Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 9 • Number 7 • 17th April 2009

Monsanto Mulls Legal Action as Germany Bans MON810

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Resisting the will of the European Commission, Germany has become the sixth European country to impose a national ban on the cultivation of MON810, a genetically modified strain of maize. The country said the ban, imposed on 14 April, was based on environmental concerns, but agriculture giant Monsanto, which manufactures the pest-resistant strain, said that the fears were unfounded and that it was considering legal action on the matter.

“I have come to the conclusion there are just reasons to assume that the genetically modified maize MON810 represents a danger for the environment,” Ilse Aigner, Germany’s minister of agriculture, told reporters on Tuesday, AFP reported. “Therefore, the cultivation of MON810 is now banned in Germany.”

Monsanto responded quickly to the move. “Monsanto is examining all available options and reserves the right to take legal steps so that German farmers can sow MON810 in the current season,” said Ursula Luettmer-Ouazane, head of Monsanto’s German division, in a statement.

“We are disappointed and frankly, we don’t believe that they have justification to warrant this,” Brad Mitchell, a spokesman for Monsanto, told the St. Louis Business Journal. “They have cited unconvincing evidence that it is unsafe for aquatic organisms. But the scientific committee of the European Union approved it.”

The European Commission has approved the use of MON810 maize and Germany has allowed farmers to grow the strain since 2005. But EU members Austria, France, Greece and Hungary have all banned its use; Luxembourg announced its own prohibition of MON810 just last month (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 3 April 2009, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/44622/).

Europe’s aversion to GM products motivated the US, Argentina, and Canada to bring a complaint to the WTO in 2003. Three years later, the WTO ruled that the EU’s de facto ban on genetically modified food imports between 1984 and 2004 violated world trade rules.

Since then, the WTO has called on the EU to pressure its member countries to allow farmers to produce the modified strain of maize. Earlier this year, the European Commission was unable to force France and Greece, and later Austria and Hungary, to allow the use of MON810. But both efforts were unsuccessful (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 20 February 2009, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/41093/ and 6 March 2009, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/42458/). The countries claim that current scientific studies do not provide adequate assurance that the genetically modified crop does no harm to humans, animals or the environment.

While the Monsanto maize is approved for use in all EU countries that have not imposed national bans, it is harvested in only seven of the bloc’s 27 member states.

ICTSD reporting; “Germany banks Monsanto’s GM maize,” BBC NEWS, 14 April 2009; “Germany wants to ban Monsanto Corn,” ST LOUIS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 15 April 2009; “Germany to join other European countries in ban against Monsanto’s genetically modified MON 810 corn,” EAT.DRINK.BETTER, 15 April 2009; “Monsanto mulls legal action over GMO ban,” AFP, 15 April 2009.