As many farmers begin planting, a number of French farmers and seed companies have publicly criticised the French Government over its decision to ban Monsanto’s genetically modified MON810 maize, the EU’s only licensed GM crop. The plaintiffs claim the government ban has put them at a competitive disadvantage.

The French government renewed its ban on the controversial maize on 16th March, after senior French and European courts ruled a previous ban to be illegal, forcing its repeal. The government supported its current ban with evidence from the EFSA, stating that GM maize presents a threat to the environment; France asked the European Commission to introduce a Europe-wide ban until further testing could be carried out.

French Ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said that an impact assessment of another type of GM maize had revealed “significant risks for the environment”, including threats to sensitive insect populations, and that these risks also apply to cultivation of MON810, which is engineered to repel insect pests.

The majority of farmers and the wider public in France are vehemently anti-GM and there was speculation last month that the decision to push for a ban may have been a political one on the part of the incumbent Sarkozy government, as Sarkozy’s UMP is trailing in the polls ahead of the general election later this month.

This week, the AGPM maize producers’ association and seed company group UFS have claimed the government ban was not scientifically supported and that they could be put at an economic disadvantage as a result of the government’s actions. However, although it is grown in Spain, MON810 has been banned in six other European states without attracting the level of controversy seen in France.

Aside from France, which is the EU’s agricultural powerhouse, MON810 has been banned in Germany, Hungary, Greece, Luxembourg and Bulgaria. The European Commission has said the EFSA is assessing France’s latest ban.  

In the UK, an outdoor trial of GM wheat by Rothamsted Research Institute has sparked controversy. A trial of aphid-resistant wheat, supported by the BBSRC, was planted last week at Rothamsted. The wheat has been modified to release a chemical which repels aphids and attracts their natural predator, wasps.

A newly formed group ‘Take the Flour Back’ is planning to protest the trial, which it claims may pose a threat to the environment through cross-pollination and is diverting funding from more sustainable options for agricultural development, such as agroecology. The group stated, "Even the USA has abandoned attempts to commercialise GM wheat because there is no market for it."

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