DuPont Biotech Corn Moves Toward EU Approval

[jakeXT]

Source: WSJ

BRUSSELS—The European Union is poised to approve the bloc's second genetically modified crop in 15 years, handing a victory to DuPont Co. DD +1.32% despite objections from a majority of EU states.

At a ministers meeting here on Tuesday, 19 of the bloc's 28 nations opposed approving the U.S.-based company's crop, a corn known as 1507. But under the EU's biotech rules, that wasn't big enough a majority to prevent the EU's executive arm from approving the crop.

The EU has the world's toughest rules on growing or importing genetically modified crops, fueled by strong public opposition to the technology.

The rules have prompted complaints from biotech companies that the bloc is ignoring scientific evidence by barring the crops. Some companies have given up. U.S.-based Monsanto Co. MON -0.05% last year said it was withdrawing its applications to grow biotech crops in the EU.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304558804579376911067724216

[proverbialwisdom]

1. PRESS RELEASE: Commission approval of GM crop would be illegal, Greenpeace.

http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/en/News/2014/Record-number-of-EU-countries-opposes-Commission-plan-to-allow-pesticide-producing-GM-maize/

Record number of EU countries opposes Commission plan to allow pesticide-producing GM maize

Commission approval of GM crop would be illegal, Greenpeace

Press release - February 11, 2014

Brussels – A substantial majority of EU countries has voted against a Commission plan to allow the cultivation of a genetically modified (GM) maize, known as 1507. Greenpeace warned that if the Commission nonetheless authorised the crop, despite the political opposition and concerns about its environmental impacts, it would be acting illegally.

A European Court of Justice ruling in December 2013 struck down the authorisation of another GM crop adopted by the Commission in 2010, BASF's antibiotic-resistant GM potato Amflora. The Court found that the Commission had substantially altered its original proposal to approve Amflora, but had failed to consult again with a committee of national experts [1]. Greenpeace argues that the Commission has substantially altered its original proposal on 1507 and is once again in breach of EU law by fast-tracking this GM crop’s approval.

Nineteen countries voted against the approval of the GM crop (France, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Romania, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia) in a meeting of EU ministers, with only five in favour (Spain, the UK, Finland, Estonia and Sweden) and four abstentions (Germany, Portugal, Czech Republic and Belgium).

In January 2014, a wide majority of Members of the European Parliament also called on the Commission to withdraw its proposal to authorise the crop [2].

Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero said: “The Commission cannot ignore the scientific, political and legal concerns voiced by a large majority of countries, by two thirds of the European Parliament and supported by most EU citizens. The European Court of Justice would very likely overturn an authorisation of this GM maize in a legal challenge, as it did with the latest Commission approval of the Amflora GM potato. The Commission must learn from its mistakes and stop breaching the rules that help ensure the safety of what is grown in Europe.”

1507 is engineered to produce a pesticide toxin called Bt, which is toxic to insect pests. The EU’s own food safety authority has recognised the GM crop’s toxicity on butterflies and moths and warned about gaps in testing on the effects of 1507 [3]. The GM maize, produced by US agrichemical company DuPont Pioneer, is also engineered to be resistant to glufosinate ammonium. This herbicide will be banned in the EU by 2017 due to its toxicity [4].

The only crop currently grown in the EU is a pesticide-producing GM maize owned by US agrochemical company Monsanto.

Greenpeace press briefing on the 1507 Council vote: http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/en/Publications/2014/Predominant-majority-of-EU-governments-set-to-oppose-approval-of-GM-maize/

Notes:

[1] Reuters, 13 December 2013, EU court annuls approval of BASF's Amflora GMO potato: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/13/eu-gmo-potato-idUSL6N0JS22W20131213

[2] European Parliament, 16 January 2014: Food safety: MEPs oppose authorising new genetically modified maize.

[3] EFSA scientific opinion on 1507, 6 November 2012: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/2934.htm and 25 October 2012: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/2933.htm.

[4] Agro pages, 15 May 2013, EU to restrict herbicide glufinosate: http://news.agropages.com/News/NewsDetail---9598.htm

http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/02/05/france-launches-law-ban-cultivation-gm-maize/

France has launched a move to restore a ban on GMO corn annulled by its top court, to prevent sowings this spring that could raise public outcry in a country strongly opposed to GMO crops. The draft law could be voted on as soon as Feb. 17th before being passed to the lower house. France, the EU's largest grain producer, has argued the technology poses environmental risks, referring to studies by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). If passed, the implementation of the ban would be monitored by inspectors and GMO crops destroyed. Oui oui! Vive la France!

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[proverbialwisdom]

2. TWEET "Formal voting never actually happened, EU Commission now has full power to withdraw proposal"

19 countries voted no today to a new #GMO approval. But because of qualified majority rules, 4 abstentions mean 'yes' pic.twitter.com/kjlJHidTtj

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[jakeXT]

3. Democracy in action...lol /nt

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Related news: "Argentina stalls Monsanto corn project on environmental concerns - update"

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20140211-715316.html

Argentina stalls Monsanto corn project on environmental concerns - update
Shane Romig

Wall St Journal, 11 Feb 2014

Monsanto Co. hit another roadblock in its plans to build a 1.5 billion peso ($192 million) corn-seed production plant in Argentina's Cordoba province after local authorities rejected Monsanto's environmental impact assessment.

