The European Union is likely to authorise imports of four separate
genetically modified (GMO) crop products next week for sale across its 27
national markets for the next 10 years, officials said on Monday. The
decision, expected on Oct. 24, will be a rubberstamp procedure applied by
the European Commission, the EU executive.
Three of the GMO products are maize types, two of them hybrids, and
the fourth is a sugar beet. None would be grown in Europe but would be
imported for use in food and animal feed.

The decision is allowed under a legal default process that kicks in
when EU ministers cannot agree among themselves after three months. In
September, ministers failed to reach a consensus agreement under the EU
weighted voting system.

The first GMO maize, known commercially as Herculex RW and also by its
code name 59122, is jointly made by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a
subsidiary of DuPont Co (DD.N: Quote, Profile, Research), and Dow
AgroSciences (DOW.N: Quote, Profile, Research) unit Mycogen Seeds.

Herculex is designed to protect against larval stages of corn
rootworm, which eats through plant roots and so reduces yield and nutrients.
It also resists the active herbicide ingredient glufosinate-ammonium.

The same two companies developed a maize hybrid called 1507/NK603 to
resist field pests like the European corn borer, as well as the
glufosinate-ammonium and glyphosate herbicides.

The third GMO maize is also a hybrid, developed by U.S. biotech
company Monsanto (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and called MON810/ NK603.
The maize plants resist certain insects and also glyphosate - the active
ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.

The sugar beet, called H7-1, was developed jointly by Monsanto and
German plant breeding company KWS SAAT AG to resist glyphosate- containing
herbicides. It is designed for use in foods and feed, such as sugar, syrup,
dried pulp and molasses.

Since the EU's six-year unofficial moratorium on approving new GMO
products was lifted in 2004, the Commission has authorised a string of GMOs
in this way, outraging green groups.

For many years, EU countries have been unable to secure the majority
needed to vote through a new GMO approval. They last agreed to authorise a
new GMO product in 1998.

European consumers are well known for their wariness towards GMO
foods. But the biotech industry insists its products are safe and no
different to conventional items.


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