September 21, 2007

Japan approves Monsanto GM Corn

Monsanto's lysine-containing corn called LY038 has gained the nod by the Japanese Ministries of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Environment as it cleared the first-class application regulation under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, allowing its cultivation in fields.

LY038 corn has been approved as an animal feed in Japan as it passed regulations concerning safety and commercialisation, allowing applications in human and animal feed, its cultivation, processing, preservation, transport and other necessary commercial practices.

Monsanto said LY038 was created for the purpose of developing a corn plant with much higher lysine content. To this end, dent corn, which is widely grown in the US, was genetically modified with CordapA, a gene in C. glutamicum, a kind of cryneform bacteria used in amino acid fermentation, so as to express dihydropicolinic acid-producing enzyme which acts to increase the lysine content in the product.

The development was carried out by Renessen LLC, a joint venture between Monsanto (US) and Cargill, a global food company. The genetically modified corn was given US approval in 2006.

Monsanto Japan however that it is still uncertain whether LY038 will be allowed for commercialisation in Japan or not. However, it is possible for the corn to be imported as animal feed.