Sarkozy mulls decision to bar transgenic corn
PARIS (AFP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday was facing a decision whether to bar a strain of genetically-modified corn after a watchdog authority said it had "serious doubts" about the product.
Sarkozy told a press conference Thursday he was working with Prime Minister Francois Fillon towards a decision on suspending the Monsanto 810 maize, and would make an announcement in the "coming few days".
His task was complicated however after most of the scientists involved in the report complained that the authority had misrepresented their position.
On Wednesday, France's Provisional High Authority on GM Organisms said it had "serious doubts" as to the safety of Mon 810.
It pointed to what it described as "a certain number of new scientific facts relating to a negative impact on flora and fauna."
Chairman Jean-Francois Le Grand, who also holds a seat in the Senate, said evidence had emerged that Mon 810 had an effect on insects, a species of earthworm and micro-organisms.
There was also concern that wind-borne pollen from Mon 810 could travel "tens, even hundreds of kilometres (miles), whereas previous studies saw a range of only a few dozen or hundred metres (yards)," said Le Grand.
In a surprise development however, 12 of the 15 scientists who compiled the authority's report issued a statement Thursday complaining that Le Grand had misrepresented their findings.
They said their initial report had not used the words "serious doubts" or "negative" concerning the latest evidence on GM crops. They also complained they had not been allowed time to carry out a "fuller expertise" of Mon 810.
GM crops are a fiercely contested question in Europe, pitting agribusiness corporations against a powerful green lobby.
The French union of maize, wheat and oilseed producers, ORAMA, on Thursday accused the country's GM authority of bias, rejecting its verdict as politically motivated "lies".
"This ruling does not reveal any new scientific element that could justify the use of the safeguard clause," it said, warning of "extremely serious" consequences for "innovation and research, agriculture and the challenges it is facing."
Green campaigners Generation Ecologie called Thursday for a complete halt to the growth of GM crops in open fields.
"There is no longer any reason to dither," it said in a statement issued after the authority's statement.
French anti-globalisation activist Jose Bove -- who has been convicted of ripping up GM crops in southern France -- launched a hunger strike last week to press for a year-long ban on genetically modified crops.
Under European Union laws, a member state can invoke a safeguard clause, enabling it to bar a GM crop that has otherwise been given EU-wide authorisation, provided it has scientific evidence to back this decision.
Six other EU members have already invoked this clause.
The maize, marketed as YieldGard, has been engineered to produce a naturally-occurring toxin, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), that kills a pest called the corn borer.
That saves farmers money they would otherwise have spent on spraying insecticides.
But environmentalists say GM organisms could damage wildlife and be harmful for human health, although the scientific evidence to back this has often been absent or sketchy.
Last October, a study published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS) suggested toxins from the Monsanto corn could potentially harm aquatic ecosystems in corn-producing regions.
On its website, Monsanto Co. says Mon 810 was rigorously assessed for safety by authorities before being put on the market in 1997, and extensively studied by independent scientific experts.
Mon 810 is the only GM crop grown in France. Last year, 22,000 hectares (55,000 acres) were sown with this product -- less than one percent of the sown acreage for corn in France.
