The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis.
France’s top administrative court overturned a 2014 ban on a type of genetically modified (GMO) maize in a symbolic victory for GMO supporters that will not allow such crops to be grown in France because of subsequent legislation reinforcing the ban.
. . . .
The court ruled on [April 15] that the decree from March 2014, which outlawed Monsanto’s MON 810 maize (corn), did not demonstrate serious health or environmental risks, as was required by European Union rules in order to withdraw a GMO crop already approved at EU level.
However, France has since passed legislation banning the growing of any GMO maize, before requesting to opt out of EU-wide GMO approvals under rules adopted last year.
The agriculture ministry said in a statement that the court’s ruling “would not allow cultivation of genetically modified maize to resume in France.”
Share this article
The EU’s executive had on March 3 excluded France from the authorization for Monsanto’s MON 810, the only GMO crop currently grown in the EU, the ministry said.
The French maize seed federation FNPSMS said it and other parties had pursued their court appeal, despite later legislative changes, in order to prove a point.
“It was more a matter of principle that we conduct this appeal to show there was no scientific basis to the ban,” Luc Esprit, the FNPSMS’s managing director, said. “In concrete terms, it will not change the situation in France.”
Read full, original post: French court hands symbolic win to GMO maize supporters
