To support his contentions, Chen said that GM rice, first produced by scientists in the US, still hasn't gained official approval from the US government. However, the US authorities have actually granted licenses to six varieties of GM rice. The commercial planting of two varieties - anti-herbicide (BAR) transgenic rice LL RICE 06 and LL RICE 62 - produced by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, was approved in 1999 and a license for cultivation for edible use was granted in 2000.

Limited land resources

Earlier this month, Max Holtzman, senior advisor to the United States Secretary of Agriculture, told China National Radio that more than 90 percent of US-produced corn and soybeans are GM crops. He said that 20 percent of the corn and 40 percent of soybeans are exported, while the remainder is consumed domestically. Approximately 70 percent of all processed foods in the US market contain genetically modified ingredients and, to date, there has never been a safety incident associated with the consumption of GM foods, he added.

One of the 61 petitioners, Zhang Qifa, director of the National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement at Huazhong Agriculture University, said delaying the commercial cultivation of GM rice would cause great harm to China and science. His comments echoed a statement by the scientists, who criticized the Ministry of Agriculture for dragging its feet over the issue.

"When two of our GM rice varieties were granted safety certificates by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2009, I was quite confident. But four years later, the ministry still hasn't rolled out any specific protocols for the commercialization of GM rice," said Zhang.

Currently, the safety certificates issued to Zhang's research team are the only ones to have been awarded in China, and he fears that the commercialization of GM rice in China is unlikely to make much headway once they expire in May next year.

Lin Yongjun, project leader of insect-resistant transgenic rice varieties at Huazhong Agricultural University, said the certificates were granted only after rigorous testing and inspection, including a 90-day experiment during which the rice was fed to rats, and tests carried out on three successive generations of rice to ensure product safety.

Zhang said the urgent need for the commercialization of GM foods corresponds to calls from academics keen to correct the imbalance between China's grain output and demand. Wu Kongming, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the situation is so grave that China cannot afford to postpone the development and adoption of GM technology.

"China has 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of arable land. The country imported more than 58 million metric tons of soybeans last year, and if rice, wheat, barley and canola are also included, imports totaled 80 million tons. It would take 800 million mu just to plant an equal amount of food. China is not rich in land resources, so we can't simply rely on traditional methods to meet our requirements. We must take advantage of modern high-tech agriculture," he said.

GM crops have a number of obvious advantages, including high yield rates and increased resistance to pests, which could result in more efficient use of land and a reduction in the use of pesticides. Cultivation of GM cotton and papaya has already been approved, but because those crops don't belong to the mainstream food groups, there has been less resistance to their use.