According to China's Ministry of Agriculture, China's agricultural authorities issued biosafety certificates to three new overseas varieties of genetically modified soybeans on Thursday, allowing them to be imported as raw materials for domestic food processing.

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Genetically modified soybean is a soybean that has had DNA introduced into it in a way other than the combination of male and female gametes. This process may be carried out using "recombinant DNA technology." As a widely planted and versatile crop, soybeans have become a popular subject of genetic modification.

In an interview with Peng Yufa, a member and researcher from Chinese biosafety committee in charge of agricultural GM organisms. He said the newly approved GM soybeans included herbicide tolerance CV127, insect resistance MON87701 and insect resistance & herbicide tolerance MON87701xMON89788. Besides the three types of GM soybeans, China's agricultural authorities have also issued biosafety certificates to five othertyprd of GM soybean imports. They are GTS40-3-2, A2704-12, MON89788, 356043 and 305423.

Peng Yufa introduced that China has begun to import soybeans since 1995, then China began to import some varieties of genetically modified agricultural products as early as 1997 in order to meet domestic demand.At present, besides the United States, a substantial proportion of GM agricultural products such as soybeans and corn have been imported from Brazil and Argentina.Increasing domestic need for fodder and food processing drives the demand of soybeans.Besides meeting domestic needs in quantity, imported GM agricultural products are always better than domestic traditional varieties in quality. Compared with domestic soybeans, imported GM crops have higher oil and protein content.

2009, China imported 42.55 million tons of GM soybeans; 2010, China imported 54.80 million tons; 2011, China imported 51.83 million tons. Last year, China imported 58.38 million tons of GM soybeans, mostly from the United States, Brazil and Argentina.