The front page story of today’s Southern Weekend (nanfang zhoumo) is a special report on the situation of genetically modified rice in China.
On December 1 of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture held a secret meeting to discuss commercial genetically modified rice planting. If the made at that meeting is approved, China will become the first country to plant genetically modified rice commercially on a large scale.
Doubts about genetically modified rice include worries about the environmental safety of planting such rice and also about the potential profits that encourage researchers and advocators of genetically modified crops.
The article asks whether scientists research genetically modified rice for national benefit or personal profit and why they can take risks to use bio-technology that will influence 1.3 billion people without being able to assure safety.
The pictured front page is from South Weekend.