The farmer, Giorgio Fidenato, is an agronomist and planted two fields of MON810 seeds. MON810 seeds "are modified so that the corn produces a chemical that kills the larvae of the corn borer, a devastating pest."
A conflict over GM crops has been ongoing between the United States and the European Union for some time. In 2003, the US, Canada, and Argentina challenged the EU's de facto moratorium on GM crops at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO ruled in 2006 that the EU was in violation of WTO rules because the EU did not apply its own scientific approval procedures to GM products. The EU recently decided to leave decisions on GM crops up to each of its 27 member countries. For more information on these issues, click here and here to read past US Ag&Food Law and Policy blog posts.
Two GM seeds, MON810 and the Amflora potato seed, have been approved by the European Commission and some countries including Spain, Portugal and Germany allow cultivation of GM crops. Italy, however, "requires farmers to get special permission for any [GM] crop" and has an "approval process in which the Agriculture Ministry has never established the requirements for success."
Some criticize the EU's approval of MON810 because it does not take into account ecosystem and environmental consequences.
Others, such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, are critical of the EU's studies used to justify the exclusion of GM crops.
To read the New York Times story, click here.
Posted: 08/24/2010
