We can analyze how realistic these concerns are based on some basic knowledge and common sense.
From a health point of view, it is whether genetically modified soybean oil contains harmful ingredients. As for edible oil, we know that its main component is triglyceride, and the function of genes transferred from transgenic soybeans is to make plants produce more EPSPS enzymes, which has nothing to do with the composition of vegetable oil. Therefore, the theme component of soybean oil has nothing to do with the production of transgenic plants. The key is whether some trace amounts are mixed into it, thus affecting people's safety. These harmful ingredients are suspected to come from the following aspects. First, the transferred gene fragments enter the human body and affect human genes. The second is that too much EPSPS synthetase enters the human body, which affects human health. Thirdly, transgenic plants may have functions unknown to human beings, that is, plants can synthesize some substances harmful to human health, which will affect human body together with soybean oil. Fourth, crops may use too much glyphosate herbicide, which may enter the human body with soybean oil and affect human health.
For the genes that affect human beings, this can be said to be completely non-existent. It is not difficult to understand that if the transferred gene fragments can affect human genes, so can the conventional genes of food. For human beings, both of them are foreign genes from outside the human body, and there is no difference. Physiologically speaking, people can only absorb small molecules. Genes are located in DNA, which is a macromolecule and will be broken down into small molecular nucleotides in the digestive tract. The genetic information recorded in DNA is only different in nucleotide sequence. If digested into independent nucleotides, there is no sequence and no genetic information, so it is no longer a gene. EPSPS enzyme is a kind of protein, and protein is also a kind of macromolecule. After digestion, it will become amino acids, and the enzyme will not exist. However, it is necessary to consider whether the human body can digest it completely, and whether there will be other effects if some remains in the intestine. You may be worried about whether this transgenic has other functions that people don't know, and if so, it is very little. Only by transferring the gene fragment with single function, people will understand its function better. On the contrary, it is more difficult for people to predict the effect of new varieties cultivated by traditional methods. At the same time, the existing detection methods have not found that the genetically modified soybean oil contains harmful components to human health, and the genetically modified soybean oil has been used for quite some time, and no examples of problems to human health have been found. For the problem of herbicide residues, firstly, it is not only genetically modified crops that use herbicides. For the problem of herbicide residues in food, it can be avoided by testing according to relevant food safety laws and regulations.
From an ecological point of view, first of all, there is no need to worry that glyphosate-resistant soybeans will become super weeds, because soybeans can only resist glyphosate, not other herbicides and pests, and have no other competitive advantages. The possibility of genetically modified soybeans becoming weeds is no different from that of traditional soybeans. Soybean has been planted in China for thousands of years without serious weeds. At the same time, crops that can resist herbicides are far more than genetically modified soybeans.
Don't worry about the impact on local soybean resources. There are two key links here. First of all, soybeans are self-pollinated. Second, genetically modified soybeans are only imported from abroad and are not planted in China. There is only one way to threaten local soybean resources, that is, genetically modified soybeans bloom near local soybeans and cross with local soybeans, so that the offspring produced by local soybeans have genetically modified ingredients. A little analysis shows that the probability of this happening is very small. First of all, we don't grow genetically modified soybeans. If soybeans bloom, there will be soybeans scattered in the ground or stolen for planting during the period from customs entry to processing into soybean oil in the processing plant. This chance is very small. China's native soybeans are concentrated in the northeast, while the soybean oil processing plant that Greenpeace mainly opposes is located in Shenzhen. If you lose a few beans in Shenzhen and pass them on from generation to generation, it will not be so easy to achieve. Of course, not all native soybean varieties are located in the northeast, and not all soybean oil processing plants are located in Shenzhen, but if the distance factor is considered, this discount will still be made. Even if there are many genetically modified soybeans in full bloom around the local soybean producing areas, it does not necessarily pose a great threat. This is because soybean is self-pollinated, although cross-pollination occasionally causes hybridization, but the proportion is very small. Moreover, even if there is hybridization, the offspring of hybridization will have enough advantages to make one or more local varieties disappear, and there will be a problem of probability. However, after being circulated to the market and planted by farmers in a large area, the consequences will be difficult to calculate. After transgenic soybeans entered China, most of them flowed into edible oil processing enterprises with foreign investment background, and their products quickly occupied most of the market, thus affecting the soybean processing resources and environment in China, which was not conducive to the development of local edible oil processing enterprises. Some local edible oil processing enterprises in China use raw materials such as non-genetically modified soybeans, which are more expensive and less competitive than genetically modified soybean oil. Under the price control of genetically modified soybean oil, the benefits of PetroChina enterprises have fallen sharply and their operations have been in trouble. Looking back on the process that China soybean market was dominated by imported genetically modified soybeans, we can clearly see that the four major international grain merchants (ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus) are full of strategic vision and intend to annex China soybean industry for a long time. First of all, change the traditional edible oil eating habits of China people; Secondly, international grain merchants, as imported foreign capital, enjoy preferential policies and successively set up crushing and processing enterprises with imported soybeans as raw materials in China. At the same time, domestic capital is also involved in the field of oil extraction with imported soybeans as raw materials. When more and more domestic capital enters the field of soybean crushing, crushing enterprises will blossom everywhere. Therefore, China's economists and industry are intoxicated with the eastward shift of the world's soybean crushing center of gravity, China's labor force has a comparative advantage, and China's process of becoming a world processing factory has accelerated. As everyone knows, we have fallen into the pockets of the four major international grain merchants step by step.
