Biotech Updates

EU Approves LibertyLink Soybean

September 12, 2008

The European Commission has approved Bayer CropScience’s LibertyLink soybeans (A 2704-12) for use in feed and food across its 27 nations for the next 10 years. The glufosinate-resistant soybean, however, is not intended to be grown in Europe's fields. The approval was made in the effect of a legal default system that kicks in if the European Council ministers fail to reach a consensus under the EU weighed voting system.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), EU's independent scientific authority, found in August 2007 that the soybean “is unlikely to have any adverse effect on human and animal health or on the environment”. LibertyLink soybeans have been fully approved for food, feed and cultivation in the U.S. and Canada. Further import approvals have been granted in Australia, China, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa and Taiwan.

For more information, read http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_20080910