign patenting on these strains.
By the end of 2009, there were an estimated 76 foreign seed companies operating in China. 26 are entirely foreign-owned and 50 are joint ventures involving more than 30 multinationals, including all five of the world’s largest seed companies. The same companies have also established close ties to various research institutions through conferences, scholarship programs and research cooperation.
“Although by law, foreign companies are required to own less than a 50 percent share of any joint venture, multinationals control core assets, technologies and intellectual property,” said Zhao Gang, a researcher at the China Science and Technology for Development Research Center.
Multinationals are keen to play down their role in the Chinese market. For example, Michelle Chang, public affairs officer from the Monsanto Company in China told NewsChina that spinach is Monsanto’s main crop in China, with the multinational responsible for less than five percent of the total domestic spinach market.
However, many are concerned that multinationals remain in control of China’s food security through joint ventures acting as intermediaries, as is the case with soybeans.
In his latest book Neo-imperialism Against China, the renowned economist, Lang Xianping also warned that the commercialization of GM crops will leave China in a similar position to Brazil and Argentina, where multinationals, in particular Monsanto, have gained a stranglehold on the seed market, exacerbating rural poverty with high seed premiums.
Effective Supervision
Instead of criticizing the notion of a national GM strategy, many academics argue that the main weakness of the government’s current policy is the thin spread of public resources across a large number of research institutions and private seed companies, none of whom are guaranteed to act in accordance with national interests.
“So many grants are poured into this field that almost any GM scientist can receive funding, even those in minor research institutes and city-level seed companies,” said professor Jiang Gaoming.
“GM seeds are often called ‘golden seeds’, meaning profitability, and are very enticing to both research institutions and seed companies [whether domestic or foreign],” Xue Yuanda, Principal Researcher of Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science, told NewsChina.
It is estimated that the value of China’s seed market has increased from 20 billion yuan (US2.6bn) in 2001 to 50 billion yuan (US7.3bn) in 2009, making China the second largest seed market in the world after the US. It is unlikely that China’s individual researchers and companies will act reliably in accordance with national interests, given their stake in the marketplace.
“It’s like a mass movement,” said Zhu Yingguo, senior botanist and seed developer of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, “Such irrational and haphazard research practices are prone to mistakes.” Zhu believes that public-funded GM research projects should be concentrated among a limited number of institutions and proceed under strict State supervision.
Zhu’s opinion was echoed in a recent high-profile petition to the State Council, submitted by dozens of members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the nation’s highest consultative body, on March 7. While acknowledging the importance of GM research in securing China’s future food security, the petition opposed the commercialization of major staple crops and urged the government to concentrate its efforts on further GM research.
In mid-April, local authorities in Hunan Province, acting on public tip-offs, announced the sale of GM rice in local stores, perhaps indicating a less tolerant official attitude towards the illegal cultivation of GM crops.
However, this may be just a single shot in the ongoing battle for control of China’s lucrative seed market.
May 2010
