CropLife e-News

GM Vote Split 50/50

Mexico says sí, France says non to genetically modified (GM) crops.

Mexico, widely thought to be the birthplace of corn, says it will begin allowing experimental planting of genetically modified crops, despite resistance from some growers who question their safety.

The regulations published in the official gazette are the last step needed to implement a law passed by Mexico's Congress in December 2004 that authorizes controlled GMO plantings.

GMO corn seeds will not be allowed into certain parts of the country that are determined to be "centers of origin" for genetically unique corn strains found only in Mexico.

Meanwhile in Paris, Monsanto Co. and French growers lost a bid to have France's highest court overturn a ban on genetically modified corn.

The Conseil d'Etat in Paris ruled on March 29 that France's Agriculture Ministry had the right to suspend cultivation of an insect-resistant corn seed known in Europe as MON810.

French growers planted about 54,360 acres using the altered corn seed last year, according to AGPM, a French corn growers association. Growers had planned to expand plantings more than four-fold in 2008, AGPM President Christophe Terrain said at a March 17 hearing on the matter. That would move France ahead of Spain to make it the largest European grower of Monsanto's modified corn, according to Jonathan Ramsay, a Monsanto spokesperson.

"This ban is an illegal ban because it isn't based on science," Ramsay said.

(Sources: Reuters and Bloomberg)