[img_assist|nid=75|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=150|height=65]German authorities stopped the sales of Monsanto's GM maize MON810 till Monsanto submits a new monitoring plan for environmental effects because of new scientific knowledge that MON810 has bigger adverse effects on the environment then expected.
However, because the decision was only taken shortly after the maize sowings, the cultivation of MON810 maize will probably not affected this year. Nevertheless, the decision is important for the further assessment of MON810 in the EU.
Monsanto's GM maize was already approved for cultivation in the EU in 1998, but was only grown since 2003 in Spain and since 2006 in some other EU countries, mainly German. Here, adding MON810 varieties to the national seed list at the end of 2005 was one of the first acts of the new government.
Accodring to the German Authority for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) new scientific research shows to which degree the Bt toxin of MON810 can get into the food chain, and that it is now proven that also non-target organisms such as predatory insects on higher levels of the food net can be subject to the Bt toxin.
At the moment, Monsanto just asks farmers to fill in surveys with general information about their MON810 cultivation and other agricultural parameters, but according to the German authority these surveys are not sufficient to collect information for statistical evaluation about effects on the environment and especially on non-target organisms.
the authorities therefore requested that Monsanto would develop a monitoring plan that takes the following issues into account:
a) exposition of germinable maize seeds in the environment (harvest, transport and processing losses),
b) exposition of the Bt toxin in the environment (for example through pollen, silage, plant residues in the soil),
c) fate of Bt toxin in the soil of fields; effects on soil organisms and soil functions,