A former reporter cooked up a recipe for controversy after posting online videos of him eating genetically modified food.

Xiang Dongliang received more than 100,000 abusive messages - and a death threat - even though he admitted that his 100 consecutive days of eating genetically modified, or GM, food was too small a sample to prove its safety. "It was more of a declaration. I wanted to show that somebody is actually eating GM foods on a long-term basis," he said. "I was not bankrolled."

Xiang resigned his post as a reporter covering the agricultural beat at a newspaper in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, in August, and devoted himself to convincing the public that GM technology is safe.