The project has been on hold since September after clashes with protesters led the St. Louis biotech company to halt construction after completing about 30% of the work.

Monsanto's environmental assessment didn't "identify the relevant impacts and resulting mitigation measures," the office of Cordoba Governor José Manuel de la Sota said in a statement late Monday.

The company said Tuesday it accepted the findings and would move to bring the project in line with the new requirements.

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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=713171742056625

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Links to article above via: http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2014/15300-argentina-stalls-monsanto-corn-project-on-environmental-concerns

[proverbialwisdom]

5. Following a fraught meeting of EU ministers on Tuesday, the European Commission looks set to push...

http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/en/blog/oops-commission-does-it-again/blog/48212/

Oops! Commission does it again!
Blogpost by Andrea Carta, Marco Contiero - February 14, 2014 at 11:11

A la carte approach to EU law on GM crops will come back to bite

Following a fraught meeting of EU ministers on Tuesday, the European Commission looks set to push through the approval of a new genetically modified (GM) maize. It will do so in the face of stiff opposition and with a fundamentally compromised legal basis.

An unprecedented number of countries (19) oppose the Commission’s motion to approve the pesticide-producing crop by US agrochemical company Pioneer DuPont, although they fall short of a weighted qualified majority to block it. Even though only five countries are in favour (just one of these, Spain, can actually grow the GM maize) and despite a cross-party two-thirds majority of members of the European Parliament calling on the Commission to withdraw its proposal, it is now expected to formally approve the GM crop in the coming months.

This considerable political opposition is reflected in public opinion: 61 per cent of Europeans are deeply concerned about genetic engineering. Even the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) – often criticised for its pro-GM stance – has highlighted the toxic impact of the GM maize, known as 1507, on insects like butterflies and moths, while underlining that a lack of proper research could be hiding other dangerous effects.

But beyond the fundamental scientific and political arguments against the approval, the undoing of a Commission authorisation of the GM maize will be its disregard for EU legal process. To explain why, it is necessary to take a small step back. So make yourself comfortable and read on.

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[proverbialwisdom]

6. PLOS (Public Library of Science) - Complete Genes May Pass from Food to Human Blood

Last edited Sat Feb 15, 2014, 02:01 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0069805

Complete Genes May Pass from Food to Human Blood
Published: July 30, 2013

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0069805

Abstract

Our bloodstream is considered to be an environment well separated from the outside world and the digestive tract. According to the standard paradigm large macromolecules consumed with food cannot pass directly to the circulatory system. During digestion proteins and DNA are thought to be degraded into small constituents, amino acids and nucleic acids, respectively, and then absorbed by a complex active process and distributed to various parts of the body through the circulation system. Here, based on the analysis of over 1000 human samples from four independent studies, we report evidence that meal-derived DNA fragments which are large enough to carry complete genes can avoid degradation and through an unknown mechanism enter the human circulation system. In one of the blood samples the relative concentration of plant DNA is higher than the human DNA. The plant DNA concentration shows a surprisingly precise log-normal distribution in the plasma samples while non-plasma (cord blood) control sample was found to be free of plant DNA.

Citation: Spisák S, Solymosi N, Ittzés P, Bodor A, Kondor D, et al. (2013) Complete Genes May Pass from Food to Human Blood. PLoS ONE 8(7): e69805. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069805

Editor: Andrew Dewan, Yale School of Public Health, United States of America

Received: September 25, 2012; Accepted: June 4, 2013; Published: July 30, 2013

Copyright: © 2013 Spisak et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: We thank grants OTKA-80177 and OTKA-77779, TECH08:3dhist08 for the Hungarian Natioanal Technology Office. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

From tweet 3h ago.

[proverbialwisdom]

7. EPA Approves Exemption for Bt Residues in Soy Foods From GMO Crops

http://www.cornucopia.org/2014/02/epa-approves-exemption-bt-residues-soy-foods-gmo-crops/

EPA Approves Exemption for Bt Residues in Soy Foods From GMO Crops

February 13th, 2014

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a final rule on February 12 creating an exemption for residue tolerance levels in soy foods and feed for the biological pesticide Bt used in GMO crops. Similar exemptions have already been approved for corn and cotton food and products.

The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, commonly known as Bt, has been widely used in organic agriculture for decades as a natural pesticide, because it produces a toxin that kills certain insects. In recent years, the DNA from the Bt bacterium has been incorporated into genetically modified corn, cotton and soybean crops to protect the plants from insects like the corn borer and cotton bollworm.

The genetically modified crops have the ability to manufacture this toxin, called the Cry1F protein, in every cell of the plant, including the portions used for human food and livestock feed.

In making the exemption determination, the EPA concluded that “there is a reasonable certainty that no harm will result from aggregate exposure to the pesticide chemical residue, including all anticipated dietary exposures and all other exposures for which there is reliable information.” This includes exposure through drinking water and residential setting.

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