GE Corn in the EU

[Guest guest]

hello everyone,

this is really disturbing are we losing our fight?

 

 

BRUSSELS - The EU's food safety agency gave a clean bill of health yesterday to a type of genetically modified maize made by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto, considering it safe to be eaten by both humans and animals.

 

The positive assessment of the maize, known as MON 863, is the third to be issued by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) - but it is still only a small step down a long road towards lifting the EU's six-year ban on new biotech foods. "The panel has concluded that MON 863 maize, genetically modified to confer protection against certain insects, is as safe as conventional maize," EFSA said in a statement. "Consequently, its placing on the market - for import, processing and food or feed use - is unlikely to have an adverse effect on human or animal health, or on the environment in the context of its intended use," it said. The risk assessment was requested by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm. EFSA said it was unable to reach a conclusion on another Commission request for a view on a second Monsanto (MNSN.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) maize type, the hybrid MON 863/MON 810, since the agency's panel of scientific experts was divided over the need for specific data. In its first biotech food assessment in December, EFSA gave a clean bill of health to another Monsanto product, a herbicide-resistant GM maize type known as NK603. Then, in March, it issued a similar opinion on Monsanto 's GT73 rapeseed. EU member states will now have to decide whether to allow imports of the MON 863 maize, which has been engineered to resist certain field pests, principally one known as corn rootworm. If approved for importing, it would not be for growing but only for human and animal consumption, the same to the first two Monsanto products. But the 15 countries are deeply split on whether to end the EU's ban, the focus of a bitter trade row with Washington which has launched a trade suit against EU policy, arguing that Europe is acting illegally and without scientific proof. The unofficial moratorium on new biotech approvals comes under the spotlight next week, when EU farm ministers debate an authorisation for a gene-spliced maize known as Bt-11 and manufactured by Swiss agrochemicals firm Syngenta (SYNN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) . The ministers will discuss Bt-11 at a meeting on April 26. So far, all signs are that little has changed to break the deadlock among the 15 states. If the ministers cannot agree to approve or reject the maize, the Commission will have the legal power to grant authorisation and thereby lift the moratorium.

 

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

[Guest guest]

u folks across the pond are still better off then us over here, where GMO crops are still planted willy nilly everywhere(except in mendocino county)

[Guest guest]

I reckon they will find a way to get it into everything eventually. Luckily in UK at present there are so many people against it and boycotting it that it is having an effect - the government decided it would not be viable to go ahead with growing the crops here because nobody was buying it.

 

I hope that the campaigners will be able to keep it in the public eye all the time so that people do not forget to boycott it, and keep checking their labels etc.

 

Jo

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Fraggle

 

We're doing well at the moment - I hope we can keep it up.

 

JO

 

u folks across the pond are still better off then us over here, where GMO crops are still planted willy nilly everywhere(except in mendocino county)