Last night EU agriculture ministers failed to reach a decision on authorisation for four genetically-modified crops. The varieties of maize and cotton under debate have been manufactured by Dow AgroSciences, the agricultural arm of chemical giant Dow Chemicals, and Swiss Agribusiness Syngenta.

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The strains are an insect-resistant cotton, patented by Dow AgroSciences called 281-24-236x3006-210-23, and three strains of maize engineered to be pest-resistant and herbicide tolerant by Syngenta. European Food Safety Authority assessments of Syngenta and Dow’s GM seeds conducted last year concluded that the transgenic crops were safe to import.

Syngenta's maize strains - Bt11xMIR604xGA21, Bt11xMIR604 and MIR604xGA21 – have been engineered to be resistant to the corn root worm, as well as the European corn-borer. In the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency has stepped in to investigate cases of resistance to GM crops, having criticised agribusiness Monsanto’s handing of resistance monitoring as “inadequate.”

It appears that root worms have developed resistance to the maize’s GM traits in several states, though Syngenta claims to have developed a second generation resistance trait.

Following the ministers’ failure to reach an agreement, the matter will be passed on to the European Commission for consideration. If the Commission elects to grant authorisation, products containing the crops could be imported into the EU, though the crops themselvescould not be grown on EU territory.

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