Germany

German contamination distances: 300 m, 150 ... or less if your neighbours talks you into it

[img_assist|nid=107|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=43]After years of arguments the German government finally decided on changes on a number of regulations for GM crops. What's hailed as an improvement in fact makes matters worse and some of the pressing issues have still not been tackled. What made it to the main TV news was that GM maize now should be planted 150 m away from conventional maize, or 300 m from organic maize. Or less if the GM farmer makes an agreement with his neighbours.

Submitted by Antje on 9 Aug 2007.

German contamination distances: 300 m, 150 ... or less if your neighbours talks you into it

[img_assist|nid=107|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=150|height=65]After years of arguments the German government finally decided on changes on a number of regulations for GM crops. What's hailed as an improvement in fact makes matters worse and some of the pressing issues have still not been tackled. What made it to the main TV news was that GM maize now should be planted 150 m away from conventional maize, or 300 m from organic maize. Or less if the GM farmer makes an agreement with his neighbours. It doesn't take much imagination to picture the pressure that can mount in a village if one farmer wants to grow GM maize... But it also means that their neighbours will have to label any kind of GM contamination, even below 0.9% because agreeing to a lesser safety distance clearly could technically been avoided. >>>

And then there is a longer distance for organic farmers. Why would that be needed if 150 m are considered far enough to avoid contamination. The answer is simply that in fact it is not considered enough to avoid any contamination, but those wanting to grow GM crops simply bank on the labelling regulation that allows contamination below 0.9% to stay unlabelled, claiming that there would be no damage to non-GM farmers if contamination would be lower then that. But in fact processors and other customers are likely to only purchase GM maize with lower contamination, just to stay on the safe side.

Other changes are equally bad: Specific groups of plants might be taken out of the regulation, even if the the so-called "closed system" in which they are grown would be open fields. Field trials would thereby by less regulated then crops approved for cultivation, food and feed by the EU.

Submitted by Antje on 9 Aug 2007.

Verkoop gentech-maïs MON810 in Duitsland gestopt

[img_assist|nid=75|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=150|height=65]In Duitsland heeft de overheid de verkoop van Monsanto's gentechmaïs MON810 gestopt, tot Monsanto een nieuwe plan voor de monitoring van effecten op het milieu voorlegt. Reden voor deze eis zijn nieuwe wetenschappelijke inzichten, dat MON810 grotere negatieve effecten op het milieu heeft dan tot nu toe verwacht.
Omdat de nieuwe regeling pas kort na het zaaien van het maïszaad bekend gemaakt werd, zal de teelt van MON810-maïs er dit jaar niet meer door getroffen zijn. Desondanks is deze beslissing van groot belang voor de verdere beoordeling van MON810 in de EU.

De gentech-maïs MON810 van Monsanto was al in 1998 voor commerciële landbouw in de EU toegelaten, maar wordt sinds 2003 in Spanje, en pas 2006 ook in sommige andere landen geteeld; vooral in Duitsland, waar het toelaten van MON810-soorten einde 2005 een van de eerste taken van de nieuwe regering was.

Volgens de Duitse Dienst voor Consumentenbescherming en Levensmiddelveiligheid laat nieuw wetenschappelijk onderzoek zien, in welke mate het Bt-gif van MON810 in de voedselketen van dieren terecht komt, en dat het nu bewezen is, dat ook andere dieren (zogenaamde niet-doelorganismen) zoals roof-insecten op hogere niveaus van de voedselketen aan het gif blootgesteld zijn.

Op dit moment vraagt Monsanto aan boeren, enquêtes in te vullen over algemene informatie over hun MON810 teelt en andere landbouw-parameters, maar volgens de dienst zijn deze enquêtes niet voldoende om de nodige en statisch verwerkbare informatie over effecten op het milieu en vooral over niet-doelorganismen te verzamelen.

De overheid vraagt daarom aan Monsanto een monitoring plan te ontwikkelen dat met de volgende punten rekening houdt:
a) verspreiding van kiembare maïs-korrels in het milieu,
b) verspreiding van het Bt-gif in het milieu,
c) verblijf van het Bt-gif in de bodem en effecten op bodemdieren,

Submitted by Antje on 23 May 2007.

MON810 sales stopped in Germany

[img_assist|nid=107|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=99|height=43]German authorities stopped the sales of Monsanto's GM maize MON810 till Monsanto submits a new monitoring plan for environmental effects because of new scientific knowledge that MON810 has bigger adverse effects on the environment then expected.

Submitted by Antje on 23 May 2007.

MON810 sales stopped in Germany

[img_assist|nid=75|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=150|height=65]German authorities stopped the sales of Monsanto's GM maize MON810 till Monsanto submits a new monitoring plan for environmental effects because of new scientific knowledge that MON810 has bigger adverse effects on the environment then expected.
However, because the decision was only taken shortly after the maize sowings, the cultivation of MON810 maize will probably not affected this year. Nevertheless, the decision is important for the further assessment of MON810 in the EU.

Monsanto's GM maize was already approved for cultivation in the EU in 1998, but was only grown since 2003 in Spain and since 2006 in some other EU countries, mainly German. Here, adding MON810 varieties to the national seed list at the end of 2005 was one of the first acts of the new government.

Accodring to the German Authority for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) new scientific research shows to which degree the Bt toxin of MON810 can get into the food chain, and that it is now proven that also non-target organisms such as predatory insects on higher levels of the food net can be subject to the Bt toxin.

At the moment, Monsanto just asks farmers to fill in surveys with general information about their MON810 cultivation and other agricultural parameters, but according to the German authority these surveys are not sufficient to collect information for statistical evaluation about effects on the environment and especially on non-target organisms.

the authorities therefore requested that Monsanto would develop a monitoring plan that takes the following issues into account:
a) exposition of germinable maize seeds in the environment (harvest, transport and processing losses),
b) exposition of the Bt toxin in the environment (for example through pollen, silage, plant residues in the soil),
c) fate of Bt toxin in the soil of fields; effects on soil organisms and soil functions,

Submitted by Antje on 23 May 2007.

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