1. China's ministry of agriculture under attack over apparent double standard
2. Amid milk scare, China's elite eat all-organic
NOTE: Here are two classic articles (item 2 is from 2008) showing how the Chinese elite engage in the most amazing double standards - like a number of other prominent GM promoters!
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Please tell any contacts in China that the scientific report on the health and environmental risks of GM soy, GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?, which is available in English and four other languages here -
http://www.gmwatch.org/component/content/article/12479-reports-reports
- has been translated into Chinese (with added commentary) and is available at: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4bb17e9d0100mq3q.html
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1. Ministry of Agriculture under attack over apparent double standard
By Yang Ruoyu and Ge Lili, Global Times
People's Daily Online (China)
December 10, 2010
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7226852.html
The Ministry of Agriculture was criticized for promoting genetically modified (GM) food as safe for human consumption while calling for one of its affiliated kindergartens not to use transgenic edible oil.
Mei Xinyu, an official from the Ministry of Commerce, wrote on his microblog Tuesday that the kindergarten run by the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing recently issued a notice saying transgenic edible oil should be banned in the school's kitchen.
GM food was first introduced in the early 1990s. Some experts said GM food has many advantages such as boosting production, but some question whether modified products are safe.
Chen Mengsheng, a Ministry of Agriculture spokesman, said they will introduce measures to oversee GM food and will support use of new technologies to improve them. Earlier, the ministry said GM food was safe to eat.
People became furious after learning that the kindergarten issued the notice and questioned the intentions of the ministry. "I think the ministry is ridiculous," said Fang Lifeng of Greenpeace and a GM food expert. "The banning of GM oil in the kindergarten will no doubt make people suspicious about the safety of GM food."
The kindergarten deleted a clause in the notice about GM oil after criticism surfaced against the ministry and circulated on the Internet.
Many Internet users displayed anger on Mei's microblog. A microblogger named Tianxia said the ministry is using people as guinea pigs to test whether GM food is safe.
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2. Amid milk scare, China's elite eat all-organic
Government outlet provides safe, special food for the nation’s leaders
Associated Press
9/24/2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26874854/
BEIJING ”” While China grapples with its latest tainted food crisis, the political elite are served the choicest, safest delicacies. They get hormone-free beef from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, organic tea from the foothills of Tibet and rice watered by melted mountain snow.
And it's all supplied by a special government outfit that provides all-organic goods from farms working under the strictest guidelines.
That secure food supply stands in stark contrast to the frustrations of ordinary citizens who have faced recurring food scandals ”” vegetables with harmful pesticide residue, fish tainted with a cancer-causing chemical, eggs colored with industrial dye, fake liquor causing blindness or death, holiday pastries with bacteria-laden filling.
Now that the country's most reputable dairies have been found selling baby formula and other milk products tainted with an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and kidney failure, many Chinese don't know what to buy. Tens of thousands of children have been sickened and four babies have died.
Citizens' outrage
Knowing that their leaders do not face these problems has made some people angry.
"Food safety is a high priority for children and families of government officials, so are normal citizens less entitled to safe food?" asked Zhong Lixun, feeding her 7-month-old grandson baby formula after he got checked for kidney stones at Beijing Children’s Hospital.
The State Council Central Government Offices Special Food Supply Center is specifically designed to avoid the problems troubling the general population.
"We all know that average production facilities use large quantities of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Antibiotics and hormones are commonly used in raising livestock and poultry. Farmed aquatic products are contaminated by various kinds of water pollution," the center’s director, Zhu Yonglan, said in a speech earlier this year.
"It goes without saying that these are harmful when consumed by humans," Zhu told executives at supplier Shandong Ke'er Biological Medical Technology Development Co., which posted it on its Web site.
Zhu's speech has been widely circulated by Chinese Internet users on blogs and forums in recent days, with many expressing outrage that top government officials have a separate ”” and safer ”” food supply than the public.