Govt 'has an open mind' on GM food

Safety is country's top concern as transparent approval process urged

BEIJING - The government has an open attitude toward genetically modified (GM) food despite controversies swirling around the issue, experts have said.

The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) has only made it clear that "there is no commercial planting of GM food crops in China now but it hasn't stated whether it will allow it later," Jiang Gaoming, professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Botany, told China Daily on Wednesday.