May 6, 2009

 

US biotechnology company Monsanto Co. lost a court battle Tuesday (May 5) against a move by Germany to outlaw a type of GM corn manufactured by the firm seen as a danger to the environment.

 

The administrative court in the central city of Brunswick denied the company an emergency injunction against the ban on MON 810 corn, which Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner introduced last month on environmental grounds.

 

The court said the government had presented enough evidence that the corn - modified to be super resistant to crop-destroying insects - "poses a risk as laid out in genetic technology law."

 

It said Berlin was under no obligation to provide definitive scientific proof of a danger to the environment to justify outlawing the crop.

 

Aigner said recent studies indicated that MON 810 not only produced a substance toxic to predators but also to other insects and that the plant's pollen spread further than originally thought.

 

Monsanto called Aigner's policy a "capricious ban" with no scientific basis and said it was reviewing whether to appeal the decision to a higher court.

 

It has argued that the safety of MON 810 has been demonstrated by the US, Japan, Canada and the European Commission.