China has approved the safety of a gene-edited soybean, its first approval of the technology in a crop, as the country increasingly looks to science to boost food production.
Reutersreports the soybean, developed by privately owned Shandong Shunfeng Biotechnology, has two modified genes which significantly raise the level ofhealthy fat oleic acidin the plant.
Genetic modification introduces foreign genes into a plant. This technology is said to to be less risky than GMOs and more lightly regulated in some countries, including China, which publishedruleson gene-editing last year.
U.S.-basedCalyxtalso developed a high oleic soybean approved in the U.S. in 2019. In 2020, the company contracted with tosell all of itshigh oleic soybean production to ADM.
