German government involved in scientific malpractice on GM maize MON810

Is the German Suspension of MON810 Maize Cultivation Scientifically Justified?
Agne`s Ricroch Jean Baptiste Berge´
Marcel Kuntz

Transgenic Res 2009 DOI 10.1007/s11248-009-9297-5
- Marcel Kuntz, kuntz@ujf-grenoble.fr

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r6052757667ng364/fulltext.pdf

Having examined the German authorities’ claims and the relevant scientific literature, Agnès Ricroch (AgroParisTech), Jean Bergé (INRA) and Marcel Kuntz (CNRS) provide a negative response to the question. The inconsistencies of the German administration are also highlighted in an open access article.

In this report, we examined the justification used by the German government in April 2009 to suspend the cultivation of genetically modified maize varieties containing the Bt insect-resistance trait MON810. We critically examined the alleged « new data » concerning the potential environmental impact ofthese varieties as well as previous data on Lepidoptera and on aquatic and soil organisms. We demonstrate that the suspension is based on an incomplete list of references and ignores the widely supported case-by-case approach. The German arguments confuse two different types of Bt maize, MON810 and Bt176. In addition, the potential hazard is confused with proven risk in the scientific risk assessment procedure.

Furthermore, we did not find any justification for this suspension in our extensive survey of the scientific literature regarding possible effects under natural field conditions on non-target animals. In contrast, Bt maize varieties have generally a lower impact than insecticide treatment. The present review demonstrates that the German government used selected individual studies supposed to confirm its thesis and ignored the available meta-knowledge on MON810 maize already available. For example, supposedly new results on ladybirds (2009) were previously published in 2004 by the same authors in a german review (in German).
Additionally, we note that the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) of the German Federal Government (in charge of providing « scientific justification » for the MON810 suspension) is also joint author of a report called BEETLE recently available on Internet, which shows the extent of the knowledge acquired on GMO environmental safety and which contradicts its own justifications for the MON810 ban.

The original publication is available with open access at :

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r6052757667ng364/fulltext.pdf