China Seeks to Quell Booming Market in GMO Corn

(Beijing) — As this year’s corn harvest approached, the fields of 44-year-old seed producer Li Yongjun lay bare. A couple of months earlier, agricultural authorities in Fuhai county, northern Xinjiang, had conducted random tests and discovered that some of his corn was genetically modified. His entire plot was then burned to the ground.

Li’s case is not an isolated incident. In an apparent bid to appease a public overwhelmingly opposed to crops that are genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, the Ministry of Agriculture has been putting pressure on local governments to crack down on the booming underground market for the seeds, which are either smuggled in or bred on-site. In the process, hundreds of acres of cornfields found to have had illegal GMO corn have been set ablaze across China.