Pesticide results help China edge transgenic rice towards market

Abstract

China is poised to commercialize genetically modified rice, as data have just been published that advocate the rice's health benefits. China has four varieties of genetically modified rice in the final stage of field trials. Some obserevers however have suggested that China has simply been taking advantage of biotechnology concerns in Europe. Since introducing these new genetically modified rice the use of pesticides have dropped 80% possibly decreasing pesticide-related illness. Selling genetically modified rice in China could lead to the acceptance of other crops, but unregulated distribution could lead to ecologically unbalanced agriculture.