Biotech Updates

Europe Approves GM Rapeseed

March 20, 2009

The European Commission has approved Bayer CropScience's genetically modified (GM) T45 rapeseed for use in feed and food across its 27 nations for the next 10 years. The herbicide-tolerant rapeseed, however, is not intended to be grown in Europe's field. The Commission cleared the GM rapeseed after the EU agriculture ministers failed to reach a consensus under the EU weighted voting system.

The Commission granted the approval based on the scientific risk assessment conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), EU's independent scientific authority. EFSA found that the GM rapeseed "is unlikely to have any adverse effect on human and animal health or on the environment." Bayer's T45 has been commercially cultivated in Canada for the past ten years.

For more information, read http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/news/423.docu.html