MON810

MON810 is a Bt maize event owned by Monsanto that produces a modified form of the Bt toxin Cry1Ab. It was developed by using two transgenic constructs for the Bt toxin, a herbicide tolerance, antibiotic resistance markers and start and stop codons. Using a shot gun method, the DNA sequences were only introduced partially so that MON810 produces only the Bt toxin, while the DNA sequences of the inserts are still not completely identified.
In the last years, a growing number of studies have shown adverse effects of the Bt toxin on non-target organisms, including effects that were only discovered after the the initial cultivation approvals were given. However, research about MON810 is hindered because research and publications about MON810 effects need the approval of Monsanto as the patent holder.
MON810 has been cultivated in the US since 1995. It got cultivation approval in the EU under 90/220 in 1998, but was only introduced to the seed catalogue in 2004. MON810 cultivation is banned in the EU memberstates Austria, Poland, France and Greece. In April 2008 Romania also announced that it would ban its cultivation. In Germany, the sale of MON810 was stopped in 2007 because the authorities did not consider the monitoring plan as sufficient, and even though a new monitoring plan has now be accepted, it has been widely criticized.

Romenia wants to ban MON810

[img_assist|nid=107|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=43]Who thought that it would be the easiest to ban GM maize, where it's not grown anyway, now luckily can admit that they were wrong: Romenia - the biggest maize producer in the EU - just decided to ban the cultivation of MON810. Reasons are not primarily the financial an ecological costs of Monsanto's crop, but the understanding that more money could be earned by growing organic maize.

Submitted by Antje on 31 Mar 2008.

cultivation - MON810

Gift im Gen-Mais

[img_assist|nid=174|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=100|height=43]Im folgenden Report werden einige mögliche Auswirkungen des Bt-Maises auf die Umwelt dargestellt. Selbst nach mehr als 10 Jahren kommerziellen Anbaus von Bt-Mais gibt es nur wenige Studien zur Risikoabschätzung. Zugleich werfen die meisten dieser Studien mehr neue Fragen auf, als sie beantworten.

June 2007

Bt - risk assessment - MON810 - non-target organism

A. Lorch & Ch. Then, Greenpeace, June 2007.

Bt Toxin in GM maize

[img_assist|nid=174|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=100|height=43]The report presented here shows the many ways Bt maize impacts the environment. Even after more then a decade of commercial growing of Bt maize crops, the risk assessment studies are still few and most of them tend to raise more open questions than solving concerns.

June 2007

Bt - risk assessment - MON810 - non-target organism

A. Lorch & Ch. Then, Greenpeace, June 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.

cultivation - maize - Germany - MON810

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.