[Editor's Note: This one is interesting, but frustrating. Tom Philpott and Raj Patel are the stars here. The others are obviously Pro-GMO.]
On April 22, 1998 the European Union contravened decades of stalwart opposition to genetically engineered crops when it greenlighted the cultivation of "Mon 810," a pest-resistant maize manufactured by Monsanto.
But despite Mon810's official sanction under EU law, several countries-including France, Austria, Greece, Hungary and Luxembourg-have imposed national bans on the GE crop. The most recent addition to this list is Germany, which banned the corn in April, just before this year's seeds would have been sown.
Ilse Aigner, Germany's federal agricultural minister, acknowledged that various federal environmental institutes had failed to come to an agreement about Mon810's environmental risks, but said she was encouraged by the example of Luxembourg, which imposed a moratorium in late March.2
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Five Experts Debate the Roots of GM Opposition
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By Maywa Montenegro
Seed Magazine, June 18, 2009
Straight to the Source
