Ministry has to do more to ease people's GM food safety fears

CUI YONGYUAN, a former famous news anchor, recently posted several photos via his micro blog account, claiming the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs for promoting genetically modified (GM) food nationwide while not allowing GM food to appear in its own canteen. On Wednesday, the ministry responded, saying it bought all its foodstuff in the market. Thepaper.cn comments:

There have long been rumors about the ministry having its own special suppliers of foodstuff and rejecting the GM foods that it promotes to consumers nationwide.

The ministry has even responded to the claims on several occasions. As early as 2013, Bi Meijia, spokesperson for the then Ministry of Agriculture, said that their canteens got all their food products from the market. Yet five years later, the rumor is still rampant.

The fact that a rumor can survive over the past five years despite the denials shows the ministry lacks the trust of the public, as people still have doubts about not only its words but also deeds.

That has much to do with the lack of consensus over the GM food issue. Even though many scientists repeatedly express their opinions that GM food is safe, there are still a large number of people who do not believe it.

In order to rally consensus, there is no better way than promoting transparency. The more the public knows about GM food, the less concerns they will have about it. That in turn requires the ministry to answer their doubts in time, as they did this time, to avoid misunderstanding and unnecessary panic.

More importantly, the law must be improved to better protect people's right to choose. The new Food Safety Law requires food producers to clearly label GM foodstuff, but there is no detailed regulation on how they should do that. Neither is there any detailed regulation on what punishments food producers and sellers will face if they fail to label GM food.

Only transparency will ease people's fears of GM foods and help the ministry regain the people's trust.