Due to the expansion of processing capacity, the shortage of soybean raw materials has become a headache for processing and crushing enterprises. In 2004, some domestic crushing enterprises decided to set up a purchasing group to buy soybeans in the United States to increase their bargaining power. Just before the procurement team went to the United States, the US Department of Agriculture announced that the soybean harvest was poor that year. On the same day, the price of soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade soared from $220 per ton to $39 1, a record high in 15 years. Shortly after the China procurement team signed a huge purchase contract and left the United States, the US Department of Agriculture clarified that the new data showed that the world soybean production would increase substantially. Soybean prices on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped rapidly to $266. Chinese businessmen suffered heavy losses and some enterprises went bankrupt.
However, some commentators believe that the excessive publicity (rather than confidentiality) of the procurement group before placing an order is the reason for pushing up market expectations, not a conspiracy.
At this time, the four major international grain merchants gave timely help to the crushing enterprises in China on the verge of bankruptcy, provided that they transferred their shares. As a result, the four major international grain merchants took the opportunity to acquire and control a large number of China crushing enterprises, and completed the layout of soybean crushing and processing industry in China. The data shows that among the 97 large-scale oil processing enterprises in China, 64 are controlled by foreign capital, accounting for 66%, and foreign capital also accounts for 80% of China's imported soybean processing capacity.
After completely controlling the raw materials, processing and market of China soybean industry chain, the international soybean futures market is making waves again. Affected by the international market, the domestic soybean futures price rose from 2600 yuan at the beginning of 2007 to 4 100 yuan at the end of 2007, and continued to soar in 2008, reaching a maximum of 5240 yuan in July. In just 18 months, the price has doubled. Xia published his research results at the International Forum on Genetically Modified Organisms on September 25th, 2006. "This is not caused by demand, but by market monopoly. Because China is the world's largest soybean importer, the skyrocketing price has caused China to pay an additional $7.8 billion. " He said, "We are willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to buy genetically modified soybeans abroad and pay an extra 7.8 billion dollars, but we are not willing to subsidize farmers. Perhaps as long as 654.38 billion yuan is used for research and development of soybean seeds, farmers in China can use better seeds. "
What is even more frightening is that genetically modified soybeans are trying to further expand their territory in China. Corrupt elements and unscrupulous businessmen in China and American suppliers of genetically modified soybeans jointly set a trap for genetically modified soybeans to be mixed into China grain depot. At the end of last year, the grain department of Heilongjiang Province found that some dealers used the national preferential price to buy domestic soybeans and sold suspected imported genetically modified soybeans to the national grain depot as domestic soybeans to earn the difference. According to the investigation of Heilongjiang Soybean Association, in June, 5438+065438+ 10, Shandong Xinchang Food Company rejected the soybeans sold by Jiamusi traders in Heilongjiang because they were mixed with suspected genetically modified soybeans. Previously, the Jiamusi trader had been selling domestic soybeans in Heilongjiang. It can be said rudely that once China's grain depot is full of genetically modified soybeans, China's soybean industry will be completely controlled by Americans, and China's national security will be more and more controlled by Americans.
Xinhua News Agency announced on the evening of June 13 that the Ministry of Agriculture recently approved the issuance of three import safety certificates for genetically modified soybeans, but did not specify the importing countries. Earlier, it was reported that the government of China had approved the import of genetically modified crops from Argentina and Brazil.