Germany bans Monsanto's GM maize

[frigidmagi]

BBC

Germany is to ban the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) maize - the only GM crop widely grown in Europe.

The decision, announced on Tuesday by German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner, is a blow to the US biotech firm Monsanto, which markets the maize.

Monsanto's variety, called MON 810, is resistant to the corn borer, a moth larva which eats the stem.

MON 810 is controversial in the EU. Several countries have banned it, defying the European Commission.

Ms Aigner, a member of the conservative Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU), said she had concluded that "there is a justifiable reason to believe that... MON 810 presents a danger to the environment".

The variety has been allowed in Germany since 2005. Ms Aigner said the decision to ban it now, based on new data, was purely scientific, not political. She also said it was a specific case, and not a fundamental decision against all GM crops.

In March EU governments resisted European Commission pressure to get bans on MON 810 lifted. The commission wanted Austria and Hungary to allow cultivation of MON 810. The variety is also banned in France and Greece.

The UK was among a handful of countries that supported the commission's position, the AFP news agency reports.

Germany was planning to sow MON 810 on just 3,600 hectares (8,892 acres) for this summer's harvest, mostly in its eastern states.

Opponents of GM crops say more scientific data is needed, arguing that their long-term genetic impact on humans and wildlife could be harmful.

The biotech industry says the crops are as safe as traditional varieties, and that they would provide plentiful, cheaper food.

I have my own complaints with the biotech industry but seriously as there ever been one case, just one where someone was harmed by a GM food?

[Norseman]

I have my own complaints with the biotech industry but seriously as there ever been one case, just one where someone was harmed by a GM food?

You know that saying "Lightpole, rope, politician, some assembly required"? That's pretty much what many, if not most, Europeans think when they hear that politicians are *allowing* GM foods. No one will ever lose votes by banning GM foods, which is precisely why they do it.

[frigidmagi]

It's bloody a ridiculous thing to be up in arms over. Seriously everything that's going on right now and y'all pick that to threaten bodily harm to your politicos over?

[Comrade Tortoise]

Honestly, the fear over genetically modified foods is completely unfounded and the europeans are engaging in scaremongering Neo-Luddism. Monsanto is full of fucking monsters, but the crops themselves are benign.

[Batman]

It's food. This being Europe in general and Germany in special I very much suspect there's TONS of rules and regulations already to make sure the food is benign (and while those HAVE been ineffective/circumvened in the past I fail to see why that should be inherently easier for GM food than any other kind).
Besides, they way I see it, we've been eating GM food for thousands of years.