China Rejects 545,000 Tons of US Genetically Modified Corn

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 20, 2013 @04:49AM from the kernel-of-dissatisfaction dept.

hawkinspeter writes "The BBC is reporting that China has rejected 545,000 tons of U.S. corn that was found to contain an unapproved genetically modified strain. Although China doesn't have a problem per se with GM crops (they've been importing GM soybeans since 1997) — but their product safety agency found MIR162 in 12 batches of corn. 'The safety evaluation process [for MIR162] has not been completed and no imports are allowed at the moment before the safety certificate is issued,' said Nui Din, China's vice agricultural minister. The Chinese are now calling on U.S. authorities to tighten their controls to prevent unapproved strains from being sent to China after the first batch of corn was rejected in November due to MIR162."

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Re:Good luck keeping the genie in the bottle by tomhath · 2013-12-20 05:07 · Score: 3, Interesting

No reason to believe this was cross-pollination. Virtually all corn raised in the US is grown from hybrid seed which is controlled and tested. But farmers can bring whatever they have to a grain elevator and say it isn't such and such variety.
Not sure how the South China Sea incident relates to this, the US ship continued following the Chinese aircraft carrier.
Re:This is despicable and indecent by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-20 05:10 · Score: 2, Interesting

Where does it say they threw it away? They rejected the first of a series of shipments. It just means the ship will need to unload somewhere else.
Trust us.... by jasper160 · 2013-12-20 05:21 · Score: 3, Interesting

It was tested for two years http://cera-gmc.org/index.php?action=gm_crop_database&mode=ShowProd&data=MIR162. Considering most drugs take decades if they even make it to market.

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