Germany next to nix Monsanto’s GM corn?
Bloomberg News reports that Germany’s Agriculture Minister was quoted in today’s Berliner Zietung saying the government may revoke a license for the cultivation of Monsanto Co.’s genetically modified corn because of lack of demand.
According to the country’s farmers’ association, about 6,600 acres of MON 810 corn have been planted in Germany, Europe’s largest market. The corn is used for animal feed.
Germany passed legislation a year ago to overturn a 10-year freeze on sale of the seeds that had been put in place by the Social Democrat-Green Party coalition government. Under the agreement, Monsanto must monitor fields where the corn is grown for environmental impacts and the spread beyond approved areas, the story says.
A report based on that monitoring is to be published March 31 with a decision to follow by the Agriculture Ministry.
Creve Coeur-based Monsanto is quoted in the story as saying it hopes the decision is based on “scientific facts,” not politics.
It was just Monday that the EU experts failed to reach a consensus on whether to force Greece and France to lift bans on Monsanto’s insect-resistant corn. The two countries are the only members of the 27-country EU that don’t allow the crop.
Instead of summarizing another media agency’s story, why doesn’t the Post-Dispatch write its OWN story?!?! You guys are a newspaper, remember? And Monsanto is one of the largest companies in St. Louis, remember? It’s so frustrating to read so many syndicated news stories in the pages of the Post-Dispatch and on the pages of STLtoday.com. Every time I visit, I find less and less value. Eventually I’ll just read the New York Times or the USA Today.