Following announcements made earlier in the year by the French agriculture and environment ministers that they would endeavour to uphold a ban on the company’s genetically modified maize, agri-chemical giant Monsanto has announced it will scrap plans to sell its insect-resistant MON810 maize in the country, the largest grain producer in the EU.

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The ministers’ announcement was made following a European Court of Justice ruling that the country’s ban on MON810 was illegal; Monsanto’s response marks the second such decision by a large biotech firm in the space of a week, following the announcement by German chemical behemoth BASF that it would end its biotech activities in Europe in response to consumer hostility.

This week saw campaigners mounting protests against Monsanto in Southwest France. Last week, agriculture minister Bruno LeMaire proclaimed, "I continue to oppose cultivation of Monsanto 810 on French soil."

In a statement released yesterday Monsanto said it, “Considers that favourable conditions for the sale of the MON810 in France in 2012 and beyond are not in place.”

Last week, reacting to BASF’s announcement that it would move its ‘plant science’ department to the United States, Friends of the Earth Europe spokesperson Adrian Bebb said, “This is another nail in the coffin for genetically modified foods in Europe; no one wants to eat them and few farmers want to grow them. This is a good day for consumers and farmers and opens the door for the European Union to shift Europe to greener and more publicly acceptable farming."

Although the decision by large agribusinesses to turn away from the European market for the time being has been lamented as a loss by some, many agriculturalists and environmentalists see it as an opportunity to concentrate research in Europe on agroecology and other low-impact strategies for addressing the interlinked problems of food security, biodiversity loss and climate change which threaten the productivity of global agriculture.

MON810 is currently the only GM crop licensed for cultivation in the EU, following BASF’s decision to withdraw its Amflora potato from the market. Though the maize is banned in a number of other EU states, it is grown relatively widely in Spain and the Czech Republic.

Many critics of GM seeds in Europe fear that, as well as potentially posing risks to the environment through cross-pollination and encouraging the growth of ‘superweeds’, adopting the new crops will lead farmers into bondage to large companies whose business practices concern them.

On 31st January, farmers in the USA will take part in a court case filed to protect growers from ‘genetic trespass’ by Monsanto’s GM seeds. Monsanto has sued farmers in the past for growing its patented seeds without a license; some farmers allege that the company has filed lawsuits against conventional or organic growers who have been the victims of cross-pollination. Through patents or agreements Monsanto controls almost 90 per cent of the five major commodity crops grown in the US including corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets.