From Caijing Magazine:
Every summer, crop researcher Zhu Zhen flies eagerly from Beijing to Fujian Province, in southeast China, to care for his patch of pest-resistant, transgenic rice growing in an experimental field.
This new type of rice, impervious to most pests, has been undergoing experiments for years. If approved by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Zhu’s rice could be made available for widespread use on farms.
Approval seems far away, though, and Zhu has been frustrated by the controversy surrounding the commercial application of transgenic rice in China, where rice is a staple. Large-scale farming had been expected as early as in 2005, but the start-up has been delayed again and again due to uncertainties surrounding the safety and environmental implications of transgenic food.
