Save our Seeds

The Lithuanian ministry of the decided on Tuesday that it will not issue the permit to cultivate genetically modified summer rape for test purposes. The decision comes amid a visit by European Union Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Marianna Fischer Boel, who prompted Lithuanians not to fear genetically modified foodstuffs. Last October, German company BASF Plant Science GmbH applied for a permit to grow genetically modified summer rape on the test fields of the Agriculture Institute in the district of Klaipeda for test purposes. Their application has been denied by the Lithuanian ministry of agriculture.

On March 6, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging that in 2002 Charles M. Martin, then Monsanto Co."s ”Government Affairs Director for Asia, authorized and directed an Indonesian consulting firm to pay a bribe totaling $50,000 to a senior Indonesian Ministry of Environment official.” The payment, the filing said, ”was made to influence the Senior Environment Official to repeal language in a decree that was unfavorable to Monsanto"s business in Indonesia.”

Independent farmers and agricultural firms are opposing a curb on genetically modified crops. A new bill restricting the application of bio-technology to increase crop output and resilience was approved by the Sejm in February and is now awaiting finalization. The bill comes in the wake of an EU court’s decision that a Polish ban on genetically modified (GM) crops, introduced in the summer of 2006, cannot override EU laws permitting the cultivation and trade of GM crops.

Ecologists’ second strike secured a victory for the future of Romania’s agriculture: 14 villages in the Cluj county (the Huedin region) followed the example of their Bihor county neighbors and declared this region as free from any genetically modified organisms. The localities include the small town of Huedin and 13 villages, while the Bihor GMO-free zone includes two towns and 24 villages.

The European Union authorised German drugs and chemicals group Bayer on Monday to market various genetically modified (GMO) rapeseed types across the bloc for the next 10 years, the EU executive said. Bayer"s application relates to industrial processing, which includes use in animal feed, for rapeseed types Ms8, Rf3 and hybrids of these two -- all engineered to resist the glufosinate-ammonium herbicide. It does not involve cultivation. The EU decision is a rubberstamp procedure applied by the European Commission -- the EU"s executive arm. It is permitted under a legal default process that kicks in when ministers are unable to agree among themselves after a period of three months.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is consulting with EU member states to ascertain whether further data are available to help it with its renewed assessment of Monsanto"s GM maize MON 863; its evaluation, based on this input and the work of its GMO panel, is expected to take several weeks.

The European Commission asked EFSA two weeks ago to examine the recently published CRIIGEN study on genetically modified maize MON 863, and see whether it has any consequences for the authority"s existing opinion on the safety of Monsanto"s transgenic maize.

Five GM varieties, approved by the European Union during the mid 90ies have been withdrawn from the list of authorized GMOs by the EU Commission. However, traces of these genetically engineered oilseed rape and maize varities are still allowed in food for another 5 years.

France said on Tuesday it had brought its national legislation into line with European Union laws on growing genetically modified (GMO) crops, hoping to end a legal battle with Europe’s top court. The French farm ministry said in a statement it was publishing in the official journal the two main decrees converting into French law the European directive on GMO commercial and experimental crops. The directive, agreed by EU governments in 2001, regulates how GMO crops may be grown and approved across the bloc.

”There is no necessity of amendments in GMO Law at this point”. This was the conclusion reached on an informal meeting by representatives of the Parliamentarian Environmental Committee, the Minister of environment and his political cabinet. The Bulgarian law is not in conflict with the European legislation, it is even more restrictive. Only if the European Commission comes up with a explicit position about policy change we will consider this issue. Until now the regulations did not cause serious contradictions with the practice, said George Bozhinov, Chair of the standing committee on environment.

The U.S. Agriculture Department ordered seed dealers not to sell BASF"s "Clearfield" rice as it"s seeds are contaminated with Bayer"s illegal GM Rice LL 601. At the same time preliminary approval was given to grow a GM rice variety that contains human genes.