Friday 24 February 2012

Beijing moves to root out GM crops

This is an odd one: China moving to ban genetically modified crops.  In the past all I've read about pragmatic China is that it's developing GM crops on its own, varieties like "golden rice".  So it's a surprise to see this ban. It won't help with the predicted 70-100 million tonne shortfall in grain production by 2030.
Greenpeace, predictably, support the ban and call for more environmentally friendly agriculture.
But what's more friendly than varieties that need less insecticide, fewer chemical fertilizers, are resistant to main insect predators, use less water, produce more, cut carbon emissions....
The link is here, though it's behind a paywall.