Total Ban On GM Corn in France Follows Popular Opposition [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Common Dreams

Published on Monday, May 5, 2014 by Common Dreams

Total Ban On GM Corn in France Follows Popular Opposition

Prohibition applies to all current and future varieties of GM corn

- Sarah Lazare, staff writer


The French government on Monday officially banned any strain of genetically modified corn from growing in its soil.

The prohibition is effective immediately and comes as France's top court upheld and the Senate confirmed an existing ban on all current and future varieties.

As Agence France-Presse reports:

With Paris having twice put temporary bans on GM crops -- in 2011 and 2013 -- [lobbyists for the biotech industry] said Monday's verdicts were "not a surprise".

The agriculture ministry banned MON810 -- the only insect-resistant GM corn allowed to be grown in the European Union -- in March.

Its authorisation is currently under review by the EU as part of a wider look at the use of GM crops, but member states have the right to ban them regardless of rulings from Brussels.

France is pushing to cut Brussels out of the process entirely, with future GM authorisations taken only at the national level.

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