China has given a first green light to a gene-edited soybean, claiming that it is safe.
The move comes as the world’s second most populous country looks to science to boost food production.
The soybean, developed by privately owned Shandong Shunfeng Biotechnology Co Ltd, has two modified genes that significantly raise the level of healthy fat oleic acid in the plant.
The safety certificate was approved for five years from April 21, according to a document published last week by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
ALSO SEE:
China’s Top Financial Data Provider, Wind, Cuts Foreign Access
Unlike genetic modification, which introduces foreign genes into a plant, gene editing alters existing genes.
The technology is considered to be less risky than GMOs and is more lightly regulated in some countries, including China, which published rules on gene-editing last year.
“The approval of the safety certificate is a shot in the arm for the Shunfeng team,” said the firm in a statement on Thursday.
Shunfeng claims to be the first company in China seeking to commercialise gene-edited crops.
It is currently researching around 20 other gene-edited crops, including higher yield rice, wheat and corn, herbicide-resistant rice and soybeans and vitamin C-rich lettuce, said a company representative.
United States-based company Calyxt also developed a high oleic soybean, producing a healthy oil that was the first gene-edited food to be approved in the US in 2019.
Several additional steps are needed before China’s farmers can plant the novel soybean, including approvals of seed varieties with the tweaked genes.
Trials of genetically-modified corn to start soon
The approval comes as trade tensions, erratic weather and war in major grain exporter Ukraine have increased concerns in Beijing over feeding the country’s 1.4 billion people.
A growing middle class is also facing a surge in diet-related disease.
China is promoting GMO crops too, starting large-scale trials of GM corn this year.
Getting gene-edited crops onto the market is expected to be faster however, given fewer steps in the regulatory process.
Aside from the United States, Japan has also approved gene-edited foods, including healthier tomatoes and faster-growing fish.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
ALSO SEE:
China Set To Give Gene-Edited Crops Rules The Green Light
Chinese National Pleads Guilty in Theft of Monsanto Algorithm
Sowing the seeds of agri-tech: China’s new revolution in the fields
China set to OK genetically modified maize and soybean crops
