Germany-GM Corn.

GERMANY-RULES RELAXED ON GM CORN.

Germany’s agriculture minister Ilse Aigner has said that the country has no plans to further restrict imports of EU-approved genetically modified (GM) food and feed products. Last Tuesday it banned growing of biotech maize.

"All things that we import have been approved (at EU level) and we’re not going to look at that again," Germany’s Agriculture and Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner said. "This was just about one maize variety, where we had a study suggesting it was a danger to the environment," she said in an interview during a meeting of farm ministers in Italy.

Just last week Germany put a ban on cultivation and sale of Monsanto’s MON 810 maize. Germany is the 6th country to do so after France, Austria, Hungary, Greece and Luxembourg.

Germany’s ban on MON 810 maize means farmers will be unable to sow the crop for this summer’s harvest. MON 810 first gained EU approval for growing in 1998 and its licence is currently under review for a renewal. The biotech maize so far is the only authorised cultivar within the 27 countries of the EU.