Environmental group Greenpeace on Wednesday said that in China's northeast farmers are unlawfully planting and growing genetically modified corn.

Beijing, China's capital city, has resorted to grow genetically modified crops with the hopes of solving one of the country's major issues - food supply. Although Beijing's authorities have spent a huge amount of money in developing GM crops, their commercial cultivation has not been approved yet.

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Greenpeace's announcement about the illegal GM crops in China may likely trigger more doubts about the government's ability to guarantee safe food supply. These findings prove that extensive contamination of GM to the food chain is possible.

Greenpeace shared that 93% of the samples gathered last year from various corn fields in five regions of Liaoning province tested positive for being genetically modified. Even crops from grain markets and supermarkets also tested positive for being GM.

According to Greenpeace, how the GM corn seedds got into the marketplace is still unknown. There are speculations that GM plants are been illegally sold to farmers for commercial use. Greenpeace has suggested that the authorities carry out an annual inspections of crops in north China and ensure firmer supervision of GM crop cultivation and research.

China's agricultural ministry has not yet given any response to the report. The ministry has said that the regulations are already changing to enhance management of biotech products that are being developed.

The situation may be beneficial to Beijing in the sense that authorities would be more cautious in pursuing the commercialization of GM crops. Moreover, supporters of biotech products believe that commercialization would ensure farmers' do not choose unapproved crop varieties.

Tagsagriculture, crop, genetically modified, corn