EFSA: ban on cultivating MON810 maize in France is unfounded

(1 November 2008) The current ban in France on the cultivation of MON810 maize is not scientifically justified. This was the conclusion reached by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) after carrying out further evaluations on the maize at the request of the EU Commission. There were also no new findings concerning the environmental safety of two other types of genetically modified maize, Bt11 and 1507.

In January 2008 the French government issued a nationwide ban on cultivating MON810 maize because of "serious doubts" as to its safety. MON810 maize has been authorised for cultivation in the EU since 1998. France submitted several current scientific publications to the EU Commission to back up its claim. The Commission then requested EFSA to examine the studies. The EFSA GMO panel finished their evaluation on 29 October stating that the studies given to them delivered no new scientific findings which would undermine the previous safety assessment of MON810. Thus, the French ban on cultivating MON810 maize is "scientifically unfounded".

EFSA further strengthened its previous safety assessments of Bt11 and 1507 maize. Neither were authorised by the EU Commission, despite EFSA’s positive rating, because of EU Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas’s doubts that all safety-related aspects had not been thoroughly considered. The Commission gave EFSA 11 more recent publications on the genetically modified maize types. In its current statement, EFSA said that neither these studies nor more recent scientific experiments gave any reason not to authorise both types of maize. An application for the cultivation in the EU of Bt11 and 1507 maize has been submitted.

The complete statements issued by EFSA on the ban in France of cultivating MON810 and on Bt11 and 1507 maize are publicly available.

See also on GMO Compass:

• GMO database: MON810
• GMO database: Bt11
• GMO database: 1507

Further information:

Scientific opinion of EFSA’s Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms

• Summary
• Opinion