November 23, 2007

EU environment commissioner to reject Syngenta's, DuPont's GM corn

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas announced that he will reject the cultivation of two varieties of genetically modified (GM) corn from Syngenta and DuPont because of risks to the environment.

Dimas said the risk to the environment is too high, based on several recent scientific studies.

He however said at this point the decision will still be up to the EU Commission.

The commissioner is proposing to reject the requests from Swiss company Syngenta to grow GM corn Bt 11, and US company EI Du Pont de Nemours & Co unit Pioneer's request to grow GM corn 1507. These two varieties of GM corn received a favourable recommendation in 2005 from the European Food Safety Agency.

According to an EU source, Dimas wishes to take precautions, as other scientific studies have expressed doubts about the long-term effects of these GM corn varieties, particularly when they are ingested by 'non-targeted organisms', such as birds.

The Bt varieties of corn have been modified to give them resistance to the main harmful insects, including the European corn borer. The 1507 corn is resistant to certain species of butterfly.

The only GM corn which is commercially cultivated in the EU to date is Monsanto's MON 810.