Monsanto and Dupont/Pioneer Continue Pulling GM Crops from EU

Due to widespread opposition, the biotech industry is pulling their transgenic crops out of the EU. While the EU Commission has yet to make a decisions regarding the cultivation of genetically engineered maize 1507, US companies have quietly withdrawn for applications to cultivate the GE plant in the EU.

According to Testbiotech, two of the many withdrawals were for glyphosate-tolerant seeds marketed by Monsanto, soybean 40-3-2 (Roundup Ready soybean) and maize line NK603. The latter was made famous in the Seralini study first conducted in 2012, and re-published last week after much controversy, and the journal that originally published the study withdrew it.

This information has emerged from a meeting lasting only minutes and held by the Standing Committee on Genetically Modified Food and Feed (SCFCAH) as representatives of member states ponder applications for authorization or denial of GE crops. The meeting was held in the EU.

Following these quiet withdrawals, the EU has only one pending application for a transgenic plant from Monsanto to peruse – a renewal for maize MON 810 that produces its own insecticidal protein. This is the same maize that 80% of the public in Italy supported a ban for, and the same maize that was banned in France.

The EU register also shows that the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has received a withdrawal request from DuPont/Pioneer for two additional applications  – both for GE maize cultivars 1507 x NK603 and 59122 x 1507 x NK603.

Just last year, Monsanto withdrew six applications for the cultivation of genetically engineered sugar beets and maize:

• maize MON89034 x MON88017;
• maize MON89034;
• maize MON89034 x NK603;
• maize NK603 x MON810;
• maize MON88017;
• sugar beet H7-1.

Furthermore, there are – in addition to maize MON810 – a further eight EU applications still pending for the cultivation of genetically engineered crops:

• maize 1507 by Pioneer (insect toxicity, herbicide tolerance);
• maize Bt11 by Syngenta (insect toxicity, herbicide tolerance);
• maize 59122 by Pioneer (insect toxicity, herbicide tolerance);
• maize 1507×59122 by Pioneer (insect toxicity, herbicide tolerance);
• maize GA21 by Syngenta (herbicide tolerance);
• maize MIR604 by Syngenta (insect toxicity);
• maize Bt11xMIR604xGA21 by Syngenta (insect toxicity, herbicide tolerance);
• cotton GHB614 by Bayer CropScience (herbicide tolerance).

While the EU, overall, refuses the cultivation of GMO crops, the United States continues to offer full acceptance for the biotech industry’s creations.